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- Creator:
- Steiger, Laura L.
- Description:
- Construct accessibility has been found to play an important role in the interpretation of social information. Even when a construct is primed implicitly it has been proven to have a temporary effect on person perception. The present experiment examined the effects of increasing the construct accessibility for the traits of friendliness and hostility on social perception. The interaction of these two trait categories with person perception and gender was also investigated. Subjects performed a task in which they were unknowingly exposed to either 0%, 20%, or 80% friendly or hostile words. Next, subjects read a behavioral description that was ambiguously related to both hostility and friendliness, and rated the stimulus person on several trait scales. Although there were no significant priming effects in the experimental condition, two separate experiments indicate that effects would have been found had the exposure time during the priming task been slower. There was a significant gender difference in the hostility rating of the behavioral description across conditions; the implications of this are discussed.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Northridge
- Department:
- Psychology
- Creator:
- Guzman, Isabel Pacheco
- Description:
- The purpose of this study is to examine group differences in attachment styles and relationship functioning among individuals with high and low psychopathic traits. It was hypothesized that individuals with high psychopathic traits would report greater incidence of dismissing attachment and a lower incidence of secure attachment, relationship satisfaction, and relational-anxiety as compared with individuals with low psychopathic traits. It was also hypothesized that high psychopathic traits will have greater negative associations with secure attachment, preoccupied attachment, fearful attachment, relationship satisfaction, and relational-anxiety, as well as a greater positive association with dismissing attachment as compared to lower levels of psychopathic traits. Procedures included recruitment of 117 undergraduate students and administration of several self-report measures. The high psychopathy group reported greater incidence of fearful attachment while the low psychopathy group reported greater incidence of secure attachment and relationship satisfaction. No significant group differences were found in relationships between psychopathy, attachment, relationship satisfaction, and relational-anxiety. Clinical implications are discussed.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Northridge
- Department:
- Psychology
- Creator:
- Ruzicka, Alyssa L.
- Description:
- Cognitive workload theories typically assume linear additive impacts on performance as cognitive workload increases (O'Donnell & Eggemeier, 1986; Tsang & Wilson, 1997). Meanwhile, current trends suggest inclusion of variability analysis may be of benefit (Balota & Spieler, 1999; Brown & Heathcote, 2003; Van Zandt, 2002). The first study replicates Cooper and Shepard's mental rotation study (1973), confirming that mean response times shift in the analysis of variance (ANOVA), but that significant variability changes are also present. The second study adds a grouped-response dual tone discrimination task, revealing similar trends in means shifts and further significant increases in variability as difficulty rises. Implications for the development and analysis of cognitive theories of cognitive workload are discussed.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Northridge
- Department:
- Psychology
- Creator:
- Sweo, Robert Edward
- Description:
- This study was conducted to determine the effect of hand used and input task on input device selection. Forty-two right handed subjects were tested on both hands, across three input tasks: selection, position and orientation. Input device was used as a between subjects variable with an equal number of subjects carrying out the tasks with a mechanical mouse, trackball or graphics tablet. Of the three input devices tested in this experiment the graphics tablet allowed the fastest data entry. Performance on the graphics tablet was equal to or better than either the mouse or trackball on every task with either hand. Performance with the trackball and mouse was nearly equal on all the tasks, with either hand. Methodological limitations in this study made it difficult to assess the effects of hand used on input device. Further investigation is necessary before any firm conclusions can be reached. The variable that measured which direction the subject had to look from the target object to find the test object (horizontal, vertical or diagonal) entered into a three way interaction with hand and input device on the selection task. Analysis of the data showed most of the difference occurred in the left hand results. The left hand trackball users did equally well in each direction, while the mouse users did best on diagonal movements, worst on vertical and the graphics tablet users did best on horizontal movements but showed no difference for diagonal or vertical movements. The implications and limitations of this studies results are discussed and recommendations for future research are made.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Northridge
- Department:
- Psychology
- Creator:
- Hirsch, Haim Daniel
- Description:
- To determine how trust is affected by an interface containing the anthropomorphic representation of an intelligent agent, 593 visitors to a popular automotive Web site were surveyed on their use of an online agent-like system. The type of Personification (plain text-only, text with an icon representing the agent, text with an icon and a biography about the agent) and Message Style (Structured and Anthropomorphic) were manipulated. A significant interaction was found for all three derived factors: Decision Support, F(2, 587) = 5.79, p ? .01; Implicit Trust, F(2, 587) = 6.08, p ? .01; and System Competence, F(2, 587) = 3.29, p ? .05. The lack of main effects indicates that simple manipulations may not have the large impact typically assumed in the literature. Interface Designers wishing to enhance the acceptance of systems that include intelligent agents should ensure that the anthropomorphic characteristics as a whole, including the communication style and visual representation, should form a strongly cohesive and consistent presentation to the user.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Northridge
- Department:
- Psychology
- Creator:
- David, Suzanne R.
- Description:
- The effect of database linking structure on complex search task performance was examined. Database structure was either hierarchical only or hierarchical with added relational links (mixed structure). Participants were asked to provide answers to five complex task scenarios, using one of two versions of a large, unfamiliar database. Participants also completed a questionnaire about their subjective ratings and comments about the database. The results indicated that the mixed structure facilitated better performance with respect to time for task completion and number of information and menu screens visited. No significant difference was found for accuracy/ completeness of response. Likewise, no significant difference was found with respect to subjective satisfaction or cognitive/navigational disorientation. The results appear to support the position that properly implemented relational links aid users in information search tasks.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Northridge
- Department:
- Psychology
- Creator:
- Balderrama, Joe O.
- Description:
- This study examined the effects of explicit warning salience on perceived risk. The design was a 4 X 6 mixed factorial. The between-subjects variable was warning label type. Its 4 levels were reactive pictogram plus text, proactive pictogram plus text, text only, and control. Reactive pictograms showed vivid injuries, and proactive pictograms showed protective behaviors. Hazard type was the within-subjects variable. Its 6 levels were bum, acid, inhalation, crush, eye projectile, and laceration. Subjects were presented with scenarios and then asked to rate warning labels. The 5 dependent measures were ratings on perceived level of hazard, level of caution, severity of injury, likelihood of injury, and susceptibility of injury. Compared to text only warnings, reactive warnings were perceived with greater risk than proactive warnings. However, the most interesting results are how certain hazard types were already perceived with a high degree of hazard regardless of the warning label type.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Northridge
- Department:
- Psychology
- Creator:
- Nguyen, Paul
- Description:
- Understanding group dynamics is important in order to enhance and maintain performance of work-teams. The purpose of this thesis is to examine factors related to social loafing and social facilitation and how such factors hinder and promote teamwork. One hundred seventy-five undergraduate students were randomly assigned to perform a task in one of two conditions: alone or with a partner in a dyad. (See more in text.)
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Northridge
- Department:
- Psychology
- Creator:
- Kakos, Bernadette
- Description:
- There is very little literature available regarding the relationship between neuropsychological functioning of a patient with cognitive impairment and his/her caregiver's leyel of stress or burden. The purpose of the present study was to examine the burden caregiyer's of patients with cognitive impairment experience as a function of the patient�s neuropsychological test scores and their functional abilities. Methods: Twenty-nine patients with mild cognitive impairment were recruited from community hospitals and clinics in the Los Angeles area. Patients were administered a comprehensive neuropsychological test battery designed to assess the following cognitive domains: memory, attention, and information processing speed. The patients were also administered an observation based activities of daily living test which assess seven different areas of functioning, including ability to shop, grooming, carry out financial tasks, communication and understanding of transportation rules. Twenty-nine caregivers of the patients were administered a 24-item burden inventory, which is designed to assess their level of stress and physical and emotional burden in caring for the patient. Results: Bivariate correlation analyses were conducted between patients test scores and the caregiver burden measures. The analyses revealed a relationship between a specific neuropsychological domain and the caregiver measure. Specifically, the lower the verbal processing ability, the verbal memory, and functional ability of the patient, the greater the caregiver reported their stress or burden level to be. Interestingly, specific activities of daily living domains, such as transportation, appeared to cause the greatest burden in caregivers. Conclusion: The results from the current study suggest that neuropsychological test scores of cognitively impaired patients can be used when predicting the burden of care a caregiver is likely to experience. Further implications from this study are that we can assist healthcare providers in tailoring specific support programs for caregivers of patients with specific cognitive deficits.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Northridge
- Department:
- Psychology
- Creator:
- Steers, William Neil
- Description:
- A study was conducted for the purpose of demonstrating the effects of sex of subject, sex of target person, attributes of the target person, and search stage on the order and amount of information accession during the impression formation process. Equal numbers of male and female subjects were given the opportunity to access appearance, behavior, and trait information about either male or female targets. The targets and their attributes were represented in an information board, which is a matrix with each row representing a different target person, and each column representing either an appearance, behavior, or trait attribute of the target. Each cell contained cards with information regarding how the attribute in the column characterized the person in the row. Subjects were given the task of choosing which target impressed them most favorably by removing cards from the cells of their choice and reading the information printed on the cards. Two quadruple interactions were hypothesized. Male subjects were hypothesized to search a greater amount of appearance information about female targets in the first search stage than subjects in all other experimental conditions. Male subjects were also hypothesized to conduct a higher within-attribute search when searching appearance information about female targets in the first stage than subjects in all other conditions. Neither of these hypotheses was confirmed. It was found that subjects executed a higher within-target search in the second search stage than the first. The effect of subject sex on search sequence and the effect of attribute type on search depth were tested post hoc. It was found that females conducted a higher within-target search than males. Surprisingly, an overall preference for searching trait information than appearance or behavior information was also found. Results are discussed in light of existing models of information search.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Northridge
- Department:
- Psychology