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8/2/2017 PURC 2012 - Psychology Department - Boston College

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Morrissey College of Arts andSciences

Graduate School of theMorrissey College of Arts and

Psychology Undergraduate Research ConferencePURC 2012

The 2012 Psychology Undergraduate Research Conference was held Friday, May 4 inMcGuinn.

Abby Stemper is the 2012 recipient of the Peter Gray Award for Outstanding CreativeAchievement in Psychology. Professor Michael Moore presented the award.

Book of Abstracts for PURC 2012TABLE OF CONTENTS

Visual Imagery Skills in Artists and Non Artists Molly Ahern

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Sciences

Rapid rise in our nationalrankings

Aesthetic Judgment: A Matter of Taste? Alexandra Alecci

The Basolateral Amygdala Interacts With The Ventral Pallidum To Regulate Maternal BehaviorIn Rats: Bilateral, But Not Unilateral, Inactivation of the Basolateral Amygdala to the VentralPallidum Circuit Severely Disrupts Maternal Behavior in Postpartum Rats Ana Badimon, Lauren Moore, Riley Baldwin

The Basolateral Amygdala (BLA) Interacts with the Ventral Pallidum (VP) to RegulateMaternal Behavior in Rats: Concurrent Inactivation of the BLA on One Side of the Brain andthe VP on the Opposite Side Disrupts Maternal Behavior Victoria Parkes and Lauren Goverman

Subjectivity in Moral and Aesthetic Judgment Making: Actions Do Speak Louder Than Words Daniel Baush

Cognition and Framing in Messaging about Cigarette Smoking Sarah Collier

The differential effect of stress at encoding versus retrieval on emotional false memories Kelley Durham

Autisticlike Traits and Local Processing in the Visual and Auditory Domains Elizabeth Fair

Concurrent Extinction Does Not Render Aversive Conditioning ContextSpecific Andrew Farias

Object Influence on Scene Perception: An Investigation Using OutofContext Objects Chris Gagne

Emotional Regulation of Positive Information and Subsequent Memory Effects Alexander Goldowsky

Effects of Superliminal and Subliminal Facial Expression Primes on Valence Ratings ofAffective Words James Gregoire

Cyber Bullying in Relation to Gender and Trauma Alexandra Hasse

Development of the Abstraction Principle within the Cardinal Principle Level: The Effects ofHeterogeneity on Ordinal and Estimation Tasks Brynn Huguenel

The Effects of Art Making on Testing Anxiety Brittany M. Jeye

Fearcontextual cues inhibit eating in fooddeprived male and female rats Meghana Kuthyar

Aging, Motivation, and Emotional Memory Eunice Lee

Do Men and Women Differ in the Differentiation of Emotional Experiences? Renée Marchant

Racial Disparities in the Incidence of SelfReported Anxiety Among 6th Grade Boys Christina Martin

Brain activation patterns during fearcue induced inhibition of feeding in fooddeprived maleand female rats Heather Mayer

Sex differences in social behavior mediated by the oxytocin system Thomas E. Mayer

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A Reexamination of the Relationship between Disgust and Moral Violations Alyssa McCarthy

Drawing as a Form of Distraction: The Role of Task and Preference Caitlin McNally

How Emotions Affect Consumers’ Ability to Utilize Nutritional Information in their PurchasingDecisions Allison Minogue

New paradigm to measure social novelty preference in rats: relevance to autism Jazmin Mogavero

Investigating Influence of Suggestive Misinformation in the Formation of False Memories Laura Paige

How Infants and Young Children Understand Small vs. Large Numbers: Manual Search TaskAcross Development Cara Picano

Gender Differences in Predictive Learning: A Study on the Effects of Stereotype Threat Emily Raiche

Comparing Positive and Negative Shared Interest in Social Energy Sam Robinson

The Effects of Social Energy on Attachment Style Jessica Rolincik

Confessions of a Moral Realist: The Effect of Moral Worldview on DecisionMaking Abby P. Stemper

A Cross Cultural Study of the Hook up Experiences and Motives of College Students inEcuador and the United States Krizia Vinck

ABSTRACTS

Visual Imagery Skills in Artists and Non Artists

Molly Ahern Advisor: Ellen Winner

There has been a significant amount of research linking artistic talent to strong visualimaging skills. The results, however, have tended to be varied. The present study furtherinvestigated this link by examining whether art majors were more skilled at visual imagingtasks than nonart majors. Fortythree undergraduate students, twenty nonart majors andtwentythree art majors, were administered the Big 5 Personality Inventory, the MentalRotation Task, the Spot the Difference Task, the Vividness of Visual Imagery test, and theShape Memory Test. Two color perception tasks and a Drawing Realism Task were alsoadministered to the majority of participants, but excluded in the final analysis because not allparticipants had adequate time to complete these tasks. No difference was found betweenart majors and nonart majors on the visual imagery tasks. However, there was a significantdifference between genders on the Vividness of Visual Imagery test, where men outscoredwomen. There were also several notable personality differences. Art majors scored higher inopenness on the Big 5 Personality Inventory than nonart majors and women scored higherthan men in agreeableness. The results from this study suggest that there is no difference invisual imaging capacity between artists and nonartists. While this is possible, it is importantto acknowledge some of the studies limitations that may have influenced the results. Themost significant limitation being that intelligence was not taken into account.



Aesthetic Judgment: A Matter of Taste?

Alexandra Alecci Advisors: Angelina HawleyDolan and Ellen Winner

Our moral judgments are affected by our taste perception. For example, people whoconsume a bitter drink and are then asked to make a moral judgment show more moraldisgust than those who consume a sweet or neutral drink (Eskine, Kacinik, & Prinz, 2011).Are our aesthetic judgments affected in the same way? Participants were administered asweet, neutral, or bitter/disgusting drink and then shown a series of nonrepresentationalartworks, asked to rate them on preference (“how much do you like this image?”) andquality (“how good a work of art is this image?”). There was no main effect of condition(drink) for either question, suggesting that moral judgments are more sensitive to physicaldisgust than are aesthetic judgments. There were, however, significant correlations betweendisgust ratings and ratings for both art questions. The higher the disgust rating, the less theparticipants liked and valued the artworks. Furthermore, there was a stronger correlationbetween disgust ratings and judgments of preference than for judgments of quality. Thissuggests that preference judgments are more susceptible to the effects of disgust than arevalue judgments.



The Basolateral Amygdala Interacts With The Ventral Pallidum To Regulate MaternalBehavior In Rats: Bilateral, But Not Unilateral, Inactivation of the BasolateralAmygdala to the Ventral Pallidum Circuit Severely Disrupts Maternal Behavior inPostpartum Rats

Ana Badimon, Riley Baldwin, and Lauren Moore Advisor: Michael Numan

The expression of maternal behavior is a primary and enduring social feature of mammals. Amodel of the regulation of maternal behavior proposes that the amygdala, specifically thebasolateral amygdala (BLA), relays puprelated sensory stimuli to the ventral pallidum (VP)so that goaldirected appetitive behavior can occur. In a recent study performed in our lab,unilateral VP inactivation paired with contralateral BLA inactivation produced deficits inretrieval behavior in postpartum rats compared to saline controls. The neural inactivationswere produced with muscimol, a GABAA receptor agonist. To investigate the importance ofthe BLAtoVP connection further, the effects of unilateral injections of muscimol into the VPon one side of the brain paired with unilateral injections of muscimol into the BLA on theopposite side of the brain were compared to unilateral injections of muscimol into either theVP or the BLA. The results showed that animals that received the unilateral muscimolinjection into the VP on one side of the brain paired with the unilateral muscimol injectioninto the BLA on the opposite side, at doses of 15ng and 100ng, respectively, showedsignificant but reversible deficits in maternal behavior. In contrast, females that onlyreceived unilateral injections in the VP or in the BLA exhibited relatively intact maternalbehavior. These results indicate that the BLAtoVP circuit needs to function on at least oneside of the brain for normal maternal behavior to occur. Certain parts of the neural circuitthat underlies maternal behavior are believed to overlap with those of other types ofprosocial behaviors, and further research may provide an understanding of neurologicaldysfunctions in individuals who exhibit poor maternal behavior, such as neglect and abuse.

The Basolateral Amygdala (BLA) Interacts with the Ventral Pallidum (VP) toRegulate Maternal Behavior in Rats: Concurrent Inactivation of the BLA on OneSide of the Brain and the VP on the Opposite Side Disrupts Maternal Behavior

Lauren Goverman and Victoria Parkes Advisor: Michael Numan

This study looks at the neural circuit underlying maternal behavior in postpartum rats. Itfocuses specifically on two areas of the brain: the basolateral amygdala (BLA), a componentof the limbic system, and the ventral pallidum (VP), a region of the ventral basal ganglia.The VP is part of the mesolimbic dopamine (DA) system, which is involved in generalmotivational processes and is also influenced by the maternal circuit. The BLA has beenshown to project to the VP, which would allow it to relay important sensory inputs from pup



stimuli to instigate goaldirected behaviors. While each of these two regions has been shownto be important individually for maternal behavior, their connection within the circuit has notbeen investigated. This study aims to show a functional connection between these tworegions in relation to maternal behavior by doing asymmetrical neural inactivations to theseareas. In this study, we utilized muscimol, a GABAA receptor agonist, to temporarilyinactivate neurons within the BLA on one side of the brain and the VP on the contralateralside to see if this would disrupt maternal responsiveness. Results showed that rats receivingthese paired contralateral temporary lesions had major deficits in retrieval but not nursingbehavior during the period of muscimol action when compared to rats with saline injectionsto the same regions. These results point to a significant interaction between the BLA and VPwithin the maternal behavior circuit in the brains of postpartum rats: When the BLAtoVPcircuit is disrupted bilaterally at a different point in the circuit in each side of the brain,retrieval behavior is severely disrupted. This experiment also shows that this circuit underliesthe goaldirected, appetitive component of maternal behavior, pup retrieval, while leavingnursing behavior, a consummatory response, relatively unaffected.

Subjectivity in Moral and Aesthetic Judgment Making: Actions Do Speak LouderThan Words

Daniel Baush Advisors: Liane Young and Angelina HawleyDolan

In this study, we investigated the use of aesthetic judgments as a prime to make peoplemore relativistic when making moral judgments. With art, particularly for those who are nottrained in properly examining it, it is generally accepted that whether or not someonebelieves a piece of artwork is good is a matter of preference—whereas, when judgingmorality, whether or not an action is right or wrong is subject to a more objective judgment.The participants made judgments on sixteen works of art and sixteen moral storiespresented to them in a slide show. They were placed into one of two conditions—either theyreceived art first or they received morality first. After the art slides, the participants werepresented with the questions “Do you like this?” and “Do you think this is good art?” Andafter the moral story slides, the questions were “Would you do this?” and “Is this wrong?”They then received a confederate response to the same questions for the same slide. Thestudy found that the interaction between the order in which they were presented with theslides (either art first or morality first) and the domain (either art or morality) was, in fact,significant. The study revealed that making one set of judgments prior to another set doeshave an effect on the way judgments are perceived. When faced with a difference in opinionon morality, those participants who were presented with art first were more likely to respondmore relatively than those who did not make any sort of aesthetic judgment. Furthermore,



the study also showed that participants who were presented with morality first were morelikely to respond more relatively when presented with a difference in opinion on art. Thesefindings suggest that making one set of judgments can influence the way we make anotherset of judgments after being presented with the first set.

Cognition and Framing in Messaging about Cigarette Smoking

Sarah Collier Advisor: Elizabeth Kensinger

It is in the interest of health promotion to optimize the effectiveness of messages intended toprovide education or motivate changes in behavior. One of the ways in which messages canbe manipulated is through the framing of a message with either the benefits of performing orthe drawbacks of not performing an intended behavior. As proposed by Prospect Theory, again frame is believed to be more effective than a loss frame when the behavior in questionis low in risk (e.g., disease prevention), whereas a highrisk behavior (e.g., diseasedetection) is believed to be better promoted by loss than gain frame (Kahneman & Tversky,1979). Inconsistent findings have led researchers to investigate factors like messagerelevance and selfefficacy as potential mediators of the effects of framed messages. While itis common to compare framing effects on selfreported motivation or behavior, variation onindividual factors like executive function and memory are rarely reported. This study soughtto investigate the relationship among lifestyle and cognitive factors in the processing offramed health messages. A withinsubjects design was utilized, with each participant viewinga set of messages that included some messages framed as losses, others as gains, and someneutral messages. Participants provided information about their health behaviors and beliefsabout cigarette smoking in addition to completing a variety of cognitive tasks and a posttestof memory for the health messages. With memory for the messages viewed as thedependent variable, analyses considered both the relationship between cognition andframing within subjects and the effectiveness of each frame across participants.



The differential effect of stress at encoding versus retrieval on emotional falsememories

Kelley Durham Advisors: Elizabeth Kensinger and Halle Zucker

This study investigated how stress, either at encoding or retrieval, modulated veridical andfalse memories for negatively arousing images. The goal of the study was to help clarifyinconsistent and competing evidence of the effects of stress on memory. 56 Boston Collegestudents participated (Ncontrol = 28, Nstress = 28). Participants viewed scenes composed ofhigharousing negative and neutral images integrated with plausible neutral backgrounds.The Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), or a control nonstressful task, was administered toinduce a stressful state either following study (“stressed retrieval”) or preceding study(“stressed encoding”). It was hypothesized that stress at retrieval would impair memoryaccuracy (decreased “hits”) while increasing false memories (increased “false alarms”),whereas stress at encoding would have enhancing memory accuracy (increased “hits”) whiledecreasing false memories (decreased “false alarms”). Instead, the two groups (control andstressed) did not significantly differ on memory performance. Participants accuratelyrecognized more negative images than neutral, however this effect was independent ofstress and memory phase.



Autisticlike Traits and Local Processing in the Visual and Auditory Domains

Elizabeth Fair Advisor: Ellen Winner

Previous research has revealed that individuals with autism exhibit superior local processing(the ability to focus on detail or parts of a whole) in the visual and auditory domains. In thisstudy, local processing in the visual and auditory domains was examined in individuals withinthe general population who had high and low autisticlike traits. In addition, this studyinvestigated whether this local processing ability was domain general or domain specific.Forty adults completed the Autismspectrum Quotient to assess their autisticlike traits withrespect to social behaviors, communication abilities, and restricted or repetitive interests. Toassess local processing in the visual domain, they completed the Block Design Task, in whichthey had to mentally break a design into parts to reconstruct it with blocks, and the GroupEmbedded Figures Test, in which they had to find a simple shape in a complex figure. Toassess local processing in the auditory domain, they completed the Pitch DiscriminationTask, in which they had to discriminate between two pitches presented in pairs, and the PitchCategorization Task, in which they had to determine whether single pitches were high or low.When the results were analyzed, it was determined that higher autisticlike traits predictedfaster construction time for the unsegmented items of the Block Design Task, and higherautisticlike traits marginally predicted superior performance on the Pitch CategorizationTask. It was also found that local processing ability in one domain was not correlated withlocal processing ability in the other. Taken together, these findings provide partial supportfor the hypothesis that individuals with highautistic like traits exhibit superior localprocessing. The findings also suggest that this local processing ability does not encompassboth the visual and auditory domains but rather is domain specific.



Concurrent Extinction Does Not Render Aversive Conditioning ContextSpecific

Andrew Farias Advisor: Jeffrey Lamoureux

Substantial research has shown that most predictive relationships people learn about forenvironmental stimuli are contextindependent. However, subsequent learning that mayoccur during extinction—when the predictive stimulus is repeatedly presented without theexpected consequence—is contextdependent. For example, if you hear a fire alarm while athome followed closely by an actual fire, you will likely fear alarms in the future regardless ofwhere you hear them. But if you are later exposed to repeated alarms in the absence of anactual fire you may stop fearing alarms, but only in that specific environment. Recently,Rosas & CallejasAguilera (2006) proposed a mechanism that violating predictiveexpectancies during extinction may increase attention to contextual cues. This theorypredicts that new predictions learned during extinction should be more dependent on thatcontext. We assessed this theory in an experiment with human participants playing a videogame in which they learned to predict aversive events in multiple contexts. All subjectslearned two successive predictive relationships, but half of them learned the secondprediction while the first was undergoing extinction training. The second prediction wastested either in the training or a transfer context. If extinction increases attention to theparticular context in which it occurred, subjects who received concurrent extinction trainingshould show a reduced response to the second stimulus in the transfer context. Resultsrevealed no differences in responding to the secondtrained cue, regardless of testingcontext or history of prior concurrent extinction training. This is in direct contrast to the priorfindings and predictions of Rosas. We propose that discrepancies across laboratories may bedue to fundamental differences in testing paradigms—specifically, our implicit learning taskmay engage different associative and attentional mechanisms than the explicit task used byRosas.



Object Influence on Scene Perception: An Investigation Using OutofContextObjects

Chris Gagne Advisor: Sean MacEvoy

We presented pairs of objects prior to pictures of scenes (e.g. kitchen) to investigate howmultiple objects are utilized in rapid scene recognition. These pairs consisted of objects thateither belonged to the same scene category or did not, and in both cases, the objects did notbelong to the scene category being presented. Replicating the findings of previous studies,objects preceding a scene in which they are not normally found impaired people’s ability torecognize that scene. Additionally, inconsistent objects belonging to the same scene category(e.g. toilet and tub prior to kitchen) produced nearly identical reductions in recognitionaccuracy as inconsistent objects from two different scene categories (e.g. toilet andcomputer prior to kitchen). Despite similar impairments, only the inconsistent objectsbelonging to the same scene induced participants to erroneously guess the scenecorresponding with those objects. Thus, scene recognition may exist as a twostage process.At first, objects impair recognition similarly irrespective of their common associations witheach other. When the scene percept is sufficiently impaired and alternative “guess” isrequired, objects act as an ensemble where common association does matter to provide ananswer.



Emotional Regulation of Positive Information and Subsequent Memory Effects

Alexander Goldowsky Advisors: Elizabeth Kensinger and Alisha Holland

Cognitive reappraisal has proven to be an effective strategy at changing the arousal levels ofemotional events. In this study, participants were instructed to use reappraisal techniques tomodulate arousal levels of positive and neutral information. This was done in order toelucidate the impact that reappraisal techniques have on memory of positive information, aswell as various phenomenological qualities of those memories. It was found that enhancingthe arousal level of positive and neutral information improves memory of that information.With regard to the subjective characteristics of these memories, though, the valence of theimage appears to play a role in the vividness, emotional content, and memory of thesephenomenological qualities. Overall, this indicates that the interaction between positiveinformation and reappraisal techniques is far more complicated than simple valence andarousal interactions. More research needs to be done in order to further untangle therelationship between memory and emotion regulation.



Effects of Superliminal and Subliminal Facial Expression Primes on ValenceRatings of Affective Words

James Gregoire Advisor: Elizabeth Kensinger

It has been shown that facial expressions are processed faster than emotion words in amodified photoword Stroop task and also interfere in the valence ratings of the words whenpresented simultaneously. If this finding is true, then it might be possible for facialexpressions to prime the valence and arousal ratings of emotion words. The current studywas designed to test the hypothesis that ratings of word valence and arousal primed byaffective facial expressions would be significantly different from ratings primed with neutralfacial expressions depending on the emotion of the prime. If a facial expression displaying anegative emotion primes a neutral word, it is expected that the valence rating of the wordwill be lower and the arousal rating would be higher. The study also looked at whether or notdisplaying the prime superliminally (2 s) or subliminally (17 ms) has an effect on the ratings.In the task, participants were primed with a facial expression and then shown either anemotional word or a neutral word and asked to determine its valence and arousal. The studywas conducted in two parts. The first part involved 30 Boston College undergraduatesparticipating in trials using angry, fearful, happy, and neutral faces and words. The secondpart involved 21 new Boston college undergraduates participating in trials using disgusted,sad, happy, and neutral faces and words. For valence ratings primed by superliminal faces,angry faces elicited lower valence ratings than neutral faces. Angry and neutral subliminalprimes elicited the same ratings, suggesting that subliminal faces have little influence onperception of words. For arousal, similar effects happened for both happy and angry facialprimes. These results suggest that while superliminal facial expression primes can influenceboth valence and arousal ratings of neutral words, subliminal facial expression primescannot.

Cyber Bullying in Relation to Gender and Trauma

Alexandra Hasse Advisor: David Smith

Relatively little research has been conducted that has examined the fast growingphenomenon of cyber bullying. The present study is unique in that no other study hasexplored cyber bullying in relation to both gender and history of past abuse and/or exposureto family violence. Participants consisted of BC undergraduate students who retrospectivelyreflected on cyber bullying, and traditional bullying, in their high school. Subjects completedan online survey and were recruited via the BC SONA system. The survey includes three



major sets of questions regarding: demographics, bullying (cyber and facetoface), andtrauma. Data analyses revealed that while there were no gender differences in terms ofbeing a cyber bully or cyber bullying victim, males were more likely than females to be facetoface bullies. Interestingly, statistically significant results were found between being avictim of physical abuse inside one’s immediate family and to being both a cyber bully andvictim of cyber bullying. In a similar strain, witnessing emotional abuse outside of one’simmediate family was statistically significant to both being a victim of cyber bullying andbeing a cyber bullying perpetrator. Finally, the study found that females who have had ahistory of abuse/trauma inside of their immediate family are not more likely than males whohave had the same history to be cyber bullying victims. These findings may help promptfurther research in the field of cyber bullying. Such studies may not only endow researchersand the general public with more knowledge about this newly emerging and popular mediumof bullying, but may also encourage victims of cyber bullying to reach out to teachers,parents, and other loved ones for support.

Development of the Abstraction Principle within the Cardinal Principle Level: TheEffects of Heterogeneity on Ordinal and Estimation Tasks

Brynn Huguenel Advisors: Sara Cordes and Tasha Posid

Before children learn to count meaningfully, they acquire an understanding of numbersslowly. One dominant theory suggests that children learn numbers sequentially, in whichthey understand the first 34 number words before undergoing a conceptual change thatallows them to understand the cardinal principle, or the purpose of counting. The currentstudy included 3 to 9yearold children who understood the cardinal principle and could thususe counting effectively to find number (N=118). Despite this knowledge, cardinal principleknowers still undergo development in more advanced numerical tasks, such as estimationand large numerosities. This study examined whether perceptual characteristics, specificallyheterogeneity, affect children’s ability to make judgments about number. Children completedan ordinal task, where they indicated which of two arrays had more objects, and anestimation task, in which they estimated the number of objects within a single array. Resultsindicate that heterogeneity did not affect children’s performance on either task, suggestingthat children who understand the cardinal principle of counting also have basic knowledge ofthe abstraction principle, or that a set’s numerosity is separate from its objects’ perceptualfeatures, like shape or color. Furthermore, one’s preferred counting strategy was not relatedto performance on either task. Although there was no effect of heterogeneity on children’soverall performance, a shift occurred at approximately 5yearsold, in which children became



significantly more accurate on heterogeneous trials, as well as other more difficult taskconditions.

The Effects of Art Making on Testing Anxiety

Brittany M. Jeye Advisors: Ellen Winner

Two mechanisms of art making were examined on how they affect feelings of anxiety:venting (expressing feelings of anxiety) and distraction (expressing something other thanfeelings of anxiety.) In Study 1, these mechanisms were examined in terms of how theyaffected feelings of anxiety in the past. Participants were assigned to one of the twoconditions after they had completed a series of math exams in a high pressure situation. InStudy 2, these mechanisms were examined in terms of how they affected feelings of anxietyin the future, in which participants were assigned to one of the two conditions before theyfinished the series of math exams yet after being introduced to the high pressure situation.In both studies, anxiety was measured before and after art making. Results demonstratedthat for feelings of anxiety in the past, using art making as a form of distraction decreasedanxiety more than using art making as a form of venting. There was no difference inbetween using distraction and venting to alleviate anxiety in the future.



Fearcontextual cues inhibit eating in fooddeprived male and female rats

Meghana Kuthyar Advisors: Gorica Petrovich and Christina Reppucci

Previously our lab has shown that fooddeprived male and female rats will inhibit foodconsumption when presented with a discrete conditioned stimulus (CS) that signals danger,such as a tone previously paired with footshocks. Here, we conducted two experiments toexamine whether conditioned contextual cues can exert the same effect on feeding behavior.Experiment 1 explored the effect of simple aversive context conditioning on food intake infooddeprived male and female rats when they are reexposed to the aversive context.Following a test of baseline food pellet consumption in a contextually distinct behavioralchamber under fooddeprived conditions, sated rats received two conditioning sessions. Foreach training session, rats were placed in the behavioral chamber and half of the male andfemale rats (experimental groups) received four electric footshocks (1.0mA, 1sec) while theother half of the rats (control groups) received no footshocks. After training, fooddeprivedrats were tested for food consumption in the conditioned aversive context for 10 minutes,and no shocks were delivered. Males and females in the experimental groups significantlyreduced their intake compared to the baseline test, and consumed significantly less foodthan the samesex control groups during the test. In Experiment 2 we trained rats inappetitive and aversive context discrimination protocol to confirm that the inhibition of foodintake observed in Experiment 1 was contextspecific. Rats were trained in alternatingappetitive and aversive sessions that were conducted in two distinct contexts (Context A andB) that differed in olfactory, visual, and tactile features. During appetitive sessions, fooddeprived rats were trained to consume food pellets in Context A. Aversive sessions tookplace in Context B under sated conditions, and half of the male and female rats(experimental groups) received a total of four electric footshocks (1.0mA, 1sec), while theother half of the rats (control groups) received no shocks. During the appetitive trainingsessions rats in all groups ate considerable amounts of food pellets; there were nodifferences in the amounts consumed between samesex experimental and control groups.After training completion, fooddeprived rats were tested for food consumption in theaversive context (Context B). During the test, rats were allowed to consume food pellets for10 minutes, and no footshocks were administered. Both male and female rats in theexperimental groups consumed significantly less food than those in the samesex controlgroups. The results from these two experiments demonstrate that the contextual cuesassociated with fearful events can inhibit food consumption in fooddeprived animals, just asdiscrete fearcues have been shown to do.



Aging, Motivation, and Emotional Memory

Eunice Lee Advisor: Elizabeth Kensinger

When people make decisions, they can do so by considering only the present moment, or bythinking about the longterm consequences of that decision. The purpose of this study was toexamine how different time perspectives would influence the qualitative and quantitativedifferences in memory recall of medical advice, and any other associations with the advicebetween older and young adults. The time conditions were meant to reflect a shift inmotivation for older adults, and to see if socioemotional selectivity theory would changememory performances. 58 older adults and 60 young adults completed a freerecall memorytask based on a doctorpatient scenario within a specific time condition (no mention, open,or closed). When asked to recall any associations they had to the medical advice, resultsrevealed that older adults used a higher percentage of affective words in the “no mention”time condition than young adults in that condition. Older and young adults used similarproportions of affective words when a time condition (open or close) was mentioned. Olderadults also displayed similar lower memory recall for the stimuli than young adultsthroughout all three time conditions, but no other “time” or “time x age interaction” affectedthe average recall in both older and young adults.



Do Men and Women Differ in the Differentiation of Emotional Experiences?

Renée Marchant Advisors: Maria Gendron and Lisa Feldman Barrett

Do men and women live and experience different emotional lives? One way that men andwomen may differ is in differentiation: some people experience precise emotional states thatare finely tuned to a given situation whereas other people experience broader states such asfeeling globally negative or positive. The present study investigated the hypothesis that whilemen believe that they have less differentiated emotional lives than women, when measuredin a momentary fashion, men and women will not actually differ. Male and femaleparticipants completed three tasks to measure emotional differentiation: (1) the RDEES, aretrospective and global measure of emotional experience (of particular interest is thedifferentiation subscale), (2) the EPQ, a retrospective measure in which participants areasked to recall specific emotional experiences, and (3) momentaryratings of emotionalexperience through the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) over a one to two week period.Consistent with predictions, we found that men reported having less differentiated emotionallives than women on the RDEES, but when measured in a momentary task, men and womendemonstrated equivalent amounts of differentiation. We also found that when asked to recallspecific emotional experiences on the EPQ, while women did report greater differentiation inpositive emotions than men, this gender difference was not observed for negative emotions.Overall, these data suggest that gender stereotypes likely inform men’s and women’sunderstanding of their emotional lives, without necessarily impacting the degree ofdifferentiation in the experiences of emotion themselves.



Racial Disparities in the Incidence of SelfReported Anxiety Among 6th Grade Boys

Christina Martin Advisor: Judith ShindulRothschild

Limited empirical data is available examining how social experiences interact with race toincrease the risk of anxiety among youth. The purpose of this study was to examine if orhow the social experiences of harassment and poor selfimage impact selfreports of anxietyamong 6th grade AfricanAmerican and Caucasian boys. The 20012002 Health Behavior inSchoolAged Children (HSBC) database, developed by the World Health Organization to trackhealth behaviors, health risk behavior, and health outcomes among youth, was used in thisstudy. A secondary data analysis analyzed social factors influencing AfricanAmerican andCaucasian 6th grade boys, their levels of anxiety, and their levels of peer socialization. Theaims of the research were to: (1) investigate differences between AfricanAmerican andCaucasian 6th grade boys’ selfreports of anxiety and (2) examine how bullying and bodyimage may explain the differences in AfricanAmerican and Caucasian 6th grade boys’ selfreports of anxiety. The study found 6th grade AfricanAmerican boys are two times morelikely than Caucasian boys to report feeling nervous if they perceive themselves to be muchtoo fat. African American boys are three times more likely than Caucasian boys to reportfeeling nervous if they are bullied due to race once a week. Although most programs appearto target young girls and cyberbullying, the anecdotal evidence shows that high profilesuicides are identified with AfricanAmerican boys. However, various programs have notimplemented plans to help and support them. Insights gained from this research can helpinform health promotion programs, revise legislation, and improve policy to target theunique needs of atrisk AfricanAmerican boys. Furthermore, sessions in schools andeducational administrations should be implemented to actively eradicate bullying and aim itsobjectives at the black male youth. This will increase levels of selfesteem/selfworth, instillhealthy behaviors, and boost confidence levels.



Brain activation patterns during fearcue induced inhibition of feeding in fooddeprived male and female rats

Heather Mayer Advisors: Gorica Petrovich and Christina Reppucci

Previously our lab has shown that fooddeprived male and female rats will inhibit foodconsumption when presented with a discrete conditioned stimulus (CS) that signals danger,such as a tone previously paired with footshocks. Additionally, we have shown that thisshortterm fearcue induced anorexia persists much longer in females than in males. Thecurrent experiment is part of a larger study that has two aims: 1) delineate the brain areascritical for fearcue induced anorexia and 2) determine whether there are sexdifferences inbrain activation patterns. Rats were trained in alternating appetitive and aversive sessionsthat were conducted in two distinct contexts (Contexts A and B) that differed in olfactory,visual, and tactile features. During appetitive sessions, fooddeprived rats were trained toconsume food pellets in Context A. Aversive sessions took place under sated conditions inContext B, and half of the male and female rats (experimental groups) received a total offour electric footshocks (1.0mA, 1sec) each signaled by a 60 second tone (75db, 2khz), whilethe other half of the rats (control groups) received no shocks but the same number of tones.During the appetitive training sessions rats in all groups ate considerable amounts of foodpellets; there were no differences in the amounts consumed between samesex experimentaland control groups. After training completion, fooddeprived rats were tested in two foodconsumption tests which took place in the appetitive context (Context A). The CS (tone) waspresented 4 times during each 10 minute test, but no footshocks were administered. Femalerats in the experiment group significantly inhibited food intake compared to female rats inthe control group during both tests, while males in both groups consumed similar largeamounts of food throughout testing. Following the second consumption test, rats weresacrificed and brain tissue processed to assess activation patterns. Brain tissue wasimmunohistochemically stained for Fos, a marker of neuronal activity that allowed us toidentify which neurons were active during the food consumption test. Brain tissue was alsoimmunohistochemically doublelabeled for both Fos and the neuropeptide Orexin. Orexin isknown to be involved in promoting feeding behavior, and we hypothesized that Orexinneurons may be inhibited during fearinduced shortterm anorexia. Doublestaining thetissue for Fos and Orexin allowed us to determine whether or not Orexin neurons wereactivated or inhibited during the behavioral test.



Sex differences in social behavior mediated by the oxytocin system

Thomas E. Mayer Advisors: Alexa H. Veenema and Kelly M. Dumais

Abnormalities in social interest and social recognition are often observed in human socialdisorders, including autism and schizophrenia. Moreover, the neuropeptide oxytocin plays animportant role in the regulation of social behaviors in humans. The goal of this study was togain a greater understanding of the oxytocin system in regulating social interest and socialrecognition in male and female rats. In the first experiment, we explored sex differencesusing the social interest and social discrimination tests. Results show that males showsignificantly more social interest than females, but that females in estrus tended toinvestigate stimulus males more than stimulus females. In the second experiment, we usedreceptor autoradiography to explore sex differences in oxytocin receptor (OTR) bindingdensity and to correlate this with social interest. We demonstrate that male rats show higherOTR binding density than female rats in 9 out of 15 forebrain areas analyzed. Interestingly,males have about 3.5 times more OTR binding than females in the principle bed nucleus ofthe stria terminalis (BNSTp), an area that is a core part of the social behavior neuralnetwork. In the third experiment, we manipulated the OT system in males by injection of anOTR antagonist in the BNSTp to investigate the role of OTR in the BNSTp in social interest,social recognition, and anxietylike behavior. We demonstrate that blocking OTR in theBNSTp induced a trend towards an increase in social interest, but a significant impairment insocial recognition and a significant decrease in anxietylike behavior. Our results indicatethat activation of OTR in the BNSTp is important for the regulation of social behaviors inmale rats by decreasing social interest but facilitating social recognition.



A Reexamination of the Relationship between Disgust and Moral Violations

Alyssa McCarthy Advisors: James Russell and Mary Kayyal

Researchers have proposed that emotional states guide our moral judgments, and thatdisgust in particular holds importance on the moral domain; disgust has evolved to not onlyprotect our bodies (by encouraging us to avoiding toxins), but also to protect our souls. Herewe proposed that the claim that disgust has evolved beyond its evolutionary function toinclude immoral behaviors is based on a confound: The moral violations people label asdisgusting include physically disgusting things, such as references to bodily fluids orfunctions. We argued that immoral events are called disgusting because they contain reallydisgusting components, and not because they are immoral in nature. In the current study,participants (N=90) read 22 scenarios depicting either immoral or morally good behaviors;the scenarios either contained or lacked a bodily component. Participants judged eachscenario on the single best emotion subjectively elicited, the extent to which that emotionwas elicited, and how immoral the behavior depicted was. Immoral scenarios were labeled asdisgusting when they involved a bodily component; in the absence of a bodily component,immoral violations were labeled with a wide range of negative emotions. Some morally goodbehaviors that involved a bodily component were also labeled as disgusting. Thus, there isno real relationship between our judgments of how disgusting and how immoral a behavioris. The underlying basis of our moral judgments is an intense but general negative attitude,which may be “appropriately” labeled with any negative emotion. We do sometimes callimmoral events disgusting, but such usage is metaphorical in nature; disgust simplyfunctions as a powerful descriptor of disapproval in such contexts.



Drawing as a Form of Distraction: The Role of Task and Preference

Caitlin McNally Advisors: Ellen Winner

This study examined two questions. First, whether art was a better distraction than a gamefor mood repair; and second, whether preference (for drawing or playing a game) affectedmood repair. In Study 1, the participants, 88 adults ages 18 to 22, were first asked if theywould rather draw or play a game when upset. Next, a negative mood was induced by askingthem to think about the saddest thing that had happened to them. They were then assignedto one of two conditions, preference or nonpreference. In the preference condition theywere asked to perform the activity they said they would rather do when upset (draw or playthe game). In the nonpreference condition they were asked to perform the opposite activitythat they had chosen. In Study 2 the participants were children, aged six to eight. In bothstudies, positive and negative affect were measured before and after the assigned activity.In Study 1, positive affect improved significantly more in the preference group of participantswho had preferred to draw and were able to draw, than in the other conditions(preference/game, nonpreference/draw, nonpreference/game). In Study 2, no differenceswere found for the children. In Study 2, children were also measured on competence andenjoyment of activity. Children who drew had significantly higher ratings for competencethan children who played the game. This suggests that drawing, when preferred, is a bettermood elevator than playing the game for adults, but not for children. Currently, it is notknown whether drawing, when preferred, is a greater mood elevator for children.



How Emotions Affect Consumers’ Ability to Utilize Nutritional Information in theirPurchasing Decisions

Allison Minogue Advisors: Elizabeth Kensinger and Eric Allard

Little is known about the impact of emotion on consumers’ use of health information. Theconnection between mood and processing of nutritional information of food products mightbe of interest in light of the growing obesity problem in the United States. To explore thisrelationship, I investigated the role of mood (empowerment and defeat in response toperformance on a cognitive task) on consumers’ food purchasing decisions using behavioraland eye tracking measures. A sample of 56 undergraduates participated in the study. Resultsshowed that participants in the defeated condition bought fewer unhealthier food items andpreferred less unhealthy food products as compared to participants in the empoweredcondition. Results also suggested that participants in the defeated mood group were morelikely to actually select a healthy snack upon completion of the study in comparison toparticipants in the empowered and control conditions. These findings are consistent withpredictions from selfaffirmation theory. Defeated participants perhaps sought to affirm theirselfesteem by choosing healthy food items as a way to boost their selfesteem in onedomain (health) while failing in another domain (cognitive ability). These results arediscussed in terms of the role of affect in adaptive health decisionmaking.



New paradigm to measure social novelty preference in rats: relevance to autism

Jazmin Mogavero Advisors: Alexa H. Veenema and Caroline J. Smith

Significant impairments in social behavior and social novelty seeking are featured in manypsychopathologies. These disorders differ in manifestation depending on sex and the age ofthe individual. In autism, for example, there is a strong sex bias with prevalence four timeshigher in boys than in girls. This disorder is also characterized by a young age of onset (3years old). Therefore, it is important to gain knowledge about sexspecific regulation ofsocial novelty at younger and immature ages. The emphasis on social novelty is important,because patients with autism show increased social avoidance of novel stimuli compared totheir mentally healthy counterparts. Since there are many limitations to studying humanswith psychiatric disorders, animal models are used as a basis for further investigation. Ourlab studies animal social behavior, which can provide information useful to understand socialdeficits in humans. We present here a new paradigm that enables us to measure thepreference of a juvenile rat to spend time with either their cage mate (familiar rat) or a novelrat. Using this paradigm, we also tested whether social novelty preference is dependent onsex and age of the rats and if rats show consistent preference for social novelty duringrepeated testing. We found a robust preference for social novelty regardless of sex, age, ornumber of exposures to the social preference test. In detail, male and female juvenile ratsspent twice as much time interacting with a novel rat than with their cage mate. In addition,males had higher overall social interest (investigating both the familiar and novel) thanfemales. These results allow us to investigate the neural circuits that mediate social noveltyin juvenile rats. Specifically, we are interested in the roles of the neuropeptides oxytocin andvasopressin in the regulation of social novelty.



Investigating Influence of Suggestive Misinformation in the Formation of FalseMemories

Laura Paige Advisor: Elizabeth Kensinger

Memory is a reconstructive process by which we constantly discriminate between externalsources and our own internal sources. As such, the process is impressionable and not alwaysentirely vigilant in detecting devices working against it. False memories occur in acceptingthese infiltrators to be true or allowing them to alter the way in which an event actuallyhappened. This present study investigated the effect of emotion on false memory occurrencethrough the misinformation effect—memory errors that arise as a consequence of exposureto misleading information—by presenting participants with narratives in one of three valenceconditions (negative, positive, neutral) and subjecting them to suggestive questionsfollowing a onehour delay. Our primary motivation was determining the effect suggestivemisinformation has on the formation of false memories. Additionally, we were interested inthe influence of valence. Ultimately, total false endorsement results were driven by themisinformation effect. In regards to valence, results revealed there was no significant maineffect, but in collapsing across emotion (combining negative and positive conditions), falsememory occurrence was significantly greater in the neutral condition. Some of the effects ofemotion on memory accuracy were more pronounced for negative information; responserates in the negative condition revealed an increase in hits and a decrease in false alarmssuggesting negative valence enhances discriminability.



How Infants and Young Children Understand Small vs. Large Numbers: ManualSearch Task Across Development

Cara Picano Advisors: Sara Cordes and Tasha Posid

Previous studies have shown that infants are capable of tracking small quantities, such as 1,2, and 3 objects, but have difficulty doing so with large quantities, or 4 objects or more(Feigenson & Carey, 2003; Feigenson, Carey, & Hauser, 2002). Research suggests that thisis because young infants represent small numbers exactly, but are not yet able to do thiswith large numbers, which they think about more approximately. While 14montholds fail tounderstand large numbers, such as 4, research suggests that this failure stems from theinability to interact the objectfile system and the analog magnitude system (Feigenson &Carey, 2003). Research has also found that 22 to 24montholds successfully track largenumbers in a 1 vs. 4 comparison, but not a 2 vs. 4 comparison due to differences in ratio.(Barner, Thalwitz, Wood, Yang, & Carey, 2005). We tested infants between 15 and 32monthsold to determine at what age infants come to understand large numbers exactly. Ourresults suggest that infants can discriminate small from large numbers—and represent largenumbers distinctly—between 19 and 22 months of age.



Gender Differences in Predictive Learning: A Study on the Effects of StereotypeThreat

Emily Raiche Advisor: Jeffrey Lamoureux

When a member of a negatively stereotyped group is reminded of this stereotype beforeperforming a related task (i.e., stereotype threat, ST), research consistently shows thatperformance will be impaired in comparison to the individual’s performance on the task in anonthreatening environment. This paper discusses potential emotional and cognitivedomains that may play a moderating role in the relationship between ST and performance.The study presented here uses a predictive learning paradigm to investigate the impact of agenderbased ST on learning. Male and female college students in either threatening or nonthreatening environments played a videogame in which they had to learn to predictparticular elements of the game in order to perform well. Although no differences wereobserved in Phase 1, which consisted of a simple set of practice trials prior to ST induction,males performed significantly better than women during Phase 2, a more complex series oftrials following ST induction. Interestingly, both genders exhibited evidence of reducedperformance in a threatening environment. This effect was greatest during initial learningtrials for women and during asymptotic performance (the last block of trials) for men. Theseresults suggest that multiple factors, including anxiety and the phenomenon of stereotypelift, may cooccur alongside cognitive processes implicit in learning. In a testingenvironment, the combination of these factors for each individual may impact theirperformance. Further, this data supports the notion that for nonstereotyped group membersthe presence or absence of threat may impact performance through eliciting either achallenge state resulting in performance enhancement or a threat state resulting inperformance detraction.



Comparing Positive and Negative Shared Interest in Social Energy

Sam Robinson Advisor: Donnah Canavan

Canavan (2002) coined the term “Social Energy” to reference the shared enthusiasmdeveloped between two or more people when engaged in something intrinsically motivating.When engaged in some task found intrinsically enjoyable, people working/enjoying togetherwill experience greater liking for their shared interest and one another. This study examinesthe empowering effects of Social Energy when two partners are intrinsically motivatedtoward a negative shared interest—the failure of a rival political candidate’s campaign anddefamation of his/her character.

We studied college students who selfidentified as Democrats currently planning on votingfor Barack Obama or who would do so if they were of voting age. Participants were asked towrite campaign ads for the next 2012 presidential election and were divided into two groups—one group writing ads for President Obama and the other writing ads against a rivalRepublican opponent. Tasks included a test of Productivity developing a list of descriptorseither of Obama or his opponent within a 5minute time limit. Another task measuredPersistence by asking participants to continue developing campaign slogans for as long asthey wished (but would be stopped at 8 minutes). Participants were then asked to constructa commercial advertisement and think of any additional ways they could supportObama/prevent his opponent’s election.

Our findings support that Social Energy between people with a shared interest framed as anegative does not differ from Social Energy with a positive shared interest. There was noevidence in our findings of Social Energy with negative shared interest devolving into a mobstate. In addition, we found that partners who knew each other prior to the study showedmore unwillingness to do what their known partners asked of them during the tasks and lessoverall willingness to take greater action either for Obama or against an opponent.



The Effects of Social Energy on Attachment Style

Jessica Rolincik Advisor: Donnah Canavan

Noting the many similarities between the personality orientation of Secure Attachment andCanavan’s work on the characteristics of “the self in social energy,” we undertook a study inwhich we selected participants who varied in Attachment Style (Secure, Anxious, andAvoidant). One hundred female undergraduate participants were randomly assigned to eitherHigh Social Energy (you and other students are all excited about a project topic) or LowSocial Energy (there is little agreement among you and other students, so the professorassigned the topic). The participants imagined working on a group project for the semesterin an important class. All participants answered a series of questions about how theyexpected they would feel and behave over the course of the semester while working on thisproject. We predicted a main effect for social energy so that participants in High SocialEnergy (HSE) would show better interpersonal relations, less evaluation of self and others,more positive affect, greater effort, less anxiety, greater selfclarity, etc. than participants inLow Social Energy (LSE). In addition, we predicted a main effect of Attachment Style,wherein Securely Attached individuals would differ from the Anxious and Avoidant Attachedindividuals in the same way that HSE differs from LSE. Finally, given these predicted maineffects, we are effectively predicting that the Anxious and Avoidant Attached in HSE woulddiffer from their counterparts in LSE, and would not be significantly different from theSecurely Attached in HSE.



Confessions of a Moral Realist: The Effect of Moral Worldview on DecisionMaking

Abby P. Stemper Advisor: Liane Young

The moral values that we adopt and maintain can dramatically affect the way in which wemake decisions and formulate judgments on a daily basis. For example, a strong belief in thevalue of generosity may motivate a person to donate regularly to charity, give blood, orparticipate in community service. On the other hand, an extremist view of religion with afervent adherence to an established moral code could prompt some individuals to participatein dangerous or otherwise heinous acts. How, though, does one justify the motivation tomaintain such moral attitudes? Moral worldviews, more specifically moral realism and antirealism, define whether people view their own moral beliefs as facts or opinions. Inphilosophy, moral realists perceive their own beliefs with a considerable degree ofobjectivity, while antirealists tend to see more of a gray area. The present study examinedwhether these philosophical concepts translate into actual practice by testing for objectivityin moral worldview and then relating this measure to different behaviors. Results showedthat, although people fall into a range of objectivity, moral worldview is not necessarilypredictive of polarized behaviors or attitudes, especially those related to punishment andresponse to disagreement. This casts doubt on the actualization of the polarized theory ofrealism versus antirealism in moral worldview, and suggests that actions directed towardsothers do not always mimic personal convictions. Rather, it appears that diverse external orsituational factors carry more weight when it comes to making decisions about punishmentjudgments and conflict response.



A Cross Cultural Study of the Hook up Experiences and Motives of College Studentsin Ecuador and the United States

Krizia Vinck Advisor: Karen Rosen

Hooking up has become widespread across college campus and seems to dominate the socialscene of students. Few researchers have examined hooking up from a crossculturalperspective. The present study investigates hookup experiences from 320 undergraduates inEcuador and the United States, who were assessed via selfreport questionnaires.Participants’ motives for hooking up, sexual selfconcept, parental attachment, and overallsatisfaction with hookup experiences were examined. Results suggest that participants inEcuador and the United States do not differ as much as was expected. However, groupdifferences were found on study variables, such as attachment, sexual satisfaction, sexualmotive of coping, sexual motive of peer pressure and collectivism. Additionally, Ecuador andthe United States gave both different and similar reasons for engaging and not engaging inhookups. While the United States sample’s hook up frequency was predicted by sexual selfconcept, the sexual motive enhancement predicted hook up frequency in both samples.



Updated: April 29, 2013 Maintained by: Psychology Department

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