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- All Subjects: psychology
- Creators: School of Social and Behavioral Sciences
- Creators: Glenberg, Arthur
Description
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of partial exemplar experience on category formation and use. Participants had either complete or limited access to the three dimensions that defined categories by dimensions within different modalities. The concept of "crucial dimension" was introduced and the role it plays in category definition was explained. It was hypothesized that the effects of partial experience are not explained by a shifting of attention between dimensions (Taylor & Ross, 2009) but rather by an increased reliance on prototypical values used to fill in missing information during incomplete experiences. Results indicated that participants (1) do not fill in missing information with prototypical values, (2) integrate information less efficiently between different modalities than within a single modality, and (3) have difficulty learning only when partial experience prevents access to diagnostic information.
ContributorsCrawford, Thomas (Author) / Homa, Donald (Thesis advisor) / Mcbeath, Micheal (Committee member) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Intuitive decision making refers to decision making based on situational pattern recognition, which happens without deliberation. It is a fast and effortless process that occurs without complete awareness. Moreover, it is believed that implicit learning is one means by which a foundation for intuitive decision making is developed. Accordingly, the present study investigated several factors that affect implicit learning and the development of intuitive decision making in a simulated real-world environment: (1) simple versus complex situational patterns; (2) the diversity of the patterns to which an individual is exposed; (3) the underlying mechanisms. The results showed that simple patterns led to higher levels of implicit learning and intuitive decision-making accuracy than complex patterns; increased diversity enhanced implicit learning and intuitive decision-making accuracy; and an embodied mechanism, labeling, contributes to the development of intuitive decision making in a simulated real-world environment. The results suggest that simulated real-world environments can provide the basis for training intuitive decision making, that diversity is influential in the process of training intuitive decision making, and that labeling contributes to the development of intuitive decision making. These results are interpreted in the context of applied situations such as military applications involving remotely piloted aircraft.
ContributorsCovas-Smith, Christine Marie (Author) / Cooke, Nancy J. (Thesis advisor) / Patterson, Robert (Committee member) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Homa, Donald (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Most people are experts in some area of information; however, they may not be knowledgeable about other closely related areas. How knowledge is generalized to hierarchically related categories was explored. Past work has found little to no generalization to categories closely related to learned categories. These results do not fit well with other work focusing on attention during and after category learning. The current work attempted to merge these two areas of by creating a category structure with the best chance to detect generalization. Participants learned order level bird categories and family level wading bird categories. Then participants completed multiple measures to test generalization to old wading bird categories, new wading bird categories, owl and raptor categories, and lizard categories. As expected, the generalization measures converged on a single overall pattern of generalization. No generalization was found, except for already learned categories. This pattern fits well with past work on generalization within a hierarchy, but do not fit well with theories of dimensional attention. Reasons why these findings do not match are discussed, as well as directions for future research.
ContributorsLancaster, Matthew E (Author) / Homa, Donald (Thesis advisor) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Chi, Michelene (Committee member) / Brewer, Gene (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Communication skills are vital for the world we inhabit. Both oral and written communication are some of the most sought-after skills in the job market today; this holds true in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. Despite the high demand for communication skills, communication classes are not required for some STEM majors (Missingham, 2006). STEM major maps are often so packed with core classes that they nearly exclude the possibility of taking communication courses. Students and job seekers are told they need to be able to communicate to succeed but are not given any information or support in developing their skills. Scientific inquiry and discovery cannot be limited to only those that understand high-level jargon and have a Ph.D. in a subject. STEM majors and graduates must be able to translate information to communities beyond other experts. If they cannot communicate the impact of their research and discoveries, who is going to listen to them?<br/>Overall, the literature around communication in STEM fields demonstrate the need for and value of specific, teachable communication skills. This paper will examine the impact of a communication training module that teaches specific communication skills to BIO 182: General Biology II students. The communication training module is an online module that teaches students the basics of oral communication. The impact of the module will be examined through the observation of students’ presentations.
ContributorsLivingston, Elisabeth Shaw (Author) / Wentzel, Bonnie (Thesis director) / Sellner, Erin (Committee member) / School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
Description
Perhaps by some ingrained sense of human preparedness, phobias are an outlier in the world of conditioning. Again and again, they are highlighted as the only thing which avoidance makes worse, rather than alleviates. My own fear of insects had reached its most severe level just as I began learning about phobias, and avoidance, in my undergraduate psychology courses. There, I learned that avoidance of the phobic stimulus \u2014 in my case, insects \u2014 seemed to be a fundamental element of maintaining a phobia, and I was more than guilty of it. Following this realization, I endeavored into what I would later come to call Stimulus Confrontation: A self-designed therapeutic course of action to overcome my fear. This thesis, then, is the record of this project. It weaves together my scholarly research on phobias with my own personal narrative concerning the employment of Stimulus Confrontation, beginning with the etymology and proposed etiologies of phobias, followed by an overview of contemporary treatment options available and a recounting of Stimulus Confrontation as applied to my own phobia. Told from her own perspective, English writer and journalist Jenny Diski's book, What I Don't Know About Animals, tells of her own arachnophobia, and includes an honest account of the fear and anxiety it caused for her, as well as her own journey to overcome it. Like my own, Diski's phobia \u2014 arachnophobia \u2014 had come to affect her everyday life. Prior to seeking treatment for her fear at the age of 58, Diski too had learned to avoid the thing which she so feared. Inspired by What I Don't Know About Animals, the personal anecdotes I have included throughout this thesis serve to elaborate upon my personal experience with my own insectophobia, and the cessation of avoidance that led to substantial progress in overcoming my fears. Throughout this thesis, I refer to this cessation of avoidance as Stimulus Confrontation, with the intention that following the same process I did may benefit others in overcoming their own specific phobias.
ContributorsKavanaugh, Ashley Marie (Author) / Gruber, Diane (Thesis director) / Lewis, Stephen (Committee member) / School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2015-12
Description
Anorexia Nervosa is an increasing problem in today's day and age. With the overbearing messages of what the media portrays to be beautiful, some people are responding by engaging in unhealthy eating habits. By taking embodied cognition into consideration, there may be a method to help treat people with Anorexia Nervosa that has not been attempted yet. According to embodied cognition, the body influences the way a person thinks (Glenberg, 2010). If people with Anorexia Nervosa are thinking in unhealthy ways in terms of their body, providing relief from these unhealthy forms of thinking may come in the form of using a surrogate body: a virtual avatar in a video game. Through explanation and integration of the Embodied Social Presence Theory, the use of a virtual avatar as a surrogate body for victims of Anorexia Nervosa becomes a probable and viable method of ushering treatment. The avatars are not an explicit treatment of Anorexia Nervosa, but rather a way to allow actual treatment and therapy to be more successful.
ContributorsBrazones, Katelyn Suzette (Author) / Facinelli, Diane (Thesis director) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
The purpose of this thesis is to examine the relationship between mental illness and capitalist consumer society. Many Americans are suffering from mental illness and there has to be something causing it besides a chemical imbalance in the brain. A capitalist society creates a set of expectations that conflict with human desires. The thesis takes a historical, economical, and psychological approach to answering the following question: Does a capitalist society make its citizens mentally sick? A brief history of capitalism over the past century is discussed, as well as a more in depth look at capitalism and the creation of neoliberalism during the 1980s. The psychological effects capitalism has on human beings is discussed for the majority of the thesis and focuses on ideas from the 1950s as well as the early 2000s. To show the effect capitalism has on modern day society, an analysis of a psychopharmaceutical drug commercial is given. The concluding thoughts attempt to offer solutions to the problems of human unhappiness in a consumer culture.
ContributorsSerki, Aisling Erin (Author) / Gruber, Diane (Thesis director) / Ramsey, Ramsey Eric (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
This correlational study investigated how adolescent's artistic style changed depending on their level of interest in art. The participants were 28 students from the 7th and 8th grade of Zuni Hills Elementary School. A survey was administered which measured, in regards to their artwork, the categories of interest, experimentation in subject, experimentation in material, abstract style, literal style, imagination, identity, emotion and storytelling. It was predicted that interest would have a significant positive relationship with abstract style and experimentation with subject. It was also predicted that interest would have a significant negative relationship with literal style and experimentation with material. Scores for all categories were compared and significant positive relations were found in regards to emotion, identity and storytelling. There was also a significant positive realtionship between interest and imagination as well as interest and emotion. These findings add to research about motivation in adolescent art through the means of expression of the self.
ContributorsAbeyta, Jennifer Lee (Author) / Miller, Paul (Thesis director) / Lewis, Stephen K. (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
Introspective awareness refers to direct access to one’s own internal and subjective thoughts and feelings (Wimmer & Hartl, 1991). Two theories, simulation theory and theory-theory, have been used to understand our access to our mental states. Simulation theory (Harris, 1991) involves imagining yourself in another person’s situation, reading off of your mental state, and attributing that state to the other person. Theory-theory (Gopnik, 1993) involves an interrelated body of knowledge, based on core mental-state constructs, including beliefs and desires, that may be applied to everyone—self and others (Gopnik & Wellman, 1994). Introspection is taken for granted by simulation theory, and explicitly denied by theory-theory. This study is designed to test for evidence of introspection in young children using simple perception and knowledge task. The current evidence is against introspective awareness in children because the data suggest that children cannot report their own false beliefs and they cannot report their on-going thoughts (Flavell, Green & Flavell, 1993; Gopnik & Astington, 1988). The hypothesis in this study states that children will perform better on Self tasks compared to Other tasks, which will be evidence for introspection. The Other-Perception tasks require children to calculate the other’s line of sight and determine if there is something obscuring his or her vision. The Other-Knowledge tasks require children to reason that the other’s previous looking inside a box means that he or she will know what is inside the box when it is closed. The corresponding Self tasks could be answered either by using the same reasoning for the self or by introspection to determine what it is they see and do not see, and know and do not know. Children performing better on Self tasks compared to Other tasks will be an indication of introspection. Tests included Yes/No and Forced Choice questions, which was initially to ensure that the results will not be caused by a feature of a single method of questioning. I realized belatedly, however, that Forced Choice was not a valid measure of introspection as children could introspect in both the Self and Other conditions. I also expect to replicate previous findings that reasoning about Perception is easier for children than reasoning about Knowledge.
ContributorsAamed, Mati (Author) / Fabricius, William (Thesis director) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Kupfer, Anne (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor)
Created2013-12
Description
Humans require sufficient social understanding and connectedness to thrive (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). The current study evaluates the effectiveness of the Social Intelligence Institute's training program pilot. At a middle school in Phoenix, Arizona, students in a 7th and 8th grade class participated in this pilot program during the spring of 2013. Pre- and post-test questionnaires administered indicated changes in participants reported measures of Perspective Taking, Empathetic Concern, Interpersonal Expectations, and Relationship Self-Efficacy. The program consists of seven modules, each with several sessions, including instructional videos with reflection questions and class discussions. It was predicted that there would be a significant increase in mean scores for the dependent variables in the questionnaire mentioned above from the pre-test to the post-test. However, the null hypotheses were not rejected; statistical significance in t-tests of the measured variables were not met. Yet, the program was more effective for 8th graders than for 7th graders for Perspective Taking. This study of the SI pilot program demonstrates areas of improvement and provides support for wider implementation in the future.
ContributorsBailey, Jonathan Donald (Author) / Zautra, Alex (Thesis director) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Short, Robert (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2013-12