Psychology / Psychologie - Undergraduate Theses

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://laurentian.scholaris.ca/handle/10219/2416

Browse

Now showing 1 - 20 of 36

L’effet de la charge cognitive sur la prise de décision des athlètes pratiquant la course d’endurance
(2022-04-21) Gendron, Pascale
En raison de leur entraînement, les athlètes d’endurance ont des besoins spécifiques par rapport à leur nutrition. C’est pourquoi une diète spécifique pour les athlètes d’endurance est tellement importante. Celle-ci leur permet d’optimiser leur performance avant, durant et après les compétitions. Cependant, cette tâche ne s’avère pas toujours facile. Plusieurs études soulignent que les athlètes éprouvent des difficultés quand vient temps d’apprendre et d’appliquer les directives nutritives. Aucune étude a évalué leur capacité d’application des règles alimentaires de façon quantitative. L’objectif principal de cette recherche était d’évaluer si la complexité cognitive affecte la probabilité d’erreurs lors de décisions alimentaires chez les athlètes de course d’endurance. Pour ce faire, une trentaine d’athlètes ont complété une tâche de prise de décision alimentaire. Le nombre de recommandations à considérer pour faire le meilleur choix alimentaire a été manipulé (une, deux ou trois recommandations). Lors de la présentation, l’impact de la complexité cognitive d’une diète sur la capacité à prendre de bonnes décisions alimentaires sera discuté. Au fur que les participants allaient d’une condition à une autre, leur exactitude de réponse et leur choix de réponse était négativement affectée. Cependant, lors de la régression logistique mixte, nous n’avons pas vu une taille d’effet entre les conditions. Ceci suggère qu’il peut y avoir un effet entre les conditions, mais elle n’est pas significative. Ce patron de résultats suggère que les athlètes ont un faible niveau de connaissances et ceci vient leur affecter lors de la prise de décision. Cette recherche supporte le besoin pour des programmes d’éducation pour les athlètes, mais aussi supporte l’affirmation que les individus, surtout dans le milieu scolaire, doivent être conscients du montant d’information partagé avec les autres afin de ne pas surcharger la mémoire de travail.
Understanding educational caregivers accuracy in detecting facial expressions of pain in children: an eye-tracking study
(2017-05-04) Foster, Karlie
Facial expressions of pain are important indicators that an individual needs attention from others. Previous studies have found that different caregiver groups have had difficulty in distinguishing genuine, suppressed and fake pain in children. The current study examines education professionals and their ability to recognize pain expressions in children while their eye-movements were tracked. Eye-tracking was used to understand their accuracy in detecting pain expressions, as well as identifying strategies to improve recognition. Results indicated that participants were more accurate for suppressed than fake expressions, and more for fake than genuine expressions. Results from eye movement patterns offer information on how to improve accuracy upon recognition. For genuine and suppressed expressions, participants must attend to the eye zone longer than the mouth zone. For fake expressions, the mouth zone needs more attention to increase accuracy. Also, when participants spent more time in the eye zone than the mouth zone, their levels of accuracy decreased.
Jugement des microexpressions faciales émotionnelles chez les individus anxieux
(2017-05-03) Turcotte, Karine
Dans la littérature, il est prédit qu’une personne ayant un score plus élevé au niveau du trait d’anxiété démontre une plus grande attention à des stimuli menaçants ou négatifs comparativement aux stimuli positifs ou neutres. La présente étude cherche à examiner si les individus avec un trait d’anxiété élevé sont meilleurs à juger l’authenticité des sourires qui contiennent des microexpressions, comparativement aux individus avec un trait d’anxiété faible. On cherche également à évaluer s’il y a des différences entre ces deux groupes au sujet des connaissances explicites à propos de l’émotion sous-jacente. Les participants sont exposés à 96 images présentées au hasard, dont 48 sourires authentiques et 48 sourires de masquages avec traces d’émotions négatives (colère dans les yeux et sourcils, colère dans la bouche, dégoût, peur, tristesse dans les yeux et sourcils et tristesse dans la bouche). Ils doivent ensuite répondre si l’expression présentée est vraiment joyeuse ou pas vraiment joyeuse. Dans le cas d’une réponse « pas vraiment joyeux », la même image est présentée et les participants doivent dire si une autre émotion est présente ainsi que nommer l’émotion. Lorsqu’on évalue la proportion de bonnes réponses, les résultats démontrent que tous les participants, peu importe leur niveau d’anxiété, ont une proportion de bonnes réponses plus élevées pour les sourires authentiques que pour tous les sourires de masquages. Par contre, les individus avec une anxiété élevée sont significativement moins précis avec les visages de masquage dont il y a des microexpressions de colère dans les sourcils, de dégoût, de peur, de tristesse dans les sourcils et sont marginalement moins précis, lorsque le sourire masque la tristesse dans la bouche. De plus, tous les participants, peu importe leur niveau d’anxiété, sont moins bons à nommer la peur que le dégoût. Ils sont aussi moins bons à nommer la peur que la tristesse, peu importe si la tristesse se trouve au niveau de la bouche ou au niveau des yeux et sourcils.
La reconnaissance des expressions faciales émotionnelles chez les enfants : traitement par traits ou holistique
(2017-05-03) Labonté, Anick
Les recherches démontrent que les adultes reconnaissent certaines expressions faciales émotionnelles telles que la joie, la colère, la tristesse, le dégout, la peur et la surprise à des niveaux supérieurs à ceux attribuables au hasard. Toutefois, le taux de reconnaissance varie en fonction de l’émotion. De plus, certains travaux suggèrent que la reconnaissance implique un processus holistique lors du traitement de l’expression faciale alors que d’autres suggèrent un processus par traits. Beaudry et al. (2014) démontrent que chez les adultes, la bouche est nécessaire et suffisante pour la reconnaissance de la joie et les yeux et les sourcils le sont pour la tristesse. La peur nécessite un traitement holistique alors que les processus sont moins clairs pour les autres émotions. Chaque enfant est exposé à 5 conditions (le visage complet, le visage complet avec les yeux et les sourcils cachés, le visage complet avec la bouche cachée, les yeux et les sourcils seulement et la bouche seulement) et doit reconnaître l’émotion. Pour la reconnaissance des visages complets, les enfants de 10 ans sont meilleurs que les enfants de 5 ans à reconnaître le dégout et la surprise. Lorsqu’on présente seulement les yeux et les sourcils, les enfants de 10 ans sont meilleurs que les enfants de 5 ans à reconnaître la joie et la surprise. Pour la condition d’un visage complet avec les yeux et les sourcils cachés, les enfants de 10 ans sont meilleurs que les enfants de 5 ans à reconnaître le dégout, la peur et la surprise. Pour la condition d’un visage complet avec la bouche cachée, seule la joie est plus reconnue pour les enfants de 10 ans. Ces résultats suggèrent une évolution développementale dans le traitement et la reconnaissance des expressions faciales émotionnelles.
Correlates of rape myth acceptance, pornography use, and personality traits in undergraduate students
(2016-04-08) Lalonde, Casey J.
The purpose of this investigation was to examine the relationship between personality and pornography use in predicting rape myth acceptance. Rape myth acceptance was measured using The Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale (1999); pornography use was measured the Pornography Use Measure (2014) as well as a direct question asking participants if they watch pornography (yes/no); personality was measured using Cattell’s 16PF, 5th Edition. A total of 67 participants (40 females, 27 males) were used in the analysis. Overall, rape myth acceptance was found higher in males than females overall, but was lower in males who knew a victim of sexual assault, particularly on the rape-myth subset “rape is a trivial event”. The global personality factors for Independence and Extraversion correlated negatively with rape myth acceptance in males; the global factor for Self Control correlated positively with rape myth acceptance for males. The global personality factor for Tough-Mindedness correlated positively in both males and females. No significant findings were found for pornography use.
Le jugement de l’authenticité du sourire de masquage varie-t-il en fonction des consignes et du type de choix de réponse?
(2016-12-15) Therrien, Anabel
Le sourire peut être une stratégie puissante pour dissimuler l’expression d’émotions négatives. On doit activer les muscles associés au sourire et simultanément inhiber des émotions négatives. Les études ont démontré que les adultes ne réussissent pas toujours à les inhiber, ce qui mène à des micros expressions, et que leur niveau de performance est près du hasard lorsqu’ils doivent différencier des sourires de joie et de masquage. La présente étude a examiné l’influence que les instructions et le choix de réponses pouvaient avoir sur le jugement des sourires de joie et de masquage comprenant des traces de colère, tristesse, dégout et de peur, utilisant une échelle Likert à 7 points. Les résultats démontrent que les participants ont jugé les sourires marginalement plus joyeux qu’authentiques, dont ceux de joie les plus joyeux, et ceux avec traces de peur les moins joyeux, ce qui correspond aux résultats obtenus lorsqu’on utilise un choix dichotomique. En somme, les résultats supportent l’importance des instructions données aux participants dans le jugement des sourires de joie et de masquage, plus que les choix de réponses.
The impact of perceptual fluency manipulations on processing speed and ratings of relatedness for gender role schemas using the IAT
(2016-12-15) Streich, Breeanna
The purpose of the current study was to combine research on schema violations and perceptual fluency to determine the impact of perceptual fluency manipulations on ratings of relatedness for gender role schemas through the use of an Implicit Association Test (IAT). The goal of this study was to gain a better understanding of the cognitive impact of processing manipulations. It was hypothesized that congruent blocks would have faster response times than incongruent blocks in the IAT. It was also hypothesized that perceptual fluency could be strategically manipulated to counteract the slowdown effect associated with schema-incongruent information. In addition, it was predicted that ratings of relatedness would be correlated with response times in that perceptually fluent blocks would be rated as more related than perceptually disfluent blocks. The results showed a main effect of congruency on response times and ratings of relatedness. It was found that the slowdown effect could successfully be eliminated through the use of perceptual fluency manipulations. However, perceptual fluency manipulations did not have a significant impact on ratings of relatedness. Future studies should utilize other methods to manipulate perceptual fluency, as well as investigate how changes in response times can influence different types of attribute ratings.
L’effet de la vitesse de présentation de la narration sur l’exploration du texte chez les préscolaires
(2016-12-15) Serré, Mélodie
La lecture conjointe fait référence à toute activité de lecture où un lecteur habile lit à un jeune enfant. De toutes les activités éducatives, elle est rapportée comme étant la préférée des enfants et des données empiriques soutiennent son rôle dans le développement des habiletés subséquentes en lecture. L’objectif de la présente étude est d’examiner l’effet de la manipulation de la vitesse de présentation de la narration et de la difficulté des livres sur l’attention portée au texte et la compréhension du discours chez les enfants préscolaires. Quatre livres (deux livres faciles et deux livres difficiles) sont présentés à 11 enfants âgés entre 34 et 71 mois alors que leurs mouvements oculaires sont enregistrés, ainsi un questionnaire portant sur la compréhension du discours est administré après la présentation de chaque livre. Les résultats révèlent que les enfants passent significativement plus de temps sur le texte d’un livre facile lorsqu’il est présenté à vitesse lente. Il n’y avait aucun effet entre la présentation de narration et la compréhension du discours chez les enfants préscolaires.
Youth perceptions on anti-texting and driving advertisements: an eye-tracking approach
(2016-12-15) Leroux, Dominique
Texting and driving has become a prevalent public health issue, especially in youth. The current study recorded eye movements of young adults to texting and driving prevention advertisements to determine the format that attracted the most attention. Thirty-three participants (Mean age 19) viewed three types of advertisements (non-driving related, general distracted driving and texting and driving specific) with three types of contents (text only, image only and text and image) while their eye movements were recorded. Participants also completed a survey evaluating their self-reported texting and driving behaviours. When comparing eye-tracking results for participants who self-report texting and driving with those who do not, no significant differences were observed. Results revealed an interaction of the types of advertisements and types of content on dwell time. More precisely, when ads comprised text only, participants spent more time viewing the texting and driving ads than the other types. For the texting and driving ads, participants spent more time viewing when they comprised text only and, more time when they comprised image only than both image and text. Regardless of the type of ads, when ads comprised both text and image, participants spent more time viewing the images than the text. Since viewing behaviour did vary whether participants text and drive or not, results do not provide clues to produce more effective ads for the target audience. Nevertheless, results suggest that in order to influence young adult’s attention to texting and driving prevention advertisements, text-only display would be preferable.
La perception de l'importance de l'intelligence, de la personnalité, de l'apparence physique: le rôle de la situation et du sexe
(2016-12-15) Lafontaine, Manon
Cette recherche vise à savoir comment le sexe du percevant, ainsi que le sexe de la personne cible joue un rôle dans la perception de l’importance relative de l’intelligence, de la personnalité et de l’apparence physique dans des situations personnelles et professionnelles. 41 étudiants et 97 étudiantes universitaires ont répondu à un questionnaire dans lequel ils devaient évaluer comment un homme ou une femme perçoit l’importance de ces trois traits dans 8 situations personnelles ou professionnelles. Les résultats montrent que les hommes accordent une plus grande importance à l’intelligence et à la personnalité d’un homme qu’à son apparence physique, mais ils considèrent l’intelligence d’une femme plus importante que sa personnalité et que son apparence physique. Par contre, les femmes accordent une plus grande importance à la personnalité qu’à l’intelligence et qu’à l’apparence physique aussi bien pour les hommes et que pour les femmes. Les hommes et les femmes considèrent l’apparence physique le moins important des trois traits.
Examining the effects of eye-tracking strategies and gender on multitask performance and eye movements during sleep deprivation
(2016-12-15) Caballero, Hebert Sebastian
The current study implemented eye-tracking strategies on a computerized multitasking simulator in order to examine its effects on cognitive performance and dwell time on tasks during sleep deprivation. The study also looked at gender differences on multitask performance and dwell time on tasks before and after sleep deprivation. There were training trials before being sleep deprived and a testing trial after being sleep deprived for control and experimental groups. The experimental group had the eye-tracking strategies implemented on the multitasking simulator while the control group did not. It was hypothesised that eye-tracking strategies provided on the multitasking simulator would help individuals score better and equally distribute dwell time on tasks after being sleep deprived. It was also hypothesized that both genders would have similar scores and dwell times. Results showed that regardless of the eye-tracking strategies being provided or not, individuals performed better after being sleep deprived. Dwell times decreased for most of the tasks from training to testing and were not equally distributed. No conclusions in terms of gender differences were made due to limitations of unequal distribution of males and females on experimental and control groups. Results suggested that one night of sleep deprivation may not be enough for cognitive impairment to occur in the population examined. Future studies should look at implementing eye-tracking strategies when there is certainty that cognitive impairment due to sleep deprivation is occurring.
Sexism and personality traits: what you think, and what you think others think
(2016-12-15) Bélanger, Manon
The studies of personality traits, as well as the study of sexist assumptions, have been a popular topic of interest in psychology. In this study, both variables are combined and examined to determine the extent to which certain personality traits are associated to men and women respectively. In addition to this, the study determines if the perceptions differ when considering the answers strictly given by men or by women, and both towards their own, and the opposite sex. These perceptions are measured via questionnaire given to thirty males and thirty females, all students at Laurentian University. Briefly stated, negative personality traits were most often associated to women, and the positive traits were mainly traits which benefit others (like generous and patient, for example). Positive and self-sufficient traits, such as ambitious and confident, for example, were mostly associated towards men.
The effects of perceptual fluency, schema congruency, and sexuality on attribute ratings
(2016-04-05) Hovi, Rebekah
Previous literature on schema congruency has largely found that schema incongruence is associated with less positive attribute ratings. However, one recent study found the opposite effects where schema incongruence was associated with more positive ratings. A potential reason for their opposing results was that this study analyzed the schema incongruent stimuli of “a sensitive man” and “an assertive female” as one group and did not examine for differences according to gender; however previous literature has stated that schemas are entrenched different according to gender. The purpose of this study was to replicate this previous study that supported a positive affect for schema incongruence to determine whether this potential gender confound was responsible for the inconsistent results, while also looking to see if manipulating perceptual fluency (how easy something is to read) could mitigate this negative impact, particularly for sexuality schemas. Despite previous robust effects, fluency did not impact attribute ratings. We suggest that this is potentially because the schemas for sexuality are too entrenched. Congruency did impact attribute ratings, and in almost all cases individuals who were schema congruent for sexuality were rated as more positive than those who were schema incongruent, suggesting that gender did play a role in previous findings.
An analysis of perceptual fluency and sexuality schemas: the effect on ratings of relatedness and processing speed
(2016-05-20) Smith, Paige
This study looked at how response times and ratings of relatedness were impacted by congruency and fluency of stimuli. It was predicted that when information was presented in the fluent or congruent conditions, response times would be faster than for information that was presented in the incongruent or disfluent conditions. It was also hypothesized that the slowdown effect associated with incongruent category label pairings would be eliminated through the manipulation of fluency. The prediction was also made that ratings of relatedness would be lower for category labels that were presented disfluently or incongruently than labels presented fluently or congruently. The congruency by fluency interaction displayed support for the first and second hypothesis. There was a significant difference in response times between the Congruent/Fluent and Incongruent/Disfluent conditions in Group 1. Another interesting finding was that the response times for the Congruent/Disfluent and Incongruent/Fluent conditions in Group 2 had no significant difference, indicating that the typical slowdown caused by the incongruent condition had been eliminated. The third hypothesis, related to attribute ratings, was supported by the main effect of congruency and the interaction between congruency and sexuality. These results demonstrated that when presented congruently paired labels were rated as more related than incongruently paired labels. Therefore, these results suggest that fluency can impact response times through the use of the sexuality IAT. Future studies should analyze whether sexuality schemas vary for different ages and whether the current results hold true for different age groups
Product placement in House of Cards: the effects of mode of presentation and prominence on memory
(2016-05-20) Osborne, Margaret
Product placement refers to the inclusion of commercial products in noncommercial settings. Research has typically focuses on attempting to determine what characteristics make a product placement more effective and is often measured by explicit memory of the brands presented. Previous studies have had issues with generalizability due to the lack of an objective and consistent use of an operational definition for factors such as prominence. This study aims at validating a coding system developed by Concave Brand Tracking, which established and operationally defined five levels of visual prominence. This study measures explicit memory for each of the five levels of visual prominence with the hypothesis that, as level of prominence increases the memory of the exposure to the brand would increase as well. The results of the experiment support this hypothesis. The effects of presentation mode (i.e. audio or visual) on memory were also investigated. The hypothesis based on the theory of dual coding was, when a product has both an audio and visual presentation, memory is improved compared to a product placement using a single presentation mode. This hypothesis was also supported by the results of the experiment. Overall this study suggests both mode of presentation and level of prominence have an impact on viewer’s ability to accurately remember exposure to product placement within the Netflix series House of Cards
Perception of enjoyment and masking smiles with self-report measures of rating on scales from happiness to negative emotions
(2016-04-08) Pelot, Annalie
Previous studies explored individual’s judgment of masking smiles using dichotomous or categorical measures of rating which force individuals to categorize the masking smile into one discrete category. The current study further examined individuals’ ability to distinguish between enjoyment and masking smiles (smiles containing trace of negative emotion) with positive-negative dimensional rating scales. Thirty-two undergraduate students participated in the smile judgment study, which consisted an Enjoyment smile and six masking smiles: a smile with a trace of fear, of disgust, of anger in the brow, anger in the mouth, sadness in the brow and sadness in the mouth. Participants had to evaluate each smile with four different scales, which contained a positive and negative dimension (Happiness and either Fear, Sadness, Anger, and Disgust). Results indicated that participants could distinguish between the masking smiles and enjoyment smiles as they rated the enjoyment smiles more positively than the masking smiles. Participants were most sensitive to masking smiles containing traces of fear as they rated this expression more negatively compared to the other masking smiles. Other than the expression of anger (in the brow), masking smiles were rated more negatively overall than the genuine enjoyment smiles. Finally, response rates were quicker for enjoyment smiles than the masking smiles. Using dimensional measures of rating in the smile judgment task did not change individuals’ judgment of the masking smiles but may change the way the smiles are processed.
Comparison of sibling relationships in families of children with autism spectrum disorder and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder
(Laurentian University of Sudbury, 2015-07-16) Hughes, Tara
Employing a mixed methods approach, the purpose of this present study was to examine the lived experiences of siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Participants participated in semi-structured interviews and completed two questionnaires. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to analyze interview transcripts and five main themes were identified: Positive Transformational Outcomes, Sibling Demands, Caregiving Roles, Awareness of Developmental Disabilities, and Supports. Questionnaire data from the Sibling Daily Hassles and Uplifts Scale and the Sibling Inventory of Behaviour Scale were also utilized and comparison findings between sibling groups from these questionnaires will be analyzed and discussed.
The effect of text difficulty on the missing-letter effect
(Laurentian University of Sudbury, 2015-07-09) Vien, Danielle
The effect of pleasant and unpleasant music on judgments of learning and memory recall
(Laurentian University of Sudbury, 2015-07-09) Tompkins, Aleisha
Previous research has suggested that if music is perceived as pleasant, it will evoke a positive mood and if music is perceived as unpleasant or aversive, it will evoke a negative mood. Mood has an effect on memory, as a positive mood enhances cognitive processes, and a negative mood impairs cognitive processes. Research has suggested that Judgments-of-Learning (JOLs) or the predictions of the likelihood of future recall, are generally accurate. According to the Cue-Utilization-Framework (Koriat, 1997), JOLs depend on intrinsic, mnemonic and extrinsic cues. Extrinsic cues include environmental factors such as background music. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the effect of music as a potential extrinsic cue, as perceived as pleasant or unpleasant, on the accuracy of JOLs and memory recall. It is examined whether or not a congruency in music between the learning and testing periods had an effect on the accuracy of JOLs and memory recall. 62 Undergraduate students attending Laurentian University were randomly assigned to one of four conditions including: Pleasant music during learning, negative music during recall, unpleasant music during learning and negative during recall, pleasant music during both and negative music during both. Participants were asked to complete a six-scale mood rating five times throughout the experiment that included items such as cheerful, content, relaxed, irritated, frustrated, and upset. There were two word lists containing 20 words each, and participants were required to progress through a timed PowerPoint where a word would display for 5 seconds and a JOL was made immediately after (in 4 seconds). They were given 5 minutes to recall at the end of each word list. Results did not support the notion that music is an extrinsic cue affecting JOLs as there were no significant differences between conditions. Also, mood dependent memory did not exert an effect on JOLs and Recall, as incongruent conditions had significantly higher mean JOL-Recall than congruent condition (an opposite effect). Overall, JOLs appear to be an accurate predictor of performance.
Effects of action video game training on spatial attention
(Laurentian University of Sudbury, 2015-07-09) Thibeault, Michel R.
Studies suggest that action video game play improves top-down attentional control. A current learning to learn theory proposes that probabilistic inference, the ability to identify statistical patterns and create task-relevant perceptual templates to efficiently orient endogenous attention, underlies video game players’ greater performance relative to non-gamers in a variety of tasks. The current study aimed to evaluate this theory using a target detection task known to induce a suboptimal number line top-down template, which results in spatial biases. Participants were trained for ten hours on either Tetris or Medal of Honor. Mean reaction time across all conditions was significantly improved in both groups. However, there was no evidence for enhanced top-down control due to video game training in this experiment.

Browse

Recent Submissions