Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Should It Stay Or Should It Go? Smartphone Dependency, Kira Foreman-Tran, Karina Schnurr, Ana C. Ruiz Pardo, John Paul Minda

Psychology Publications

As smartphones grow in use and popularity, it is important to understand the possible effects that varying levels of smartphone use may have on human cognition. Although smartphones provide many advantages for daily activities, one must also recognize the potential disadvantages. For example, smartphone use may lead to nomophobia, which is defined as the modern fear of not being able to access your smartphone or the internet (Yildirim & Correia, 2015). The present study used a pilot and main study to examine the effects smartphones have on human cognition. The pilot study was conducted to measure nomophobia, mobile phone involvement, …

Disability And Accessibility Language In Subject Headings And Social Tags, Mackenzie Johnson, Carlie Forsythe

FIMS Publications

Mackenzie Johnson and Carlie Forsythe’s article on disability and accessibility language in subject headings and social tagging stresses the importance of involving subject experts in the creation of subject headings, and of getting the headings right to allow effective information retrieval. The authors also assess the ‘third way’, of semi-structured, moderated social tagging systems, that lies between fully controlled vocabularies and free social tagging.

Predator-Induced Fear Causes Ptsd-Like Changes In The Brains And Behaviour Of Wild Animals, Liana Y. Zanette, Emma C. Hobbs, Lauren E. Witterick, Scott A. Macdougall-Shackleton, Michael Clinchy

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

© 2019, The Author(s). Predator-induced fear is both, one of the most common stressors employed in animal model studies of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and a major focus of research in ecology. There has been a growing discourse between these disciplines but no direct empirical linkage. We endeavoured to provide this empirical linkage by conducting experiments drawing upon the strengths of both disciplines. Exposure to a natural cue of predator danger (predator vocalizations), had enduring effects of at least 7 days duration involving both, a heightened sensitivity to predator danger (indicative of an enduring memory of fear), and elevated neuronal …

Altered Motor, Anxiety-Related And Attentional Task Performance At Baseline Associate With Multiple Gene Copies Of The Vesicular Acetylcholine Transporter And Related Protein Overexpression In Chat::Cre+ Rats, Craig P. Mantanona, Johan Alsiö, Joanna L. Elson, Beth M. Fisher, Jeffrey W. Dalley, Timothy Bussey, Ilse S. Pienaar

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

© 2019, The Author(s). Transgenic rodents expressing Cre recombinase cell specifically are used for exploring mechanisms regulating behavior, including those mediated by cholinergic signaling. However, it was recently reported that transgenic mice overexpressing a bacterial artificial chromosome containing choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) gene, for synthesizing the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, present with multiple vesicular acetylcholine transporter (VAChT) gene copies, resulting in altered cholinergic tone and accompanying behavioral abnormalities. Since ChAT::Cre+ rats, used increasingly for understanding the biological basis of CNS disorders, utilize the mouse ChAT promotor to control Cre recombinase expression, we assessed for similar genotypical and phenotypical differences in such rats compared …

How Do You Solve A Problem Like The Whole User? The Construction Of Worthy And Problematic Users In Online Discussions Of The Public Library, Pam Mckenzie

FIMS Publications

In this article I use a discursive approach and the concept of the ‘category entitlement’ to analyse the ways that contributors to a public Internet discussion of the value of the public library make cases for different user characteristics and behaviour as ‘worthy’ or ‘problematic’, and use these characteristics to discuss and debate the kinds of individuals and the kinds of behaviour that properly belong to each category. Contributors to the discussion represented users in three categories: a fluid ‘everyone’, which included people represented as being disadvantaged and in legitimate need of the library’s resources, expertise, and support; the user …

Exploring The Links Between Social Anxiety And Depression In The Maintenance Of Romantic Relationships, Christian M. Hahn

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Social anxiety is characterized by fear and avoidance of social encounters and has recently been associated with a variety of difficulties in romantic relationships. Complicating further investigation of these associations is the high degree of comorbidity between social anxiety and depressive symptomatology, which share several similarities in expression despite disparate underlying causes. The present thesis examines the unique influences of social anxiety and depression on a number of central aspects of relationship functioning and provide the first longitudinal investigation of the impacts of actor and partner social anxiety and depression on relationship quality and functioning. In Study 1, three independent …

Baseline And Stress-Induced Cognitive Control Deficits And Pro-Inflammatory Cytokines In Currently, Remitted, And Never Depressed Individuals, Katerina Rnic

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Background: Cognitive theories posit that cognitive control deficits promote depression by reducing ability to self-regulate under stress. When activated by stress and accessible to working memory, negative cognitive content and structure (i.e., schemas), may interfere with cognitive control abilities, resulting in even greater declines in executive functioning. Moreover, burgeoning evidence indicates that social stress upregulates inflammation, resulting in a pro-inflammatory phenotype that drives depression pathogenesis. However, cognitive mechanisms underlying this process are not well understood. An objective of this study was to examine depression-related deficits in cognitive control and their association with poor self-regulation. Another purpose was to evaluate the …

Exploring The Occupational History Of The Middle Ontario Iroquoian Dorchester Village Site, Johnathan Freeman

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Intrasite trends in superposition and spatial arrangements of longhouses, features and palisades, in conjunction with seriation of ceramic vessels, are used to explore the developmental history of the Dorchester Village site, a complex Late Woodland Middle Ontario Iroquoian archaeological village site, as a case study of intrasite seriation. Vessel attributes were coded and subject to correspondence analysis to seek plausible temporal sequences. The Brainerd Robinson coefficient of similarity was used to identify plausible temporal phase groups of longhouses by comparison of vessels attributed to specific houses. Multiple ceramic attributes were explored, and the attribute of upper rim motif generated the …

A Developmental And Symptom-Level Approach To Comorbid Mental Health Disorders In Children, Elizabeth Thornley

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation addresses current issues in the conceptualization and classification of childhood mental health issues (e.g., impact of sex/age on symptoms, comorbidity, limits of traditional models). In contrast to traditional models, the importance and value of utilizing individual symptoms as primary variables of interest is presented. This first study consisted of 9565 participants (M = 12.06, SD = 3.57, 58% males). Results for youth with no history of trauma indicated sex differences in symptom expression consistent with what has been previously shown in the literature; however, a complex presentation of attention-related symptoms was identified for females. Similar sex differences …

The Role Of Social Disconnection In The Relationship Between Perfectionism And Psychological Distress, Samantha Chen

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation investigated the interpersonal mechanisms through which various aspects of perfectionism confer risk for psychological outcomes. Three studies were conducted based on the Perfectionism Social Disconnection Model (Hewitt, Flett, & Mikail, 2017), which proposes that individuals with higher levels of perfectionism may experience significant social disconnection, which then lead to a variety of maladaptive outcomes. Study 1 examined the longitudinal impacts of trait perfectionism and sense of relatedness on the variance in change in psychological outcomes. Findings showed that negative perceptions of relatedness partially mediated the link between socially prescribed perfectionism and psychological distress three months later; however, this …

Functional Localization Of The Frontal Eye Fields In The Common Marmoset Using Microstimulation, Janahan Selvanayagam, Kevin D. Johnston, David J. Schaeffer, Lauren K. Hayrynen, Stefan Everling

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Copyright © 2019 the authors. The frontal eye field (FEF) is a critical region for the deployment of overt and covert spatial attention. Although investigations in the macaque continue to provide insight into the neural underpinnings of the FEF, due to its location within a sulcus, the macaque FEF is virtually inaccessible to electrophysiological techniques such as high-density and laminar recordings. With a largely lissencephalic cortex, the common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) is a promising alternative primate model for studying FEF microcircuitry. Putative homologies have been established with the macaque FEF on the basis of cytoarchitecture and connectivity; however, physiological investigation …

C-Dem Researchers Meeting Notes, November 10, 2019, Consortium On Electoral Democracy

Meeting Notes

No abstract provided.

Preventing Adolescent Dating Violence: An Outcomes Protocol For Evaluating A Gender-Transformative Healthy Relationships Promotion Program, Deinera Exner-Cortens, Alysia Wright, Debb Hurlock, Roseline Carter, Pam Krause, Claire Crooks

Journal Articles

Adolescent dating violence (ADV) is a pressing public health problem in North America. Strategies to prevent perpetration are needed, and a substantial body of research demonstrates the importance of applying a gender lens to target root causes of adolescent dating violence as part of effective prevention. To date, however, there has been limited research on how to specifically engage boys in adolescent dating violence prevention. In this short communication, we describe the protocol for a longitudinal, quasi-experimental outcome evaluation of a program called WiseGuyz. WiseGuyz is a community-facilitated, gender-transformative healthy relationships program for mid-adolescent male-identified youth that aims to reduce …

Matching Made In Heaven: Collections And Metadata Collaboration For Print Preservation, Erin Johnson, Alie Visser, Christina Zoricic

Western Libraries Presentations

Following the trend of re-purposing library space to meet modern user needs, Western University is undergoing a planned revitalization and renovation of its largest library on campus. As a result, 500,000 items will need to be shifted to other locations or off-site storage. In this session we will outline the impact of metadata work in shifting this large collection of material to a shared print preservation storage facility, in coordination with Western University’s Keep@Downsview partnership (https://downsviewkeep.org/). Keep@Downsview is a partnership of five universities to preserve the scholarly record in Ontario in a shared, high-density storage and preservation facility. …

Comparative Assessment Of Downscaling Methods And Application Towards Analysis Of Climate Change Impact On Urban Regions, Markus Eichenbaum

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Global climate models (GCM) are sophisticated numerical models used to make long term climate projections. However, the resolution of their output is too coarse for climate change related local impact studies on urban regional scales. Downscaling efforts are taken to address this and increase GCM projection resolution. Physical Scaling (SP) downscaling methodology attempts to incorporate the physical basis of dynamical downscaling efforts with the computational efficiency of statistical methods. In this study, North American Regional Reanalysis surface skin temperature and precipitation data for a 1°x1° region centered on Houston, TX are downscaled to a resolution of 500m via SP and …

Sign And Speech Share Partially Overlapping Conceptual Representations, Samuel Evans, Cathy J. Price, Jörn Diedrichsen, Eva Gutierrez-Sigut, Mairéad Macsweeney

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

© 2019 The Author(s) Conceptual knowledge is fundamental to human cognition. Yet, the extent to which it is influenced by language is unclear. Studies of semantic processing show that similar neural patterns are evoked by the same concepts presented in different modalities (e.g., spoken words and pictures or text) [1–3]. This suggests that conceptual representations are “modality independent.” However, an alternative possibility is that the similarity reflects retrieval of common spoken language representations. Indeed, in hearing spoken language users, text and spoken language are co-dependent [4, 5], and pictures are encoded via visual and verbal routes [6]. A parallel approach …

Adaptation To Conflict Frequency: Non-Conflict Learning Is Not The Whole Story, Giacomo Spinelli

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In the Stroop task, smaller congruency effects (i.e., the color-naming difference between incongruent items, e.g., the word RED in the color blue, and congruent items, e.g., RED in red) are found in conditions in which incongruent items are frequent vs. infrequent. Although the traditional explanation for these “Proportion-Congruent effects” is that attention to task-relevant information is more focused in frequently-conflicting conditions (a process involving adaptation to conflict frequency), Proportion-Congruent paradigms typically have not controlled for the impact of more general learning processes, particularly 1) learning of word-response contingencies (contingency learning), 2) learning about the predictive nature of the stimuli (stimulus …

Local Government Responses To Festivals: An Exploratory Study, Andrew Grozelle

MPA Major Research Papers

This study explores the dynamics of ‘bottom-up’ policymaking at the municipal level by analyzing the policy response of the local government to unsanctioned events, such as the annual Port Dover Friday the 13th Motorcycle Festival (PD13) from May 1981 to November 2019. Using this event as a case study, the project seeks to answer the following questions: what has been the local government’s policy approach to PD13? What factors explain this approach and are there alternative approaches to the one chosen? To answer these questions, the paper adopts a multi-method research strategy, which involved a historical review of relevant literature, …

The Successful Implementation Of O. Reg. 588/17: Organizational Factors That Contribute To The Success Of Asset Management Planning For Municipal Infrastructure In Small Ontario Municipalities, Jenna Campbell (Shultz)

MPA Major Research Papers

Asset management planning in Ontario has evolved since the early 2000s and Ontario Regulation 588/17: Asset Management Planning for Municipal Infrastructure came into effect on January 1, 2019. The requirements of the regulation are different for small municipalities, being those having a population of less than 25,000, than for large municipalities. The burden of undertaking large-scale change initiatives, specifically those that are externally initiated, can be especially difficult for small municipalities that often lack the resources and specialized staff to address these changes. This paper explores the organizational factors that contribute to the success of local government asset management planning …

Peer Coaching For Leadership Development In The Public Sector: A Case Study From Local Public Health, Tammy Mackinnon

MPA Major Research Papers

Leadership development is critical for the future of public sector organizations. Its impact on employee satisfaction, collaboration and organizational performance has been well documented. But how do we best develop leadership in the public sector? Trends in the literature call for a shift to more shared, distributed approaches which argue that leadership capacity is necessary at all organizational levels, regardless of positional authority. This study will examine the efficacy of a peer coaching model at imbedding leadership capacity throughout the layers of an organizational structure. Using a case study of leadership development in local public health, this study contributes to …

Cognitive Change In Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy, Leanne Quigley, David J A Dozois, R Michael Bagby, Daniela S S Lobo, Lakshmi Ravindran, Lena C Quilty

Psychology Publications

BACKGROUND: Although cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) is a well-established treatment for adult depression, its efficacy and efficiency may be enhanced by better understanding its mechanism(s) of action. According to the theoretical model of CBT, symptom improvement occurs via reductions in maladaptive cognition. However, previous research has not established clear evidence for this cognitive mediation model.

METHODS: The present study investigated the cognitive mediation model of CBT in the context of a randomized controlled trial of CBT v. antidepressant medication (ADM) for adult depression. Participants with major depressive disorder were randomized to receive 16 weeks of CBT (n = 54) or ADM …

Using Spatial Release From Masking To Estimate The Magnitude Of The Familiar-Voice Intelligibility Benefit, Ysabel Domingo, Emma Holmes, Ewan Macpherson, Ingrid S. Johnsrude

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

© 2019 Acoustical Society of America. The ability to segregate simultaneous speech streams is crucial for successful communication. Recent studies have demonstrated that participants can report 10%-20% more words spoken by naturally familiar (e.g., friends or spouses) than unfamiliar talkers in two-voice mixtures. This benefit is commensurate with one of the largest benefits to speech intelligibility currently known - that which is gained by spatially separating two talkers. However, because of differences in the methods of these previous studies, the relative benefits of spatial separation and voice familiarity are unclear. Here, the familiar-voice benefit and spatial release from masking are …

Canada’S Feminist International Assistance Policy And Private Sector Engagement In Education: Considering Action For Girls’ And Women’S Education In Asia, Deanna Matthews, Prachi Srivastava

Education Publications

This brief aims to inform potential action in view of two significant developments in Canada’s international assistance strategy — the $400 million commitment to girls’ and women’s education in response to the Charlevoix Declaration on Quality Education for Girls, Adolescent Girls and Women in Developing Countries and the strategy for engaging in private sector partnerships in the Feminist International Assistance Policy. The brief is based on original analysis of data on activity by private foundations and private sector impact investors in girls’ and women’s education in East Asia and the Pacific and South Asia, drawing on a larger regional-level …

Variational Representational Similarity Analysis, Karl J. Friston, Jörn Diedrichsen, Emma Holmes, Peter Zeidman

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

© 2019 The Authors This technical note describes a variational or Bayesian implementation of representational similarity analysis (RSA) and pattern component modelling (PCM). It considers RSA and PCM as Bayesian model comparison procedures that assess the evidence for stimulus or condition-specific patterns of responses distributed over voxels or channels. On this view, one can use standard variational inference procedures to quantify the contributions of particular patterns to the data, by evaluating second-order parameters or hyperparameters. Crucially, this allows one to use parametric empirical Bayes (PEB) to infer which patterns are consistent among subjects. At the between-subject level, one can then …

Essays On College Majors And Skills, Yuki Onozuka

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

My thesis consists of three chapters that study relationships between college majors and multi-dimensional skills.

Chapter 2 examines the sources of wage penalties for working outside one's major field of study. Previous papers show that workers in a job which is unrelated to their major field of study tend to earn significantly lower wages than those in a related job. I use the 1993 National Survey of College Graduates and the O*NET to divide the sources of wage penalty into the levels of basic skills required in a job and the mismatch in major-specific knowledge. I find that the average …

A Sound-Sensitive Source Of Alpha Oscillations In Human Non-Primary Auditory Cortex, Alexander J. Billig, Björn Herrmann, Ariane E. Rhone, Phillip E. Gander, Kirill V. Nourski, Beau F. Snoad, Christopher K. Kovach, Hiroto Kawasaki, Matthew A. Howard, Ingrid S. Johnsrude

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Copyright © 2019 Billig, Herrmann et al. The functional organization of human auditory cortex can be probed by characterizing responses to various classes of sound at different anatomical locations. Along with histological studies this approach has revealed a primary field in posteromedial Heschl's gyrus (HG) with pronounced induced high-frequency (70-150 Hz) activity and short-latency responses that phase-lock to rapid transient sounds. Low-frequency neural oscillations are also relevant to stimulus processing and information flow, however, their distribution within auditory cortex has not been established. Alpha activity (7-14 Hz) in particular has been associated with processes that may differentially engage earlier versus …

South Bend And Ridge Pine 2: Fraternal Twins, Gabryell Kurtzrock Belyea

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The Ridge Pine 2 and South Bend sites lie within four kilometres of each other, both date to the late Middle Archaic period (ca. 5500-4500 before present), and both contain significant amounts of nonlocal chert. This exploitation of nonlocal chert occurred despite the close proximity of the Kettle Point chert outcrop to both sites. Notwithstanding their similarities, the two sites differ dramatically. From the raw material breakdown to projectile point types the two assemblages are quite different. These differences raise questions surrounding the chert procurement strategy employed by the groups at Ridge Pine 2 and South Bend. In order to …

Behind Quality, There Is Equality: An Analysis Of Scientific Capital Accumulation In Social-Democratic Welfare Regimes, Olivier Bégin-Caouette

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

ABSTRACT

Trade-offs between quality and equality are at the forefront of multiple debates in higher education, and one conceptual tool to approach societies’ adjustment in resolving these trade-offs is the welfare regime typology. Relying on the theory of academic capitalism and using research production as a proxy for quality in higher education, this study analyses how social-democratic welfare regimes resolve the trade-off between comparatively high levels of academic research production, access to higher education and equal citizens’ living conditions. Interviews with 56 system actors suggest that equality is perceived to contribute to academic freedom, public investments in research and the …

Critical Pedagogy Of Discomfort In Community-Based Learning: Kenyan Students' Experiences, Charlene A. Vanleeuwen, Lori E. Weeks, Linyuan Guo-Brennan

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

Community-based learning (CBL) is employed as a pedagogical approach in professional programs globally; however, transferability of Eurocentric CBL models and theory to university settings outside the global north is under-examined. Adopting critical hermeneutics as the theoretical and methodological framework, this study explored the meaning of community-based learning (CBL) to Kenyan university students in a human services program and examined the complexity of students’ difficult learning experiences in making connections between classroom learning and praxis in Kenyan communities. Data were collected from six university students following 12-week placements with community organizations in Kenya. Findings revealed disciplinary, historical, cultural and extra-linguistic factors …

Death Of The Clinic: Trans-Informing The Clinical Gaze To Counter Epistemic Violence, Diana E. Kuhl

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This case study research (Patton, 2002, 2014; Flyvberg, 2006) has grown out of an awareness of deep resistance from the psy disciplines to trans-informed epistemologies as a source of legitimate knowledge (Tosh, 2015, 2016; Winters, 2008). It focuses on examining how the closure of The Gender Identity Clinic (GIC) for Children and Youth at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, signaled a paradigm shift from the ‘treatment model’ to the ‘affirmative model’ with respect to clinical approaches for supporting trans and gender diverse children and youth. As such the case study involved tracing the …