Cognitive set, absorption, and achievement as moderators of the perceptual closure effect in picture priming /

The present study examined individual differences in Absorption and fantasy, as well as in Achiievement and achievement striving as possible moderators of the perceptual closure effect found by Snodgrass and Feenan (1990). The study also examined whether different instructions (experiential versus instrumental) interact with the personality variables to moderate the relationship between priming and subsequent performance on a picture completion task. 1 28 participants completed two sessions, one to fill out the MPQ and NEO personality inventories and the other to complete the experimental task. The experimental task consisted of a priming phase and a test phase, with pictures presented on a computer screen for both phases. Participants were shown 30 pictures in the priming phase, and then shovm the 30 primed pictures along with 30 new pictures for the test phase. Participants were randomly assigned to receive one of the two different instruction sets for the task. Two measures of performance were calculated, most fragmented measure and threshold. Results of the present study confirm that a five-second exposure time is long enough to produce the perceptual closure effect. The analysis of the two-way interaction effects indicated a significant quadratic interaction of Absorption with priming level on threshold performance. The results were in the opposite direction of predictions. Possible explanations for the Absorption results include lack of optimal conditions, lack of intrinsic motivation and measurement problems. Primary analyses also revealed two significant between-subject effects of fantasy and achievement striving on performance collapsed across priming levels. These results suggest that fantasy has a beneficial effect on performance at test for pictures primed at all levels, whereas achievement striving seems to have an adverse effect on performance at test for pictures primed at all levels. Results of the secondary analyses with a revised threshold performance measure indicated a significant quadratic interaction of Absorption, condition and priming level. In the experiential condition, test performance, based on Absorption scores for pictures primed at level 4, showed a positive slope and performance for pictures primed at levels 1 and 7 based on Absorption showed a negative slope. The reverse effect was found in the instrumental condition. The results suggest that Absorption, in combination with experiential involvement, may affect implicit memory. A second significant result of the secondary analyses was a linear three-way interaction of Achievement, condition and priming level on performance. Results suggest that as Achievement scores increased, test performance improved for less fragmented primed pictures in the instrumental condition and test performance improved for more highly fragmented primes in the experiential condition. Results from the secondary analyses suggest that the revised threshold measure may be more sensitive to individual differences. Results of the exploratory analyses with Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness and agentic positive emotionality (PEM-A) measures indicated no significant effects of any of these personality variables. Results suggest that facets of the scales may be more useful with regard to perceptual research, and that future research should examine narrowly focused personality traits as opposed to broader constructs.

Priming the Governance System for Climate Change Adaptation: The Application of a Social Ecological Inventory (SEI) to Engage Actors in Niagara, Canada

Adaptive systems of governance are increasingly gaining attention in respect to complex and uncertain social-ecological systems. Adaptive co-management is one strategy to make adaptive governance operational and holds promise with respect to community climate change adaptation as it facilitates participation and learning across scales and fosters adaptive capacity and resilience. Developing tools which hasten the realization of such approaches are growing in importance. This paper describes explores the Social Ecological Inventory (SEI) as a tool to 'prime' a regional climate change adaptation network. The SEI tool draws upon the social-ecological systems approach in which social and ecological systems are considered linked. SEIs bridge the gap between conventional stakeholder analysis and biological inventories and take place through a six phase process. A case study describes the results of applying an SEI to prime an adaptive governance network for climate change adaptation in the Niagara Region of Canada. Lessons learned from the case study are discussed and highlight how the SEI catalyzed the adaptive co-management process in the case. Future avenues for SEIs in relation to climate change adaptation emerge from this exploratory work and offer opportunities to inform research and adaptation planning.

Priming Prosocial Behavior to Augment Bystander Interventions in Bullying Situations

Bullying is a harmful phenomenon wherein victims have difficulty defending themselves. Bystanders have been identified as a potentially effective group for reducing bullying. The goal of this research is to determine whether prosocial primes (operationalized as empathy and civility) have an effect on increasing bystander interventions among youth. A total of 52 participants between the ages of 10-14 were randomly assigned to two experimental groups or one control group. Participants either received neutral control stories or they were primed twice with stories showing characters acting empathetically or civilly. Testing measures involve a short video and questionnaire assessing willingness to act as a bystander. Results reveal that prosocial training can augment willingness to engage in defending behaviors when compared to the control V = .19, F(2, 46) = 5.53, p < .01, ω2 = .19, correcting for the sphericity violation. This finding represents a relatively easy and non-invasive way to potentially change the bullying-related attitudes of adolescents, thereby potentially reducing bullying behaviors.

Predictors of academic achievement and social competence in adolescence : facilitation, inhibition and general cognitive processing /

The relevance of attentional measures to cognitive and social adaptive behaviour was examined in an adolescent sample. Unlike previous research, the influence of both inhibitory and facilitory aspects of attention were studied. In addition, contributions made by these attentional processes were compared with traditional psychometric measures of cognitive functioning. Data were gathered from 36 grade 10 and 1 1 high school students (20 male and 16 female students) with a variety of learning and attentional difficulties. Data collection was conducted in the course of two testing sessions. In the first session, students completed questionnaires regarding their medical history, and everyday behaviours (the Brock Adaptive Functioning Questionnaire), along with non-verbal problem solving tasks and motor speed tasks. In the second session, students performed working memory measures and computer-administered tasks assessing inhibitory and facilitory aspects of attention. Grades and teacher-rated measures of cognitive and social impulsivity were also gathered. Results indicate that attentional control has both cognitive and social/emotional implications. Performance on negative priming and facilitation trials from the Flanker task predicted grades in core courses, social functioning measures, and cognitive and social impulsivity ratings. However, beneficial effects for academic and social functioning associated with inhibition were less prevalent in those demonstrating a greater ability to respond to facilitory cues. There was also some evidence that high levels of facilitation were less beneficial to academic performance, and female students were more likely to exceed optimal levels of facilitory processing. Furthermore, lower negative priming was ''S'K 'i\':y-: -'*' - r " j«v ; ''*.' iij^y Inhibition, Facilitation and Social Competence 3 associated with classroom-rated distraction and hyperactivity, but the relationship between inhibition and social aspects of impulsivity was stronger for adolescents with learning or reading problems, and the relationship between inhibition and cognitive impulsivity was stronger for male students. In most cases, attentional measures were predictive of performance outcomes independent of traditional psychometric measures of cognitive functioning. >,, These findings provide support for neuropsychological models linking inhibition to control of interference and arousal, and emphasize the fundamental role of attention in everyday adolescent activities. The findings also warrant further investigation into the ways which inhibitory and facilitory attentional processes interact, and the contextdependent nature of attentional control.associated with classroom-rated distraction and hyperactivity, but the relationship between inhibition and social aspects of impulsivity was stronger for adolescents with learning or reading problems, and the relationship between inhibition and cognitive impulsivity was stronger for male students. In most cases, attentional measures were predictive of performance outcomes independent of traditional psychometric measures of cognitive functioning. >,, These findings provide support for neuropsychological models linking inhibition to control of interference and arousal, and emphasize the fundamental role of attention in everyday adolescent activities. The findings also warrant further investigation into the ways which inhibitory and facilitory attentional processes interact, and the contextdependent nature of attentional control.

What happens in the first 200 ms of word reading : ERP studies on visual word recognition with top-down and bottom-up approaches /

In this thesis, three main questions were addressed using event-related potentials (ERPs): (1) the timing of lexical semantic access, (2) the influence of "top-down" processes on visual word processing, and (3) the influence of "bottom-up" factors on visual word processing. The timing of lexical semantic access was investigated in two studies using different designs. In Study 1,14 participants completed two tasks: a standard lexical decision (LD) task which required a word/nonword decision to each target stimulus, and a semantically primed version (LS) of it using the same category of words (e.g., animal) within each block following which participants made a category judgment. In Study 2, another 12 participants performed a standard semantic priming task, where target stimulus words (e.g., nurse) could be either semantically related or unrelated to their primes (e.g., doctor, tree) but the order of presentation was randomized. We found evidence in both ERP studies that lexical semantic access might occur early within the first 200 ms (at about 170 ms for Study 1 and at about 160 ms for Study 2). Our results were consistent with more recent ERP and eye-tracking studies and are in contrast with the traditional research focus on the N400 component. "Top-down" processes, such as a person's expectation and strategic decisions, were possible in Study 1 because of the blocked design, but they were not for Study 2 with a randomized design. Comparing results from two studies, we found that visual word processing could be affected by a person's expectation and the effect occurred early at a sensory/perceptual stage: a semantic task effect in the PI component at about 100 ms in the ERP was found in Study 1 , but not in Study 2. Furthermore, we found that such "top-down" influence on visual word processing might be mediated through separate mechanisms depending on whether the stimulus was a word or a nonword. "Bottom-up" factors involve inherent characteristics of particular words, such as bigram frequency (the total frequency of two-letter combinations of a word), word frequency (the frequency of the written form of a word), and neighborhood density (the number of words that can be generated by changing one letter of an original word or nonword). A bigram frequency effect was found when comparing the results from Studies 1 and 2, but it was examined more closely in Study 3. Fourteen participants performed a similar standard lexical decision task but the words and nonwords were selected systematically to provide a greater range in the aforementioned factors. As a result, a total of 18 word conditions were created with 18 nonword conditions matched on neighborhood density and neighborhood frequency. Using multiple regression analyses, we foimd that the PI amplitude was significantly related to bigram frequency for both words and nonwords, consistent with results from Studies 1 and 2. In addition, word frequency and neighborhood frequency were also able to influence the PI amplitude separately for words and for nonwords and there appeared to be a spatial dissociation between the two effects: for words, the word frequency effect in PI was found at the left electrode site; for nonwords, the neighborhood frequency effect in PI was fovind at the right elecfrode site. The implications of otir findings are discussed.

Habitat selection of three rodents in a frequently burned boreal environment : productivity and habitat diversity

How does fire affect the plant and animal community of the boreal forest? This study attempted to examine the changes in plant composition and productivity, and small mammal demography brought about by fire in the northern boreal environment at Chick Lake, N.W.T. (65053fN, 128°14,W). Two 5*6 ha plots measuring 375m x 150m were selected for study during the summers of 1973 and 197^. One had been unburned for 120 years, the other was part of a fire which burned in the spring of 1969. Grids of 15m x 15m were established in each plot and meter square quadrats taken at each of the 250 grid intersections in order to determine plant composition and density. Aerial primary production was assessed by clipping and drying 80 samples of terminal new production for each species under investigation. Small mammal populations were sampled by placing a Sherman live trap at each grid intersection for ten days in every month. The two plots were similar in plant species composition which suggested that most regrowth in the burned area was from rootstocks which survived the fire. The plant data were submitted to a cluster analysis that revealed nine separate species associations, six of which occured in the burned area and eight of which occured in the control. These were subsequently treated as habitats for purposes of comparison with small mammal distributions. The burned area showed a greater productivity in flowers and fruits although total productivity in the control area was higher due to a large contribution from the non-vascular component. Maximum aerial productivity as dry wieght was measured at 157.1 g/m and 207.8 g/m for the burn and control respectively. Microtus pennsylvanicus and Clethrionomys rutilus were the two most common small mammals encountered; Microtus xanthognathus, Synaptomys borealis, and Phenacomys intermedius also occured in the area. Populations of M. pennsylvanicus and C. rutilus were high during the summer of 1973; however, M. pennsylvanicus was rare on the control but abundant on the burn, while C. rutilus was rare on the burn but abundant in the control. During the summer of 197^ populations declined, with the result that few voles of any species were caught in the burn while equal numbers of the two species were caught in the control. During the summer of 1973 M. pennsylvanicus showed a positive association to the most productive habitat type in the burn which was avoided by C. rutilus. In the control £• rutilus showed a similar positive association to the most productive habitat type which was avoided by M. pennsylvanicus. In all cases for the high population year of 1973# the two species never overlapped in habitat preference. When populations declined in 197^f "both species showed a strong association for the most productive habitat in the control. This would suggest that during a high population year, an abundant species can exclude competitors from a chosen habitat, but that this dominance decreases as population levels decrease. It is possible that M. pennsylvanicus is a more efficient competitor in a recently burned environment, while C. rutilus assumes this role once non-vascular regrowth becomes extensive.

Preadolescents' internet usage : psychosocial implications /

Preadolescent Internet usage is prevalent today. This thesis examined how Canadian preadolescents use the Internet, what they do when they are on the Internet, and why preadolescents are fascinated with the Internet. Eight quahtative categories were derived from the data. The categories are Downloading, Information Hunting, Consumerism, Virtual Nurturing, Gaming, Expressions of Violence, Chatting, and Music. By critically distilling and analyzing preadolescent Internet behaviour through the lens of behavioural and cognitive psychology, and explicating the amount of psychological, cognitive, and social learning that preadolescents may be exposed to on the Internet, and the attraction that is cumulatively a profound draw for a preadolescent audience, an argument will be made that Internet usage in preadolescents may impair their cognitive, social, and psychological development because of the impulse seeking and gratification priming that has been reinforced during the formative period of preadolescence.

The significance of volatile antifungal metabolites produced by trichomerma harzianum biotype Th4, in green-mould disease of commercial mushroom crops /

The aggressive mushroom competitor, Trichoderma harzianum biotype Th4, produces volatile antifungal secondary metabolites both in culture and during the disease cycle in compost. Th4 cultures produced one such compound only when cultured in the presence of Agaricus bisporus mycelium or liquid medium made from compost colonised with A. bisporus. This compound has TLC and UVabsorption and characteristics indicating that it belongs to a class of pyrone antibiotics characterised from other T. harzianum biotypes. UV absorption spectra indicated this compound was not 6-pentyl-2H-pyran-one (6PAP), the volatile antifungal metabolite widely described in Th1. Furthermore, this compound was not produced by Th1 under any culture conditions. Mycelial growth of A. bisporus, Botrytis cinerea and Sclerotium cepivorum was inhibited in the presence of this compound through volatility , diffusion and direct application. This indicates that Th4 produces novel, volatile, antifungal metabolites in the presence of A. bisporus that are likely involved in green mould disease of mushroom crops.

Subliminal Exposure to Empathy Primes: A New Method to Reduce Intergroup Bias?

An abundant literature has demonstrated the benefits of empathy for intergroup relations (e.g., Batson, Chang, Orr, & Rowland, 2002). In addition, empathy has been identified as the mechanism by which various successful prejudice-reduction procedures impact attitudes and behaviour (e.g., Costello & Hodson, 2010). However, standard explicit techniques used in empathy-prejudice research have a number of potential limitations (e.g., resistance; McGregor, 1993). The present project explored an alternative technique, subliminally priming (i.e., outside of awareness) empathy-relevant terms (Study 1), or empathy itself (Study 2). Study 1 compared the effects of exposure to subliminal empathy-relevant primes (e.g., compassion) versus no priming and priming the opposite of empathy (e.g., indifference) on prejudice (i.e., negative attitudes), discrimination (i.e., resource allocation), and helping behaviour (i.e., willingness to empower, directly assist, or expect group change) towards immigrants. Relative to priming the opposite of empathy, participants exposed to primes of empathy-relevant constructs expressed less prejudice and were more willingness to empower immigrants. In addition, the effects were not moderated by individual differences in prejudice-relevant variables (i.e., Disgust Sensitivity, Intergroup Disgust-Sensitivity, Intergroup Anxiety, Social Dominance Orientation, Right-wing Authoritarianism). Study 2 considered a different target category (i.e., Blacks) and attempted to strengthen the effects found by comparing the impact of subliminal empathy primes (relative to no prime or subliminal primes of empathy paired with Blacks) on explicit prejudice towards marginalized groups and Blacks, willingness to help marginalized groups and Blacks, as well as implicit prejudice towards Blacks. In addition, Study 2 considered potential mechanisms for the predicted effects; specifically, general empathy, affective empathy towards Blacks, cognitive empathy towards Blacks, positive mood, and negative mood. Unfortunately, using subliminal empathy primes “backfired”, such that exposure to subliminal empathy primes (relative to no prime) heightened prejudice towards marginalized groups and Blacks, and led to stronger expectations that marginalized groups and Blacks improve their own situation. However, exposure to subliminal primes pairing empathy with Blacks (relative to subliminal empathy primes alone) resulted in less prejudice towards marginalized groups and more willingness to directly assist Blacks, as expected. Interestingly, exposure to subliminal primes of empathy paired with Blacks (vs. empathy alone) resulted in more pro-White bias on the implicit prejudice measure. Study 2 did not find that the potential mediators measured explained the effects found. Overall, the results of the present project do not provide strong support for the use of subliminal empathy primes for improving intergroup relations. In fact, the results of Study 2 suggest that the use of subliminal empathy primes may even backfire. The implications for intergroup research on empathy and priming procedures generally are discussed.

Two Levels of Motivation and Two Types of Well-Being: Relations Between General and Goal-Specific Motivations, and Eudaimonic and Hedonic Well-Being

In this thesis I assess the individual and joint predictive associations and effects between multiple motivation and well-being concepts. In particular, three pairs of motivation concepts (intrinsic/extrinsic, approach/avoidance, and eudaimonic/hedonic) are assessed simultaneously at two levels of analysis (disposition and goal) and examined in relation to two types of well-being (eudaimonic and hedonic) in two studies, one correlational and the other experimental. Study 1: Using a correlational design, participants (N = 325, M age = 19.10, 87% female) completed self-report measures assessing six motivation and two well-being concepts. Exploratory factor analyses were used to assess patterns of associations among the motivational constructs. Results indicated that constructs displaying conceptual and empirical similarities co-occur, particularly, intrinsic, approach and eudaimonic motivation. Regression models were used to assess predictive relations between the motivational constructs and well-being. Both types of well-being were predicted by approach and avoidance dispositions, and hedonic goals. Additionally, eudaimonic well-being was uniquely predicted by eudaimonic dispositions and goals, and intrinsic dispositions; and hedonic well-being was uniquely predicted by extrinsic dispositions and approach goals. The patterns of associations among motivational constructs, and similarities and differences in the ways they predict each type of well-being, are discussed. Study 2: Using an experimental design, participants (N = 447, M age = 19.30, 88% female) were randomly assigned to one of eight experimental conditions, each involving a manipulation aimed at priming combinations of the three pairs of motivational constructs at the goal level. Participants then completed measures of both types of well-being. ANOVAs were used to assess the main effects and interactions of experimental condition for each of the three pairs of motivational constructs on well-being. Main effects of experimental conditions were non-significant. However, results indicated that focus on each of the three pairs of motivational constructs predicted well-being and that the manipulation impacted well-being indirectly, through experimentally-shifted motivational focus. Few interactions emerged. Implications for future experimental research and the conceptual integration of motivation and well-being constructs are discussed. In conclusion, Studies 1 and 2 inform the motivation and well-being fields in novel ways and provide preliminary steps towards studying these fields from an integrated and comprehensive motivational framework.

Article - "Canadian Lass in 170 Beats Male Competitors in Cup Race", 1956

An article covering the win of Dorothy Rungeling in the Canadian Governor-General Cup race. She was the only female competitor against ten males. She has won two out of the last three years.