Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Free Public Transit And The Right To The City, Ari Vangeest

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In recent years there has been a surge in support for free public transit across Canada. This thesis tracks the rapid changes to the free public transit movement through content analysis and interviewing activists at the centre of the struggle. I find that people come to free public transit organizing to address poverty, reduce emissions, end police violence, and create a safer workspace. With the increase in support for free public transit, it has become a policy supported in one way or another by politicians across the political spectrum. I argue that in order for free public transit to address …

Do Actions Speak Louder Than Words? Communicative Frequencies And Multimodality In Ring-Tailed Lemurs (Lemur Catta), Hilary Hager

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The study of multimodal communication in primatology has increased only recently. At present, there are no on-going investigations of multimodal communication in ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta), despite the body of research on this species. I investigated how different modes of L. catta inter-individual multimodal communication are socially coordinated and integrated by examining frequencies of occurrence within four potential biological and social factors: age, troop affiliation, sex, and dominance rank. Research was conducted over four months at the Duke Lemur Center, Durham, NC, on 14 individuals from three separate troops of captive, free-ranging L. catta. Results demonstrate communicative …

Indigenous Land Claims And Reconciliation: The Importance Of Land And Relationship Between Indigenous Nations And The Government Of Canada, Joy S. Spear Chief-Morris

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis discusses whether Indigenous land claims settlements signal reconciliation between Indigenous nations and the Government of Canada. Using Indigenous methodologies, anti-oppressional and intersectional lenses, and process tracing, it argues that land claim settlements do not signal reconciliation of the Indigenous-Canadian relationship. This is because the modern land claims settlement process exists as a reiteration of the colonial policies and institutions that proceeded it. It examines the historical treaty process, case law on Aboriginal rights and title, existing documents, and statutes that protect and promote Indigenous sovereignty and nationhood. Lastly, it examines the 2015 Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission as …

Understanding Differences In Social Learning, Joshua Patenaude

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Previous research has shown that individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) appear to learn from social and non-social rewards at different rates compared to typically developing individuals. Several hypotheses have been developed to explain these differences, including the social motivation hypothesis, the weak central coherence hypothesis and hypotheses related to probabilistic learning ability. However, in all cases, the literature shows only mixed support for these ideas. This dissertation focuses on identifying which assumptions from these hypotheses replicate and what replication successes and failures mean for the study of autism-spectrum traits within the general population.

This work takes a “spectrum” approach …

A Language Barrier To Human Capital Development: The Case Of Guatemalan Students, Fidel Pérez Macal

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Not being proficient in a school’s predominant language of instruction can represent a language barrier for students’ human capital development. In Guatemala, 24 languages are spoken apart from Spanish, which is the language of instruction in the majority of schools, and about 40 percent of the total population has a non-Spanish language as a mother tongue. National standardized tests show that non-Spanish mother tongue (non-SMT) students are outperformed by SMT students in elementary and secondary schools.

My thesis analyzes whether non-SMT students face a language barrier and traces its source. Two main findings emerge. First, non-SMT students are not yet …

"Anishinaabe Time": Temporalities And Impact Assessment In Pipeline Reviews, Sakihitowin Awasis

Geography & Environment Publications

Indigenous ways of living that embrace multiple temporalities have been largely supplanted by a single, linear colonial temporality. Drawing on theoretical insights from Indigenous geographies and political ecology, this article considers how pipeline reviews come into being through contested temporalities and how dominant modes of time dispossess Indigenous peoples of self-determination in energy decision-making. In particular, Anishinaabe clan governance – a form of kinship that provides both social identity and function based on relations to animal nations – is undermined in colonial decision-making processes. Through analysis of documents from Canada’s National Energy Board and interviews with Anishinaabe pipeline opponents, I …

Syllables In Sync Form A Link: Neural Phase-Locking Reflects Word Knowledge During Language Learning, Laura Batterink

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Language is composed of small building blocks, which combine to form larger meaningful structures. To understand language, we must process, track, and concatenate these building blocks into larger linguistic units as speech unfolds over time. An influential idea is that phase-locking of neural oscillations across different levels of linguistic structure provides a mechanism for this process. Building on this framework, the goal of the current study was to determine whether neural phase-locking occurs more robustly to novel linguistic items that are successfully learned and encoded into memory, compared to items that are not learned. Participants listened to a continuous speech …

Decoding Motor Imagery And Action Planning In The Early Visual Cortex: Overlapping But Distinct Neural Mechanisms, Simona Monaco, Giulia Malfatti, Jody C. Culham, Luigi Cattaneo, Luca Turella

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Recent evidence points to a role of the primary visual cortex that goes beyond visual processing into high-level cognitive and motor-related functions, including action planning, even in absence of feedforward visual information. It has been proposed that, at the neural level, motor imagery is a simulation based on motor representations, and neuroimaging studies have shown overlapping and shared activity patterns for motor imagery and action execution in frontal and parietal cortices. Yet, the role of the early visual cortex in motor imagery remains unclear. Here we used multivoxel pattern analyses on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data to examine whether …

Pain In The Newborn Brain: A Neural Signature, Emma G. Duerden, Steven P. Miller

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

No abstract provided.

Tracing Controversies In Internationalization: National Actors In Canadian Higher Education, Melody Viczko

Education Publications

No abstract provided.

An Auditory-Perceptual And Pupillometric Study Of Vocal Strain And Listening Effort In Adductor Spasmodic Dysphonia, Mojgan Farahani, Vijay Parsa, Björn Herrmann, Mason Kadem, Ingrid Johnsrude, Philip C. Doyle

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

© 2020 by the authors. This study evaluated ratings of vocal strain and perceived listening effort by normal hearing participants while listening to speech samples produced by talkers with adductor spasmodic dysphonia (AdSD). In addition, objective listening effort was measured through concurrent pupillometry to determine whether listening to disordered voices changed arousal as a result of emotional state or cognitive load. Recordings of the second sentence of the "Rainbow Passage" produced by talkers with varying degrees of AdSD served as speech stimuli. Twenty naïve young adult listeners perceptually evaluated these stimuli on the dimensions of vocal strain and listening effort …

Faithfully Negligent: Religious Implications For Criminal Negligence Cases, Supreet Kaur Bath

Master of Laws Research Papers Repository

Do the actions of parents in withholding medical treatment from their children due to religious influence show wanton or reckless disregard for the safety and lives of their children? This project investigates the morally and legally complicated issue of the influence of religious beliefs in criminal negligence cases. My MRP is animated by the idea that similar cases in the past have been treated with leniency and ought to be given stricter punishments.

I focus in particular on cases in which parents opt for alternative remedies or faith healing for ill children in ignorance or defiance of available medical treatments. …

Homotopic Coupling In Persons With Epilepsy Using Movie-Driven And Resting-State Fmri, Caroline M. Chadwick

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

For the 30-40% of persons with epilepsy (PWE) with refractory epilepsy, seizure freedom following surgery is affected by the localization of the epileptogenic zone (EZ). However, functional abnormalities can exist at a distance from the EZ, which may contribute to variable outcomes after surgery. Considering epilepsy as a network disorder (Pittau & Vulliemoz, 2015), and evaluating functional coupling among homotopic brain areas, may help predict cognitive outcomes. Homotopic areas are well connected anatomically and undoubtedly work synchronously to generate cognition. We evaluated 22 persons with focal epilepsy and 24 neurologically healthy controls using fMRI at rest and while watching a …

Understanding The Support For Municipal Green Bin Programs, Oluwatomilola Ladele

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

As food waste increases globally, many cities have implemented curbside collection of food waste (aka green bin programs) to divert food waste from landfills. However, not all municipalities in Ontario have green bin programs. A factor responsible for the adoption of green bin programs is the community support for the program. The study results are based on 407 completed surveys from randomly selected households in London, Ontario (a municipality without a green bin program) and Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario (a municipality with a green bin program). Surveys were used to collect data to understand: i) the predictors of household green bin support …

Navigating The “Blind World”: The Psychosocial And Occupational Experiences Of Parents Of Adolescents With Visual Impairments, Peiwen Cao

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Using a constructivist narrative inquiry approach, this research study sought to explore how parents of adolescents with visual impairments story their psychosocial and occupational experiences. Participants of the study consisted of four parents who were currently raising adolescents with visual impairments between the ages of 14 to 17. Participants took part in two in-depth narrative interviews, in which they answered several open-ended questions about their experiences of raising their adolescent children who were visually impaired. Participants also participated in a brief concluding interview session, in which they provided feedback on the narrative that I constructed based on their interview responses. …

Linguistic Signaling In Speed-Dates, Negar Mohammad Vali Samani

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

How people use language may signal as much about a person as the conversation topic itself. For example, evidence suggests that similarities in language style may signal romantic interest as people become acquainted. Additionally, language may signal various personal attributes. In the current study, I analyzed linguistic signaling in 174 transcripts from 4-minute heterosexual speed-dates to explore how language style relates to interest in dating a partner and whether linguistic features indicate individual characteristics. I also explored how desired partner features related to actual popularity of dates as well as how partner perceptions predicted romantic interest. Contrary to previous research, …

Signs With A Side Of Fries: The Influence Of Outdoor Advertising On Retail Food Outlet Purchases By Adolescents, Alexander Wray

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Most Canadian adolescents have diets high in fat, sodium, and free sugar. There are concerns among researchers and policymakers that food and beverage marketing has an adverse impact on adolescent dietary attitudes, knowledge, and behaviours. The food environment plays an important role in shaping diets and health. The food information environment, and more specifically outdoor food and beverage advertising, may have an effect on adolescent food and beverage purchases. This thesis investigates the associations between the availability of, accessibility to, or exposure to outdoor advertising and retail food outlets, coupled with attitudes related to food and beverage consumption, and purchases …

No Future, Matthew Lomas

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Postmodernism holds a contentious place in contemporary social theory and philosophy, and is often considered nihilistic. Using the work of Nietzsche and Nishitani, I argue that nihilism is a stage in the dialectical transition away from a dominant form of thought and towards a radically new one. Drawing on Sartre’s theory of dialectical praxis and other elements of existentialist philosophy, I argue that postmodernism can act as a bridge towards a theory of praxis and engagement that allows a movement away from the condition of postmodern capitalism. This allows for an understanding of the contemporary conditions that is amenable to …

Exploring Co-Occupation Between University Students And Older Adults Living Together In A Retirement Home, Rachel J. Gorjup

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Intergenerational housing programs in which young and older adults live together have been implemented worldwide, yet research exploring these programs is sparse. An important component of intergenerational living seems to be the activities that young and older adults engage in together. Taking a lens of co-occupation, that is everyday occupations performed together by two or more people, this thesis explored how university students and older adults, living together in a retirement home, enacted co-occupations and the factors that shaped these co-occupations. A focused ethnography, involving interviews and observations, was used to gain insight into the co-occupational experiences of the students …

Rapid Facial Reactions Of Emotional Expressions As A Function Of Trait Sadism, Cathleen Fleury

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Using electromyography (EMG), it has been shown that facial muscles imperceptibly mirror the facial expressions of others, a phenomenon referred to as rapid facial reactions (RFRs). It was previously believed to follow the direct-matching hypothesis, however several recent studies have demonstrated that context and individual differences may be influencing factors on RFRs. At the present, it is unclear to what extent RFRs can be modulated. In the present study, we propose to determine the effects of facial stimuli versus non-facial stimuli on RFRs through measuring the EMG response of participants with trait sadism. The participants observed dynamic facial expressions as …

“Born Of A Spirit That Knows No Conquering:” Innovation, Contestation, And Representation In The Pcha, 1911-1924., Taylor Mckee

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) was a professional North American hockey league that operated from 1911 to 1924. With markets in Victoria, Vancouver, New Westminster, Seattle, and Portland, the bourgeoning league was a viable competitor to the NHA and offered a distinctive approach to the developing sport. Through innovations and rule changes, the PCHA made significant strides in player safety, in line with the vision of “clean” hockey promoted by the league’s founders, Frank and Lester Patrick. In turn, these innovations were represented through newspaper accounts from the period, which helped promote a modern, scientific, and highly-marketable brand of …

An Ontological Critique Of The Self: The Daoist ‘Non-Self’ At The Heart Of Jung’S Analytical Theory, Camilo Andrés Hoyos Lozano

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This research attempts to formulate a critique of the Jungian self from the Daoist, Lao-Zhuang notion of non-self. In post-modern societies an ontological critique of the self is also ideological, for the self is an indispensable device of neoliberal government. Because for Jung the self is an essential and autonomous reality, he advances a dualism that not only legitimizes the current economic and political order, but—focal to this analysis—also complicates the ‘realization’ of the ultimate spiritual ‘goal,’ and his own purpose of treating psychological suffering. Thus, the critical power and political potential of the Daoist non-self serves to demystify analytical …

Feeling-Of-Knowing Experiences Breed Curiosity, Gregory Brooks

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

It is well-established that curiosity has benefits for learning. Less is known about potential links between curiosity and memory retrieval. In theoretical work on metacognition it has been argued that retrieval experiences that occur during memory search can exert control over behaviour. States of curiosity, which can be defined as behavioural tendencies to seek out information, may play a critical role in this control function. We conducted two experiments to address this idea, focusing on links between feeling-of knowing (FOK) experiences, memory-search duration, and subsequent information-seeking behaviour. We administered an episodic FOK paradigm that probed memory for previously studied arbitrary …

The Relationship Between Perfectionism And Procrastination: Examining Trait And Cognitive Conceptualizations, And The Mediating Roles Of Fear Of Failure And Overgeneralization Of Failure, Lital Yosopov

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The relationship between perfectionism and procrastination has been established in the literature; however, findings regarding the magnitude of this correlation are inconsistent. Some studies found small-to-medium effects between trait-perfectionism and trait-procrastination, while others found large effects between perfectionistic cognitions and procrastinatory cognitions, suggesting that the association may be stronger when assessed from a cognitive perspective. The present study addressed this inconsistency, by exploring this association using both trait and cognitive measures. There was a significant and positive correlation between perfectionism and procrastination, and the largest effect size was observed between perfectionism (trait and cognitive measures) and procrastinatory cognitions, suggesting that …

The Impact Of Ethnicity And Immigration On Prostate Cancer Mortality In Canada, Noah Stern

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Despite the prevalence of prostate cancer its pathogenesis remains unclear. Marked differences in mortality rates have been observed between countries, however, it is unclear whether the source of the observed differences is driven by underlying genetics, geographic, or social factors. This thesis investigated the impact of ethnicity and immigration on prostate cancer mortality in Canada using the Canadian Census Health and Environment Cohort. South Asian and East Asian men were seen to be at decreased risk of prostate cancer mortality, while no increased risk was observed in black men. These results affirm studies showing lower risks in Asian men; however, …

Global Governance And Imperial Entanglements: Competition, Cooperation, And Catastrophe In Anglo-Italian Relations, 1922-1940, Jessi Gilchrist

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study reconsiders the road to war narrative by focusing on cooperation rather than conflict in Anglo-Italian relations. I link international and imperial historical methods in order to examine British and Italian efforts to cooperate over their clashing interests in empire between 1922 and 1940. By comparing six case studies drawn from British and Italian archives, this thesis explains why the two governments pursued cooperation over empire; how imperial methods facilitated or challenged cooperation; and what this tells us about the global order and the norms that governed it during the interwar years.Three case studies highlight imperial spaces where cooperation …

What To Say And How To Say It: The Interplay Of Self-Disclosure Depth, Similarity, And Interpersonal Liking In Initial Social Interactions, Yixian Li

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

We often initiate social relationships with others through revelations of personal information, or self-disclosure. Self-disclosure is heavily involved in shaping interpersonal liking, but there are disparate and sometimes contradictory findings in the literature regarding the causal relationship between them. Moreover, a lack of careful control in experimental designs in many existing studies failed to eliminate important confounding factors that might provide alternative explanations for the disclosure-liking relationship. Here, we examined the relationships between self-disclosure and interpersonal liking during initial social interactions, while carefully controlling for a potential confounding factor, similarity between the social partners.

Across the first five experiments, I …

Fostering A Trauma- And Violence-Informed Community: Developing Strategies To Inform Public Education, Jessica M. Carswell

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Trauma and violence are pervasive public health issues. Social and systemic barriers can intensify these experiences and negatively impact access to health and social services. A key element of equity-oriented healthcare, trauma- and violence-informed care (TVIC) promotes the emotional, physical, and cultural safety of service recipients. This thesis extends ongoing work to enhance organizational implementation of TVIC. In collaboration with Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) Middlesex, semi-structured interviews and a document review were employed to investigate how to frame and share TVIC information with the public and individuals accessing services, and to illuminate what barriers and facilitators may impact this …

Characterizing The Value And Effect Of Perceptiveness In Various Game-Theoretic Settings, Terrence Adam Rooney

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis investigates the value and effect that perceptiveness has in three game-theoretic settings. I consider a player to be expert if they know the value of a particular payoff-relevant parameter in the models I study. If the player does not know such value, I consider the player to be inexpert. A player is perceptive if they know with certainty whether their opponent is expert. Otherwise, the player is imperceptive. The goal of this thesis is to provide insight regarding the potential value and effect that perceptiveness has in the game-theoretic settings I study.

The first model I …

On Polysemy: A Philosophical, Psycholinguistic, And Computational Study, Jiangtian Li

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Most words in natural languages are polysemous, that is they have related but different meanings in different contexts. These polysemous meanings (senses) are marked by their structuredness, flexibility, productivity, and regularity. Previous theories have focused on some of these features but not all of them together. Thus, I propose a new theory of polysemy, which has two components. First, word meaning is actively modulated by broad contexts in a continuous fashion. Second, clustering arises from contextual modulations of a word and is then entrenched in our long term memory to facilitate future production and processing. Hence, polysemous senses are entrenched …