M.A. Psychology
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Item Open Access The Fear Enjoyment Hypothesis: Psychopathic Traits and InvincibilityCsordas, Amy; Department of PsychologyThe main objective of this study was to examine whether invincibility mediates the relationship between psychopathic traits and fear enjoyment. Brock University undergraduate student participants (N = 81) viewed either a neutral video or a video intended to decrease feelings of invincibility and then played a horror game in Virtual Reality. Participants rated the videogame on a list of adjectives which captured fear and exciting affective appraisals. As expected, psychopathic traits were associated with lower fear scores and higher excitement scores. The video condition was not a significant predictor of mediation in the initial model. However, in the control condition the relationship between psychopathy and fear enjoyment was replicated, when each condition was examined separately. More specifically, psychopathic traits were related to a less negative and more positive perception of their emotional state. When participants’ feelings of invincibility were manipulated, this relationship was no longer significant suggesting that feelings of invincibility may be important in being able to enjoy fear-inducing stimuli. These findings align with the Fear Enjoyment Hypothesis (FEH). Future research could investigate invincibility as a mediator with a larger sample size.Item Embargo Impact of Prenatal Alcohol Exposure on Cognition and Inflammation in Aging Male and Female Rats: A Longitudinal ApproachQureshi, Sunny; Department of PsychologyPrenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) is a serious global health concern that can have long-lasting detrimental effects on the developing brain and behaviour. However, less is known about the effects of PAE as an individual ages into middle and old age. Here, we investigate the long-term effects of PAE on cognitive functioning, immune system dysregulation, and neuroinflammation in aging rats with a focus on sex-specific differences. Using a well-established rat model of PAE, spatial learning and memory, recognition memory, serum cytokine levels and Iba-1 cell expression in the dentate gyrus (DG) were assessed at two different time points in the same animals: 6 months (6M) and 12 months (12M) of age. Key findings indicated that PAE leads to cognitive domain-specific impairments, with more pronounced deficits observed in recognition memory. These impairments in recognition memory were exacerbated with age and were more prominent in females. PAE animals also displayed altered immune profiles, characterized by lower levels of anti-inflammatory cytokines (IL-4, IL-10, and IL-13), suggesting chronic lowgrade inflammation with decreased healing and protection. Notably, these alternations in immune profiles were more pronounced in PAE females, indicating more vulnerability to immune dysregulation. Furthermore, neuroinflammation was assessed by examining microglia cells in the DG; results showed an increase in expression but only in the PAE females. Overall, this research underscores the complex interplay between PAE, aging, cognition, and immune dysregulation. Our findings suggest that PAE accelerates aging profiles, leading to earlier onset of cognitive impairments and heightened inflammation, particularly in females. These insights are crucial for developing targeted interventions to help mitigate the long-term adverse effects of PAE and help improve the quality of life for individuals affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASDs).Item Embargo Beliefs about life unfolding over time predict and impact intentions to make the world a better placeBeaucage, Melissa; Department of PsychologyMany individuals view their lives as getting better over time. Such beliefs motivate individuals to work toward an improved personal future life. However, societal-level issues suggest that individuals may view life as getting worse for people in their communities, country, and all of humanity. Further, it is unclear whether these societal-level beliefs are linked with individuals’ willingness to engage in actions geared towards improving the lives of others (i.e., well-doing). To address these issues, I conducted two pre-registered studies. In Study 1 (N = 963 online participants; M age = 40.83 years; 48.2% female), individuals reported their beliefs about how life is unfolding over time for people in one of four conditions: self, community, country, or all of humanity. In Study 2 (N = 947 online participants; M age = 39.52; 51.4% female), an experimental design evaluated the impact of an individual’s beliefs about how life is unfolding over time using a narrative direction manipulation (three levels: better, stable, worse) for each target (four levels: self, community, country, humanity). In both studies, participants rated the overall perceived quality of life in the past, at present, and in the anticipated future for their assigned target condition and their intentions to participate in well-doing activities. Identification was tested as a moderator. In Study 1, participants viewed life as getting better over time for the self, but not for the other targets. Further, those who reported believing that life was getting better (vs. worse) over time also reported stronger well-doing intentions. Such links were observed collapsing across conditions, and in the self and country conditions. In Study 2, participants in the better (vs. worse) narrative direction condition reported stronger general motivation but not stronger specific well-doing intentions. The impact of narrative direction was stronger in the self condition than for the other target conditions. In both studies, identification did not reliably moderate the relationship between beliefs about life unfolding over time and well-doing intentions. Thus, the present studies suggest that beliefs about life getting better (vs. worse) over time are associated with and impact individuals’ well-doing intentions regardless of one’s level of identification.Item Open Access Exploring secondary transfer generalization effects from Black and gay contactPuffer, Hanna; Department of PsychologyIntergroup contact has come to be known as one of the most influential ways to reduce prejudice (Hodson & Hewstone, 2013). Contact effects can be categorized as primary (i.e., the effect of contact on attitudes toward the group individuals are in contact with) or secondary effects (i.e., the effect of intergroup on attitudes toward an uninvolved secondary outgroup). Here, we explore primary contact effects on outcomes toward the secondary outgroup through outgroup humanization, assessing White, heterosexual Americans’ contact with both Black and gay people. In Study 1 (N=471; 52.7% men; Mage=44.90, SD=14.75), path analyses were conducted on four fully-saturated models that included intergroup contact (quantity, quality), humanization, and intergroup outcomes (attitudes, collective action intentions) using cross-sectional data. Direct generalization was consistently observed from gay contact to Black intergroup outcomes. Only one indirect generalization pathway was statistically significant: greater quantity of gay contact humanized Black people, which itself predicted more positive attitudes and stronger collective action intentions toward Black people. However, Black contact did not predict direct or indirect intergroup outcomes toward gay people. Study 2 assessed the effects of contact over time through four waves of data (T1 N=456; 48.4% male, 51.6% female, Mage=46.71, SD=15.30; T2 N=405, T3 N=371, T4 N=350). We used multilevel modelling to parse apart the within-person and between-person effects of contact on intergroup outcomes. We found consistent evidence of primary contact effects, for both Black and gay contact, regarding both within-subjects and between-subjects relations. However, the gay-to-Black generalization pattern found in Study 1 only occurred at the between-subjects level in Study 2, suggesting that the results from Study 1 reflect between-subjects differences (i.e., associative generalization). Within-subjects Black-to-gay generalization was observed: quantity of contact with Black people predicted increased collective action intentions toward gay people, and quantity of contact with Black people humanizes gay people (i.e., process generalization). Contrary to recent concerns in the field, Study 2 promisingly showed that contact with the primary outgroup can change individuals in ways that lead to positive outcomes towards primary, and even secondary, outgroups. Implications for these findings in terms of the contact hypothesis and future research directions are considered.Item Open Access Academic Competition in the School System: At What Cost?Matusof, Perla; Department of PsychologyCompetition pervades our culture across sports, entertainment, politics, and corporations, seeping also into educational institutions. Today, children are urged not only to "play to win" but also to "learn to win." Despite awareness of competition's negative psychological and social impacts, it remains a cornerstone of the educational system as it is perceived as a strong motivating factor for academic achievement. However, academic competition has received less attention than its athletic and social counterparts, with previous research often overlooking its effects on interpersonal relationships. Existing studies have either used inappropriate measures for academic settings or failed to differentiate between other-referenced and task-oriented competition, which respectively focus on surpassing peers for status and on personal growth. This thesis introduces new scales tailored for assessing academic competition among adolescents. A pilot study involving 532 adolescents in southwestern Ontario (Mage =15.23) validates these scales through factor analysis using Principal Component Analysis, distinguishing between other-referenced and task-oriented competition. The new scales demonstrate reliability, with Cronbach's alpha coefficients of .789 for other-referenced competitiveness and .825 for task-oriented competitiveness. Regression analyses reveal a significant positive association between other-referenced competitiveness and bullying perpetration, while task-oriented competitiveness shows a moderate inverse relationship with bullying. These findings underscore the need to differentiate between competition for skill development and for status, as the latter may inadvertently foster bullying tendencies. This study emphasizes the importance of nuanced understanding in academic competition and its implications for student well-being. The discussion encompasses implications, limitations, and avenues for future research in this area.Item Open Access Honesty-Humility and Economic Games: The Role of PowerChristopher, Rachel; Department of PsychologyAntisocial behaviours are related to certain personality constructs, such as low Honesty- Humility, as well as high levels of perceived power. However, Honesty-Humility, power, and behaviour (examined using economic games specifically) have yet to be examined in combination. I therefore examined the intersection of personality, performance on economic games and the influence of power to better understand these interactions. I used an experimental design with103 first-year undergraduate students who were randomly assigned to either a powerful (permitted to use executive office chair and new desktop) or powerless (made to use old, metal stool and broken laptop) condition before playing three economic games: dictator, ultimatum, and ultimatum variation. I hypothesized that those lower in Honest-Humility (H) would allocate more points to themselves in all games but more so in the dictator game and this effect would be exacerbated in the powerful condition. While the power manipulation had no effect on point allocation regardless of score on the HEXACO personality inventory, when combined with data from a previous study (Farrell, 2018), H was significantly negatively associated with the number of points they kept to themselves in the dictator game. In the ultimatum variation game, Agreeableness (A) was significantly negatively correlated with points allocated to self. Replicating previous findings by Farrell (2018), the dictator game significantly correlated with prior high school bullying tendencies. These findings suggest that economic games could be used as a bullying proxy to study the phenomenon in laboratory settings.Item Open Access Effects of cross-fostering on behaviour and neural development in Octodon degus pupsAttlas, Gurprince; Department of PsychologyParental care is essential for social, behavioural, and neural development in offspring. In rodents, parental separation affects the amount of parental care and progression of offspring development. Work to date has focused on maternal and paternal deprivation, but it is unclear how cross-fostering, another form of parental-offspring instability, can affect offspring behaviour and brain development. Stress significantly suppresses neurogenesis and increases inflammation in the dentate gyrus (DG) of the hippocampus, but this can vary between sexes. Octodon degus are highly social rodents with precocial offspring that can receive care from both parents, allowing us to study the effect of early life stress on pup development. This study investigated the effect of cross-fostering on parental care, offspring behaviour and hippocampal development in female and male degus. At postnatal day 8, degus were assigned to either control (pups remained with parents and siblings), partial cross-foster (CF; one pup/litter was cross-fostered), or full CF (the entire litter was cross-fostered). At weaning (5-weeks-old), offspring brains were collected for immunohistochemistry to examine DG volume and expression of immature neurons (using doublecortin, DCX) and microglia (using Iba-1). Partial and full CF did not affect parental care provided by parents compared to controls. In offspring, play fighting behaviour was significantly higher in partial CF females compared to controls. Males initiated play fighting more often than female pups but were not affected by CF. Partial and full CF did not affect the DG volume and optical density of DCX compared to control pups. Full CF pups had fewer ameboid microglia in the dorsal DG compared to controls. In the ventral DG, full CF pups had more intermediate microglia than controls. Our study indicates partial CF affects play fighting behaviour in females, while full CF affects microglia morphology in both sexes suggesting potential changes in hippocampal inflammation and plasticity. This indicates that CF category affects females and males differently depending on the endpoint measured and that these effects do not seem to be associated with changes in parental care. This study contributes to our understanding of how early life environments affect offspring behaviour and brain development in both sexesItem Open Access Investigating Individual Differences in the Aftereffects of Self-Control ExertionStirpe, Jacob; Department of PsychologyThe aftereffects of self-control exertion have been debated by psychologists over the last two decades. Among those who claim there are aftereffects of self-control exertion, some contend that self-control acts as a limited resource that depletes as you use it (Baumeister, Heatherton, & Tice, 1994), while others suggest that exerting self-control provokes a change in attention and motivation from ‘have-to’ goals to ‘want-to’ goals (Inzlicht & Schmeichel, 2012). Main effects of self-control exertion have been found that support both of these theories, but so have many null results. Individual difference models have rarely been applied to these theories despite the fact that they could potentially account for the mixed pattern of results. Indeed, individual differences in trait approach motivation have been found to moderate the aftereffects of self-control on emotionally neutral cognition tasks but have yet to be investigated in tasks with motivationally salient, approach-related goals or stimuli. The current study looked to investigate how self-control exertion will affect subsequent behaviour in approach-based tasks and whether or not this behaviour is moderated by individual differences in trait approach motivation and/or value driven attention. Across two studies, participants reported trait levels of approach motivation and value-driven attention, were assigned to exert high or low levels of self-control, and were then presented with a gambling task (Study 1) or an RSVP image detection task with low and high approach-motivated images (Study 2). The results did not show evidence of a main effect of self-control exertion in either study, but Study 2 showed some evidence of individual differences in trait approach motivation and self-control exertion interacting to modulate attention to approach-motivated stimuli. Specifically, participants who had just exerted high levels of self-control and were low in trait reward responsiveness showed a greater effect of approach motivated stimuli than those low in reward responsiveness and/or those who did not just exert self-control. The present results fail to provide support for either competing self-control theory but suggest that individual differences can play a significant role in the aftereffects of self-control exertion.Item Open Access Dysregulation of Immune Function, Gut Microbiota Composition and Short-Chain Fatty Acid Production Following Prenatal Alcohol Exposure: A Developmental PerspectiveVella, Victoria; Department of PsychologyPrenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) severely impacts fetal development, including alterations to the developing immune system. Immune perturbations, in tandem with gut dysbiosis, have been linked to brain and behavioural dysfunction, but this relationship is poorly understood in the context of PAE. This study takes an ontogenetic approach to evaluate PAE- induced alterations to central/peripheral immune function and both the composition and metabolic output of the gut microbiota. Using a well-established rat model of PAE, cytokine levels in the serum, prefrontal cortex, amygdala and hypothalamus as well as gut microbiota composition and short-chain fatty acid output was assessed at three postnatal (P) timepoints: P8 (infancy), P22 (weaning), and P38 (adolescence). Male PAE rats had increased cytokine levels in the amygdala and hypothalamus (but not prefrontal cortex) at P8. However, this pattern of neuroinflammation was not seen in the PAE females. While the effect of PAE on central cytokine levels was reduced at P22/38, these are the ages at which PAE-induced alterations in serum cytokine levels emerge, an effect which occurred in both sexes. PAE-induced alterations to the gut microbiota occurred namely in females, with reduced bacterial diversity and unique community composition at P38. Both sexes saw alterations to specific bacterial taxa, some of which are important in producing the SCFA butyric acid, which was decreased in PAE animals at P22. These results show that PAE leads to sex and age specific alterations in immune function, gut microbiota composition and SCFA production, highlighting the critical need for both these factors to be considered in future work.Item Open Access Influence of Head Injury on Episodic Memory, Meta-memory, and Cannabis UsePatel, Smit; Department of PsychologyMild head injuries (MHI) are implicated in impairments of various cognitive constructs, including memory. Specifically, episodic memory performance is shown to be dampened post-MHI. Further, head injuries are also associated with problems in processing and reacting to emotional stimuli and, overall, research has shown that those with head injuries are less able to recall emotional stimuli compared to their No-MHI cohort. This literature is lacking in detailed measures of narrative episodic memory, especially in those with milder versus moderate or severe head injuries. Most studies implement word-list tasks to assess episodic memory, so the aim of the present study was to assess episodic memory using a story task, which is more reflective of memory usage required in day-to-day tasks. The goal of this research was to examine emotionally-valenced narrative recall in persons with MHI, while accounting for possible emotion effects. Subjective-memory, or meta-memory, was also of interest. As head injuries are whole-brain events, various neurological structures can be impacted, but in particular, involvement of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) has been acknowledged. Even minor disruption to the PFC is associated with impulse control and sensation-seeking behaviours, including substance use. Those with a history of MHI have been shown to be more vulnerable to substance use/abuse. Given the recent legalisation of cannabis in Canada and its increased medical and recreational use, in addition to its influence on memory and cognitive, this research also investigates the nature, and interaction, of cannabis consumption in relation to MHI. This study recruited 134 Brock University students to assess the relationships between MHI and episodic memory, subjective memory, emotional processing, and cannabis use. Results indicated that the MHI group performed similarly to the No-MHI group in recall capacity, and with both groups demonstrating a potent valence-related effect. Further, cannabis use was reported to a greater degree by those with an MHI, demonstrating that high-functioning university students have the facilities to overcome possible narrative episodic memory impairments attributable to a head injury, however, they remain disadvantaged in terms of substance use and are disproportionately affected by it.Item Open Access Effects of a Disengagement Intervention on Cognitive Performance in Those with a Mild Head InjuryAmodio, Francesco; Department of PsychologyMild head injury (MHI) is a major public health concern and cognitive fatigue following injury is one of the most commonly reported and debilitating symptoms that interfere with everyday life. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is especially susceptible during injury and is an important brain region in the context of traumatic brain injury; the vmPFC is responsible for regulating physiological arousal and the neuropathology following MHI has been shown to lead to physiological underarousal. Dampened physiological arousal has been shown to precede and give rise to cognitive fatigue, and that more severe injuries lead to both worsened physiological arousal and fatigue outcomes. The frontal regions most susceptible during injury are also largely involved in attentional processes, such that attentional processes are compromised following the neuropathology associated with MHI as well as from the onset of cognitive fatigue. Attentional deficits then arise in those with a history of MHI as a function of injury as well as cognitive fatigue compounding together; these attentional deficits then go on to impair overall cognitive functions which then present as poor performance on cognitively demanding tasks and, or, as a lessened ability to make optimal decisions in everyday life. Due to this, physiological arousal may then reflect cognitive resources available to individuals, and an opportunity to replenish these cognitive resources (i.e., a disengagement intervention) may lead to better performance outcomes on cognitively demanding tasks as well as improved fatigue ratings. This study sought to examine the effects of a disengagement intervention on cognitive performance across cognitively demanding tasks (i.e., Go/No-Go Task and Mental Rotation Task [MR Task]) in those with, and without, a history of MHI. It was found that those with a history of MHI exhibited lower physiological arousal as a function of injury severity, higher fatigue, and required more effort to meet task demands. It was also found that the Go/No-Go Task reliably induced cognitive fatigue as evidenced by diminished performance as a function of time on task, and that the stimulus-driven Go/No-Go Task slowly depleted cognitive resources while the goal-directed MR Task quickly exhausted cognitive resources. It was also found that having the opportunity to disengage from the task for a short period of time buffered performance decrements and lead to requiring less effort across cognitively demanding tasks. Additionally, it was also found that physiological arousal was dampened and fatigue was heightened as a function of the lockdowns imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.Item Open Access Emotion Regulation: Is it More Taxing for Adolescents than for Adults?Pakkal, Oya; Department of PsychologyThe capacity to regulate emotions appears to improve with age across adolescence; but adolescence is also a time of heightened emotional intensity (Fjell et al. 2012; Larson & Ham, 1993; Shulman et al., 2016; Steinberg 2008). The coexistence of immature emotion regulation and heightened emotional intensity during adolescents complicates attempts to index improvement in emotion regulation capacity during this period. We used a novel approach to quantify emotion regulation, where participants performed a cognitively taxing working memory task (the N-Back) before and after a manipulation designed to elicit strong negative feelings (anger or embarrassment). Performance on the N-Back should be impaired by strong emotion (Baumeister et al., 2007; Richards, 2004), and failure to improve in performance from time 1 to time 2 on the N-back following emotion elicitation served as our index of difficulties in emotion regulation. To account for emotional intensity, we assessed emotional state before and after the experimental manipulation. We could therefore test whether any age differences in practice-related improvement on the N-back task were robust to adjustment for emotional intensity (the change in the relevant emotion pre- to post-manipulation). A total of 184 participants between the ages of 14 and 17 (Mage = 15.7, SD = 1.1), and 22 and 30 (Mage = 25.7, SD = 2.3) took part in the study. Overall, emotion elicitation interfered with performance on the N-back task in both age groups. As predicted, adolescents’ performance was more impaired than adults’ when the emotion elicited was embarrassment but not anger. This suggests that adolescents’ emotion regulation capacity is weaker than adults’ for at least some emotions. Importantly, this age difference was not attributable to differences in emotional intensity.Item Open Access Ignored Inequities: The Case of British Columbia’s “Stop Overdose” Anti-Stigma CampaignGreto, Tia; Department of PsychologyAnti-stigma campaigns have become a common intervention for addressing the drug toxicity crisis in Canada. Recent reviews have shown a widespread trend where White, middle-class people who use drugs dominate the imagery and messaging of these campaigns, excluding marginalized people who use drugs who face disproportionate effects of substance use stigma. The current study investigates this troubling trend by examining the development process of the BC Government’s “Stop Overdose” anti-stigma campaign. Developers’ goal of shifting the focus away from “stereotypical” marginalized people who use drugs, the uncritical channeling of narratives about substance use, and the prioritization of both “relevance” and marketing-based knowledge may explain the campaign’s counterintuitive focus on White, middle-class people who use drugs. In effect, these strategies, goals, and priorities obscure the experience of marginalized people who use drugs, naturalizing deep inequities which perpetuate the drug toxicity crisis. This study highlights a need for further research on anti-stigma campaigns, especially as government organizations continue to allocate significant resources to their development.Item Open Access Experiences With Social Identity Threat: Investigating Threat’s Impact on the SelfHoushang Tehrani, Estera; Department of PsychologyHow does social identity threat impact a person's thoughts and feelings about their self? We predicted that an identity under threat may dominate the individual’s self-concept and be viewed less positively in the moment. In two studies, we collected self-reported past experiences of social identity threat, along with ratings of the salience, positivity, centrality, and subjective concealability of participants’ multiple social identities. In Study 1 (N = 211), we found that the identity targeted by threat increased in salience, while the non-threatened identities tended to shrink away slightly. In Study 2 (N = 183), using social identity mapping methods, we did not find an increase in the threatened identity’s salience, but as in Study 1, the non-threatened identities decreased in salience during threat. Across both studies, we found a decrease in positive feelings toward the threatened social identity, which predicted a more negative emotional state during threat. Effects of identity centrality and subjective concealability were weak and inconsistent between the two studies. These results provide partial evidence that social identity threat experiences momentarily influence the cognitive and emotional components of social identity. Implications for impacts of long-term chronic exposure to social identity threat on the self are discussed.Item Open Access Moral evaluations of children's truths and lies in prosocial contexts: The role of reputationTurchio, Vanessa Marie; Department of PsychologyMoral evaluations of truths and lies have been found to vary based on the intention of the speaker (to help or to harm). One factor that may influence the perceived intention of the speaker is their reputation. Given that honesty is a key factor for building and maintaining relationships, it is important to understand whether a child’s reputation influences how other children and parents perceive their truth- and lie-telling behaviours. The current investigation examined the influence of a child’s reputation on 7- to 12-year-olds’ (Study 1; N = 146) and parents’ (Study 2; N = 198) moral evaluations of the child’s blunt truths (i.e., truths told despite possible hurt feelings) and prosocial lies (i.e., lies told to protect another’s feelings). Children were read aloud a series of vignettes in which a child protagonist described as smart, kind, or clean (control) either told the blunt truth or a prosocial lie to their friend. Parents read the same vignettes in text format with the addition of a troublemaker reputation condition. The reputation of the child protagonist significantly influenced both children’s and parents’ moral evaluations. Children rated the kind child’s lies more positively than those of the smart and control children, and parents rated the smart child’s truths and lies less positively than those of the kind and control children in certain contexts. Moreover, developmental differences in the evaluation of truths and lies were found such that older children rated both statements more positively than younger children, suggesting that with age, children begin to understand that telling both truths and lies to benefit others has positive value. Children showed increasingly adult-like complexity in their inferences about a truth- or lie-teller’s intentions as well as their anticipatory reactions towards truths and lies in the present study, demonstrating that children have a nuanced understanding of blunt truth- and prosocial lie-telling that further improves with age.Item Open Access Investigating the Effects of Perceptual Complexity versus Conceptual Meaning on the Neural Correlates of Visual Working MemoryThibeault, Alyssa; Department of PsychologyPrevious research has demonstrated greater visual working memory (VWM) performance for real-world objects compared to simple features. Greater amplitudes of the contralateral delay activity (CDA) have also been noted for meaningful stimuli, despite being thought of as a neural marker of a fixed working memory capacity. The current study aimed to elucidate the mechanisms underlying improved memory performance for real-world objects by isolating the relative contributions of perceptual complexity (number of features) and conceptual meaning (semantics). Participants (N = 22) performed a lateralized VWM task to test their memory of intact real-world objects, scrambled real-world objects and colours. The CDA was measured during perception and WM retention intervals (600-1000 ms and 1300-1700 ms post-stimulus onset, respectively), and behavioural performance was estimated as capacity (K; number of items correctly remembered in a two-alternative forced choice task). Behavioural performance was significantly greater within-subjects for intact objects relative to scrambled objects and colours, with no difference between colours and scrambled objects. The CDA amplitude was also largest for intact real-world objects, with no difference in magnitude for scrambled objects and colours, during WM maintenance. During perception, both the colours and intact real-world objects had significantly greater amplitudes than scrambled objects and were comparable in magnitude. Overall, findings suggest that conceptual meaning supports the object memory benefit. Comparisons of the CDA across stimulus type during encoding versus WM maintenance may also suggest that the waveform reflects more than purely the storage capacity of VWM.Item Open Access Institutional signals of inclusion: Increasing perceptions of possibilities available for the self and others in STEMAnderson, Rebecca; Department of PsychologyWomen in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) face systemic barriers due to the prominent masculine culture that has been established within the field. The present research aims to examine strategies for improving the experiences of women in STEM by exploring the benefits that institutional signals of inclusion can have on perceptions of what is possible for the self and others at work. Across four studies, participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions where we manipulated the extent to which the company policies at a fictitious technology development company were gender-inclusive. Studies 1 through 3 assessed the impact of gender-inclusive policies on beliefs regarding how possible the work culture of the described organization would make it to behave inclusively (Study 1), be your authentic self (Study 2), and achieve professional goals (Study 3). Results revealed that gender-inclusive policies led individuals to anticipate a warmer interpersonal climate and possess a stronger belief that it would be possible to behave in an inclusive manner, authentically express themselves, and achieve professional goals. In Study 4, participants rated their preferences between job candidates and selected who they would hire for a position in STEM from an array of candidate profiles. The findings demonstrated that gender-inclusive policies result in a significant preference for qualified women candidates and increase the likelihood of hiring qualified women in STEM. This research suggests strategies to improve experiences in STEM by expanding perceptions of what is possible for the self and others in male-dominated domains.Item Open Access An Electrophysiological Study of Noisy Channel Sentence Comprehension.Nath, Pratik; Department of PsychologyThe present study employed Event Related Potential (ERP) paradigm to investigate on-line sentence comprehension containing deletion and insertion errors, compared to controls. We used prepositional-object (PO) plausible constructions such as (i) The aunt mailed the letter to her niece by post, compared to double-object (DO) implausible constructions (ii) # The aunt mailed the letter_her niece by post (deletion error). Besides, a DO plausible construction such as (iii) The aunt mailed her niece the letter by post, was compared to a PO implausible construction (iv) The aunt mailed her niece #to the letter by post (insertion error). Based on noisy Channel model propositions, language processing system acts as a rational comprehender and follows Bayesian size principle, which posits deletions are more likely to occur than insertions. This assumption would be held true if, comprehenders show differential sensitivity to different error types. Behavioural and ERP data from our study revealed the same. The brain responded with a sustained negativity (anterior) at head-noun position for deletion errors, while insertion errors elicited a long-lasting centro-parietal positivity at a later sentence position. The findings indicate that the language processing system is immediate in detecting anomaly and might engaged in a lexical search process (depicting higher workload) for deletion errors. The positivity observed for insertion error was thought to be associated with a repair process because of a clear availability of alternative plausible meaning due to semantic attraction. Together, these findings support the noisy channel model assumption for differential treatment of deletion versus insertion errors.Item Open Access “Invisible” Black Women Being Denied, Passed Over, and Ignored as a Function of Racism (not Sexism) Among White PeopleGanesh, Nadia; Department of PsychologyThere is considerable debate in psychology about the extent to which Black women (vs. Black men or White women) are targeted for discrimination, especially as a function of racism/sexism. To gain greater insight into the perpetration of racial and gender-based discrimination against Black women, Study 1 (N = 431; White MTurk workers) considered whether individual endorsement of sexism/racism moderates healthcare discrimination against Black or East-Asian (vs. White) women. Participants completed measures of modern racism/hostile sexism before being randomly assigned to make healthcare recommendations regarding a Black, White, or East-Asian female target. Collapsing across individual differences, there was not significantly more opposition to recommending healthcare resources for Black or East-Asian (vs. White) women. However, COVID-19 and general physical-health discrimination against Black (vs. White) women significantly increased as individual endorsement of racism increased. Furthermore, participants higher (vs. lower) in endorsement of racism were more opposed to recommending healthcare resources for Black (but not for White) women. Individual differences did not moderate any form of healthcare discrimination against East-Asian (vs. White) women. Study 2 (N = 480; White male MTurk workers) considered whether individual endorsement of sexism or racism moderated STEM-workforce discrimination against Black women (vs. Black men or White women). Participants completed prejudice measures before being randomly assigned to make hiring and promotion timeline recommendations for a Black female, Black male, White female, or White male target. Collapsing across individual differences, Black women (vs. White women or Black men) were not deemed less hirable or needing longer promotion timelines. Additionally, individual differences in racism did not significantly moderate STEM-workforce discrimination against Black (vs. White) women, but a marginally significant trend revealed more hiring opposition against Black women as racism increased. However, STEM-workforce discrimination against Black women (vs. Black men) was greater among participants higher (vs. lower) in endorsement of racism but not sexism. Furthermore, participants higher (vs. lower) in endorsement of racism were more opposed to hiring Black women (but not Black men or White women) and recommended longer promotion timelines for Black women (but not for Black men). This thesis concludes with a discussion of theoretical implications.Item Open Access Examining the Bilingual Mental Lexicon through Associative PrimingRollins, Matthew, Perham; Department of PsychologyResearch examining the associations between words in the monolingual versus bilingual mind has employed various models to examine differences in lexical organization, with varying degrees of success. The paradigms used have primarily been word association and semantic priming with a Lexical Decision Task (LDT). This thesis research has focused on the latter method, with an online data collection method using Testable. One distinction of this thesis research has been the types of semantic associations used for priming, namely syntagmatic and paradigmatic associations, which refer to either word context in a sentence, or word categories respectively. The control condition used from which facilitation effects were calculated was unrelated primes. In addition, a phonetic (or “clang”) priming condition was included as it was felt that it might tap into an important aspect of lexical organization for those who have English as a second language (L2). Recruitment was for native English-speaking monolinguals, native English-speaking bilinguals (who also speak a variety of other languages), and non-native English-speaking bilinguals (also from a range of language backgrounds) to participate. Results indicated that the paradigm was successful in gathering information about lexical associations in all three language groups. There was significant semantic facilitation across all language groups for both syntagmatic and paradigmatic associative primes, with these effects not differing from each other. Interestingly, only the L2 group showed significant facilitation from clang primes. Overall, the absolute priming effect was smaller than anticipated, despite reaching statistical reliability, suggesting possibilities to refine the display times of primes or targets. Other hypotheses concerned potential effects of participants’ context for L2 language learning and also attempts to address the main research question with the use of a classic word association task; however, both fell victim to the vagaries of online data collection. Nevertheless, the method and the software provide some hope for continued research in some aspects of the monolingual versus bilingual mental lexicon.