Academic Resilience: Adversity and traumatic experience in an educational context at university
subject: academic resilience traumatic experience resilience nontraumatic experience stress self-esteem self-efficacy academic performance
description: Resilience is a process whereby individuals bounce back or beat the odds despite the significant threat that can jeopardise their development. Academic resilience pertains to student´s success after educational adversity and their coping behaviour in challenging circumstances. Recently academic resilience became a validated psychological construct, and the present study uses this Academic Resilience Scale (ARS) to measure students response to academic adversity in a university sample with three analysis. The primary analysis: estimated the Life Event Checklist (LEC) or traumatic experienced and academic resilience which is unresearched. The findings indicated that students´ who have experienced a traumatic life event(s) and stressful situations are showing slightly more academic resilience than those who have not experienced a traumatic life event and stressful situations. A second analysis: academic resilience in a relationship with the life event, brief resilience, self-esteem, self-efficacy, perceived stress, and academic performance. Both self-efficacy and brief resilience predicted academic resilience. Third analysis: same parameters from the second analysis was utilised but now in a relationship with traumatic experienced and displayed that traumatic students had a more tendency for brief resilience, self-efficacy, self-esteem but perceived more stress than nontraumatic student´s. These results show that the academic resilience could be used as an intervention in the educational environment to enhance student´s coping behaviour and facilitate them to adjust more effectively in challenging circumstances.
creator: Astthor Odinn Olafsson
source: Participants The sample was based on an internet survey of 154 Lancaster University students from 29 different nationalities who enrolled either as an undergraduate at first year (n = 47), second year (n = 49), third year (n = 30), Master student (n = 19) or PhD student (n = 3). Subsequently, five participants were excluded because of not being a student. The final sample contained 149 participants between the ages of 18 and 52 years old (M = 21.21; SD = 3.66). Majority of participants ethnicity was 51.6% British, 10.5% Chinese, 3.3% Indian, 2,6% South Korean and 2.6% Cypriot and other nationalities were in the minority. The principal investigator was not able to obtain gender because of a technical problem. Materials Academic Resilience Scale-30 (ARS-30) ARS-30 (Cassidy, 2016), measures academic resilience and is developed to estimate university students. Participants answer 30 statements of an imaginative vignette where a comment or feedback from a tutor about a low grade on an assessment that was presented. Participants imagine themselves being in that position and their response is confined to a statement: „You have received your mark for a recent assignment, and it is a ‘fail.’ The marks for two other recent assignments were also poorer than you would want as you are aiming to get as good a degree as you can because you have clear career goals in mind and don’t want to disappoint your family. The feedback from the tutor for the assignment is quite critical, including reference to ‘lack of understanding’ and ‘poor writing and expression,’ but it also includes ways that the work could be improved. Similar comments were made by the tutors who marked your other two assignments.“ Responses were on a 5-point Likert scale 1 (very likely) to 5 (very unlikely). Items include, “ I would not accept the tutors´ feedback”; “I would just give up”; and” I would blame the tutor.” Following the guidelines provided by Cassidy (2016), 9 of the items were reverse-coded (e.g., “I w…
publisher: Lancaster University
date: 2018
contributor: Ellie Ball
rights: Open
relation: None
format: data/SPSS.sav
language: English
type: Data
coverage: LA1 4YF

Influence of an autobiographical memory recollection on moral decision making.
subject: The language effect emotional decision making guilt empathy pro-social behaviour
description: Research shows that emotional states are involved in moral reasoning and may affect people’s decision-making processes (Achar, So, Agrawal, & Duhachek, 2016). However, in recent research emotional states were shown to be easily influenced by such factors as the language type. It was found that a stimulus presented in the native language was perceived more emotionally when compared to stimuli presented in the second language (Pavlenko, 2005). This difference in emotionality was called the language effect (Puntoni, S., Langhe, & Van Osselaer, 2009). The relationship between used language (native vs. second) and emotionality level is important as it may provide potential applications in promoting beneficial decision making and consequent behaviour. Many advertising campaigns already target emotions (i.e. empathy, guilt, regret) in order to persuade people to act by their request (Lee, Andrade, Palmer, 2013). Thus the focus of this research was to analyse the relationship between emotional language processing (native vs. second language) targeting guilt, empathy levels and how they influence the consequent behaviour (i.e. helping). A multicultural sample of 126 bilingual adults, who all speak English, as a second language, completed an online questionnaire, assessing self-reported guilt, pro-social behaviour inclination, empathy and pro-social behaviour. Results showed that no significant differences were found between two language groups, indicating the lack of language effect in the present sample. Also, the results showed that high levels of self-reported guilt were significantly and positively associated with high levels of pro-social inclination and pro-social behaviour. Empathy was shown to have the same association – high levels of empathy being associated with high levels of pro-social inclination and pro-social behaviour. Lastly, further analysis found selfreported guilt as a predictor of pro-social behaviour and pro-social behaviour inclination. Overall, this …
creator: Sandra Andrasiunaite
source: Participants Participants of this study were adults, who spoke English as a second language (N= 126, 58 males, 68 females) and ranged in age from 18 to 46. Originally there were 138 participants, but 12 were excluded from further analysis due to being the native speakers of the English language and therefore not fitting the core requirement – speaking English as a second language. Also 10 participants wrote the memory in English instead of their native language, so they were diverted to the second language condition before proceeding with the analysis. The whole sample of participants was very diverse, which consisted of 25 different nationalities and 24 different native languages (see Appendix D), the top four languages being - Lithuanian (40), Spanish (14), German (13) and Polish (13). All participants signed an online consent form and answered questions about their nationality, native language, country of residence, and English language proficiency before proceeding with the questionnaire. Materials Self-reported guilt Self-reported guilt was measured by asking participants to first – recall and describe a memory in either their native or second language (i.e. English) and then to evaluate how bad they feel about their recalled actions, how guilty they feel about those actions and how much they regret them (Nelissen, 2012). All of the three questions testing self-reported guilt were assessed by 6-point forced choice Likert scale from 1 (‘Very much’) to 6 (‘Not at all’). Before the start of analyses, the scale was reverse scored from 1 (‘Not at all’) to 6 (‘Very much’) to ensure consistency with other measures. Pro-social behaviour The pro-social behaviour was measured by asking participants, how many additional questions they would be willing to answer after completing the survey. Participants were informed that they are almost done with the survey. However, it was stated, that it would be a great help to the researchers if participants could answer some addition…
publisher: Lancaster University
date: 2018
contributor: Ellie Ball
rights: Open
relation: None
format: Data
language: English
type: Data
coverage: LA1 4YF

Figurative language comprehension and links to autistic traits
subject: figurative language comprehension emotions autism
description: Figurative language is used quite frequently in both speech and writing, as to express our creative and abstract thoughts. Traditionally, it was thought that metaphors are ornamental in nature, as well as they are used rarely compared to literal language. However, today’s research suggests that people use metaphors in everyday communication. Moreover, people seem to pay more attention to sentences which are emotionally evocative, rather than neutral ones. In addition, it has been extensively reported that socio-communicative skills might be related to the successful comprehension. Special populations, such as autistic individuals, often struggle with both figurative language comprehension and acknowledging properly other people’s emotions. However, no prior research has explored both different types of sentences and their content (emotional or neutral). Sixty-two participants took an online questionnaire measuring their comprehension abilities and the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ) test, in order to measure their socio-communicative skills. Significant results were found for both the type of sentences, and the content. No significant effect of socio-communicative skills affecting comprehension was found. The results are discussed in terms of their theoretical and clinical importance.
creator: Anamarija Veic
source: Participants Sixty-two typically developed participants (M=31, F=31) between the ages of 18 and 62 (M= 24, SD=9.32) were got involved in the study. The majority of sample were students at Lancaster University (N=51). Participants were recruited in Lancaster (United Kingdom) via SONA or email. Twenty-nine participants were paid £5 (five British pounds) for taking part in the study. The remaining participants were not re-imbursed for their time. Only the adults (minimum age of 18) who were British English native speakers could have taken part in this study. Participants were not aware of a true aim of the study. Participants were simply told that the project is about figurative language comprehension, as to avoid any possible bias. At the end of their participation, they were informed about the details and the aims of the study. The study has been approved by the ethics committee. Apparatus and materials The participants were asked to complete an online questionnaire developed with the Qualtrics survey software. Upon recruitment, participants were sent a Qualtrics link to the survey. All participants were exposed to the same stimuli but each of them got a different randomised order. Approximately ten minutes were sufficient for participants to take part in the study. Participants could start answering the questionnaire and then finish it at another point of time if needed, as their answers were automatically saved for seven days after they opened the questionnaire on their browser. No more than 10 sentences were shown per page, as to avoid fatigue. Both literal sentences and novel metaphors used as stimuli in this project were originally structured by Cardillo, Schmidt, Kranjec, and Chatterjee (2012). Their aim was to construct a design of matched metaphoric and literal sentences as to test the role of novelty and different metaphor types involved in metaphor comprehension. The authors managed to control the next ten dimensions: dimensions: length, frequency, concrete…
publisher: Lancaster University
date: 2018
contributor: Ellie Ball
rights: Open
relation: None
format: Data/SPSS.sav
language: English
type: Data
coverage: LA1 4YF

Exploring Guilt Appeals
subject: None
description: Guilt appeals are commonly used in charity advertising as a means of persuading a consumer to donate. This qualitative study uses an Indian sample to understand if there exists any differences in how they are perceived by individuals in a society that is not guilt based. Participants were exposed to 5 advertising campaigns in a focus group interview. The research also seeks to understand other factors that persuade a consumer to donate. It was found that guilt was only a supplementary factor in persuasion and factors of personal relevance and focus of action played a larger role in persuading with the sample used in this research. Guilt was effective in changing the attitude and beliefs of a consumer, but it was the factors of personal relevance and ease and convenience that were influential in changing donation intention into charitable behaviour. However, the small sample is also a limitation in generalising the responses to an entire culture.
creator: Mridhula Ravi
source: The purpose of this research was to understand the effectiveness of charity advertisements using guilt appeals in an Indian sample. Content analysis was then used to find patterns and themes in the responses of the participants. Research Design Focus Group Interviews Since the research aimed to create a narrative of the participants opinions and views, focus groups were employed. Focus groups also enable for understanding and exploring a topic in depth and understanding the nuances of the thoughts and opinions of the participants and thus understand how they respond to guilt appeals. Interviewer The primary researcher was used as the interviewer on the basis of being well versed with the material and thus the quality of establishing rapport and guiding the focus group discussion. Discussion Guide The primary aim of this research was to understand the perception of guilt appeals in charity adverts and the factors used in the adverts that contribute to donation intention. A discussion guide was formulated in line with the aim of the research and to provide a structure to the direction of the interview. Some of the questions included: ‘How do you feel when you look at this advertisement’, ‘The advertisements intend to use guilt. Do you think that was effective’ and ‘Did you feel guilty when you were exposed to the advertisements?’ (See Appendix A). However the questions were not asked in order and were chosen based on the responses chosen by the participants. Participants A focus group with 7 participants was organised. All the participants were Indian by nationality and graduate students of Lancaster University. Of the 7 participants. There were 5 males and 2 females. The only criteria for choosing the sample was that they had to have lived in India for at least 10 years or identify as an Indian national The age of the participants ranged from 20 to 25 years old. There was no difference by gender and gender was not considered as a variable in this research. Materials …
publisher: Lancaster University
date: 2015
contributor: Rebecca James
rights: Open
relation: None
format: None
language: English
type: None
coverage: LA1 4YF

Sexualised Advertising through Instagram: An exploration into the effects this has on female appearance satisfaction
subject: None
description: This study explored the beliefs and opinions held by females aged 20-23 years on Instagram. It aimed to uncover possible effects that exposure to sexualised content and beauty standards could have on young female’s appearance satisfaction. Previous literature has addressed extensively how social comparisons and internalisation of beauty ideals can negatively affect females, increasing body dissatisfaction. This research aimed to expand these findings, exploring how body and facial attractiveness seen online can affect appearance satisfaction as a whole. Previous studies have determined that internalisation and social comparison are prevalent in women that compare themselves to others on Instagram. These theories along with objectification and cultivation theory are utilized to comprehend female’s perceptions of beauty and how it could be implicating them to act in a sexualised way online. The study consisted of two focus groups, each lasting approximately one hour. A convenience sample was used recruiting university students. A semi-structured interview schedule was utilised to allow for rich data to be produced. The data was categorised by using thematic analysis strategies of coding, mapping and deducing themes. The research conclusion found that women did report decreased appearance satisfaction when viewing ‘beautiful’ girls on Instagram, social comparisons was identified as more salient with peers, yet they did also report comparing themselves with reality television stars. Findings also reported that internalisation of beauty ideals was strong, they remark television and the social media for ‘normalising’ beauty standards. Lastly, participants were found to self-objectify themselves in a sexual manner more for Instagram than other social media sites.
creator: Chrystal Champion
source: This study explores the possible effects social networking site Instagram has on young females, in relation to their appearance satisfaction. Overall, it aims to add to existing literature within this field and other domains such as sociology and women’s studies, whilst also extending previous literature, as this research looks beyond body satisfaction and addresses appearance satisfaction completely. It also provides scope into understanding Instagram and the magnitude of its effects on the user, as the majority of previous literature focuses on Facebook. 3.1 Research Design Two focus groups were conducted, each lasting approximately one hour. The focus group was held in a small lecture theatre at Lancaster University in the Management School (Lecture Theatre 12). A phenomenological approach was applied as the research aims to explore a group of participant’s experiences and aims to further make sense of these experiences (Creswell, 2013). Application of focus groups was applied as it allowed for a semi-structured narrative of findings. The participants were able to express their thoughts, feelings and opinions in relation to this topic of research. A semi-structured interview type was applied as it allows for more flexibility, allows for more rapport building and these aspects can lead to richer data which enters more novel spheres (Smith & Osborn, 2003). 3.2 Sampling The overall sample consisted of 13 female students studying at Lancaster University between the ages of 20-23 years. This age was used as research has suggested that young females within these age brackets tend to be heavy Instagram users. These participants were recruited through convenience sampling, no specific recruitment criteria concerning use of social media was applied, in order to allow this variable to fall out naturally in the sample. 3.3 Research Procedures 3.3.1 Materials The participants were given an information sheet and a consent sheet at the beginning of the focus groups. These deta…
publisher: Lancaster University
date: 2018
contributor: Rebecca James
rights: Open
relation: None
format: Text/.docx
language: English
type: Text
coverage: LA1 4YF

Does the use of prompts in shared reading facilitate the quantity and quality of language in Down Syndrome children?
subject: Down syndrome, linguistic abilities, dialogic reading, prompted reading.
description: Children with Down syndrome typically present with specific linguistic and communicative difficulties. The present study aims to explore how dialogic prompted reading facilitates better quality and quantity of language production in pre-school aged Down syndrome children. Research has demonstrated how reading interventions enhance typically developing children’s linguistic qualities, yet few studies have investigated the beneficial effects of dialogic prompted reading among Down syndrome children. Eight Down syndrome and 8 typically developing children completed two shared reading tasks with their mothers. One task involved reading a book containing a series of prompted questions, the other book contained no prompts. As predicted, prompted reading resulted in the development of more complex syntax, better vocabulary production and facilitated better responses accuracy to literal and inferential concepts, in Down syndrome children. In addition, the inclusion of prompts also increased parental scaffolding techniques for both diagnostic groups. The results from this study indicate that dialogic prompted reading does improve Down syndrome children’s qualitative and quantitative linguistic abilities and promotes better communication with parents during shared reading tasks. These findings highlight the educational significance of prompted dialogic reading as a highly beneficial intervention for developing an array of linguistic qualities in children with Down syndrome.
creator: Laura J. Durrans
source: Participants A total of 16 children and their mothers took part in this study. Eight children with Down syndrome (DS: 4 female, 4 male, age range = 4.58 years to 6.75 years, Mage = 5.3 years) and 8 typically developing children (TD: 2 female, 6 male, age range = 3.9 years to 6.66 years, Mage = 5.1 years). This is a secondary data analysis study and all participants were previously recruited by the principle investigator and supervisor, Kate Cain. Video recordings of all child-parent reading dyads were made and were transcribed into written from. The Departmental Ethics Committee approved this study prior to the author receiving any video or transcribed data. Stimuli In this study, mothers were given two books to read with their children, ‘Mooncake’ and ‘Skyfire’ (Asch, 2014; 2014). Parents were asked to read both books as they normally would read at home with their child. One version of each book contained a series of 12 prompts which were inserted at specific points and parents where asked read them aloud as they went through the book (based on Van Kleek et al, 2006). Between both books there were a total of 24 prompts. For each book, prompts were evenly split between 4 sub-categories: picture labelling prompts “What is that? (pointing to Bear)”, vocabulary prompts “What does ‘hollow’ mean?”, inference prompts “ Why did Bear fall asleep?”, and general knowledge prompts “What else could Bear have used to stick the spoon to the arrow?”. The aim of the prompts was to encourage communication and scaffolding interactions between mothers and children when reading together. These books where specifically selected for multiple reasons: first, they have been successfully used in previous studies investigating linguistic impairments in pre-school aged children with language difficulties (Van Kleek et al 1997; 2006; Hammet, Van Kleek & Huberty, 2003). Second, the classic story-line of each book provides opportunities for children to follow a written and pictorial narrative, e…
publisher: Lancaster University
date: 2017
contributor: Rebecca James
rights: Open
relation: None
format: Data/SPSS.sav
language: English
type: Data
coverage: LA1 4YF

An investigation into automatic imitation: Comparing live and video setups, the effect of prior training and the influence on affective empathy
subject: automatic imitation, empathy, imitation training, inhibition training, mirror neuron system, self-other distinction
description: If decreased Automatic Imitation(AI) improves empathetic abilities, then selfother distinction processes are probably the mediating factor between imitation and empathy. But if increased AI improves empathy, then probably imitation is at the core of the socio-cognitive functions. Until now, it was shown that decreased AI improved visual perspective taking, corticospinal empathy and self-reported empathy. Also, the studies until now focus on video AI stimuli. But to understand whether AI has a more direct relation to mimicry, I developed also live paradigm. My research questions were firstly, what effect will imitation training and inhibition training have on AI. Secondly, whether live stimuli AI will have the same effects on AI testing (inhibition versus imitation) and arousal empathy testing. Thirdly, whether the effects are transferable on arousal empathy. As expected, there was a significant decrease of AI in the video inhibition condition in comparison to the video imitation condition. Unexpectedly, a significant, but weak increase in arousal empathy was observed in the video imitation condition and not in the video inhibition group. The difference in AI and arousal empathy between the life imitation group and the life inhibition group were not significant. The results give a new perspective on the topic of AI. If the results can be reproduced by more studies, then probably imitation is more important than self-other distinction processes or maybe arousal empathy is different from other forms of empathy. Finally, the insignificant results in the life imitation versus life inhibition training indicate that there are maybe confounding factors in live AI research or that the video AI designs are more artificial than it is assumed.
creator: Evangelos Baltatzis
source: Participants Sixty(N=60) participants were recruited in a two-by-two factorial design, and divided equally among two between-subject factors. The first factor is Stimulus, whereby AI will be measured in response hand actions performed by an experimenter sat across a table from the participant (Live) or to the actor’s pre-recorded hand-action stimuli presented on a monitor. The second factor is Training, whereby participants will undertake a brief period of imitating the actions of the live or videoed handaction stimuli (IMI) or performing the opposite actions (IMI-IN). The participants were recruited from students of the University of Lancaster. Random selection could not be used, because of practical and logistical difficulties. Hence, most of the participants were Masters students and some were PhD students. The participants were either friends and acquaintances or they had the motivation to win a 10 pounds amazon voucher. In many cases they had the motivation to participate in my study, because they also wanted me to participate in their study. Firstly, we conducted the experiments with the video paradigm (15 participants in the imitation training condition and 15 participants in the inhibition training condition) and then we conducted the experiments of the live paradigm (15 participants in the imitation training condition and 15 participants in the inhibition training condition). We use random assignment for the recruitment in the training condition, thusly, every participant was randomly assigned in either the imitation training or in the inhibition training condition. For instance, we did not conduct first 15 experiments in the imitation training condition and then 15 experiments in the inhibition training condition, but every participant was in a different training condition. Nevertheless, one possible limitation may be that we did not do the same for the stimulus condition, as we conducted first the experiments of the video condition and then the experiment…
publisher: Lancaster University
date: 2017
contributor: Rebecca James
rights: Open
relation: None
format: Data/SPSS.sav
language: English
type: Data
coverage: LA1 4YF

Testing the Heat Hypothesis: The Relationship between Temperature and Violent Crime Rates
subject: None
description: This paper explored the relationship between temperature and behaviour. In particular the effect heat has on violent crimes. The heat hypothesis states that increased ambient temperatures can cause increased aggressive motives and behaviours. The current study was longitudinal and archival. Data was collated from four different countries: U.S., Japan, Jamaica and Finland over a period of 40 years. Data was collected from reliable online sources for: Temperature in degrees Celsius (℃), rainfall in millimetres (mm), intentional homicide rates, assault rates, rape rates and burglary rates. Rainfall and burglary were control variables. Analyses revealed a significant and positive relationship between temperature and intentional homicide, assault and rape rates. Temperature and burglary were not significantly related. Such results provide support for the heat hypothesis. The relationship between heat and violent crime should be investigated further; as the effects of global warming increase, so may violent crime rates worldwide.
creator: Georgia Fifer
source: Data In accord with Anderson et al’s., (1997) methods, data of the following crimes were collected: intentional homicide, assault, rape and burglary within a specified 40 years. This crime data was sampled from the following countries databases: U.S., Japan, Jamaica and Finland. The inclusion criteria were to include the countries which had the most available data on crime. There were no data exclusions as the current study was retrospective, meaning all data had already been collected. The 40 years analysed within each country differed depending on data availability. Crime rates were collected in the U.S. between the years 1960 and 2000. Crime rates were collected in Japan between the years 1975 and 2015. Crime rates were collected in Jamaica between the years 1970 and 2010. Crime rates were collected in Finland between the years 1976 and 2016. Therefore there would have been 160 full observations of intentional homicide, assault, rape and robbery. However, due to limited data available there were gaps in the data. For the U.S., 40 full observations of intentional homicide, assault, rape and robbery were obtained. For Japan, 23 full observations were obtained and 17 partial. For Jamaica, 11 full observations were obtained and 29 partial. For Finland, 22 full observations were obtained and 18 partial. The crime data was police reported and per 100,000 of the population, as smaller figures were easier to manage. Crime data was collected from the following reliable online resources: Bourne et al., (2015), Burns (2013), (Knoema, 2011), (Nation Master, 2003), (Statista, n.d.), (Uniform Crime Reporting, 1930), (United Nations World Surveys, 2006), (UNODC Statistics, 1997). Websites were considered reliable if they were established official government data repositories. Temperature (℃) and rainfall (mm) data were also collected. This data was obtained from an online climate data portal (Climate Change Knowledge Portal, n.d.). Rainfall was included as a control variable to…
publisher: Lancaster University
date: 2015
contributor: Rebecca James
rights: Open
relation: None
format: Data/Excel.xslx
language: English
type: Data
coverage: LA1 4YF

The Effect of Ambient Temperature on Cognitive Processing
subject: Ambient temperature Cognitive reflection Syllogistic reasoning Logistic mixed effects modelling.
description: Over recent decades, climate change has caused the world to get warmer and this trend is set to continue into the future. Relationships between increased temperature and changes in human behaviour, such as increased aggression, have been identified and it is therefore important to consider the impact it may have on other aspects of behaviour. At present, there are limited amounts of research on the effect of temperature on cognitive performance. Within the framework of dual-process theories of cognition and using a Cognitive Reflection Task (CRT) and a Syllogisms Task, the current report researches whether increased ambient temperature (artificially manipulated in a temperature lab) encourages the use of System 1 (i.e. fast, unconscious) processing as opposed to System 2 (i.e. slow, deliberate) processing. The paper asks whether increased temperature leads to more heuristic answers on the CRT and more belief bias on the Syllogisms task. We observed no effect of temperature on performance on the CRT or the Syllogisms task. Similarly, we observed no effect of ambient temperature on belief bias or confidence in answers to the Syllogisms task. However, an effect of ambient temperature was found on how many heuristic responses were given to the CRT, with those in the cold condition giving more heuristic answers than those in the hot condition. We conclude that these findings do not provide support for increased temperature impairing certain aspects of cognitive performance, but also explore unexpected results and discuss potential reasons for these
creator: Nicola Cook
source: Participants 65 individuals participated in this research study. Three were excluded for not meeting the pre-decided eligibility criteria of being a native English speaker aged between 18 and 65. This left 62 participants, 19 male and 43 female (Mage = 25.29 SDage = 8.83). Prior to the study, 1.61% had attained a PhD, 9.68% a Master’s degree, 40.32% a Bachelor’s degree, 33.87% A-Levels, 3.23% GSCEs, 9.68% a Certificate or Diploma and 1.61% had no qualifications. All participants completed the whole study, and none indicated awareness of the true aims of the study, thus, following pre-agreed exclusion criteria all participants were retained for analysis. Materials Cognitive Reflection Task. To test participants’ cognitive reflection, a form of the CRT (Frederick, 2005) was utilised. The CRT consists of a series of problem solving questions, with four multiple choice answers. For example, the question, ‘A bat and a ball cost £1.10 in total. The bat costs £1.00 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?’ is presented alongside the following four options; ‘10p’, ‘5p’, ‘15p’ and ‘90p’. In this case the gut instinct is usually to respond with ‘10p’ however this is incorrect, and the correct response is, ‘5p’. Frederick’s (2005) original version of the task only consisted of three items and has since been criticised for being too short; about 44% of participants who are given the task have previously seen the questions and this leads to the inflation of their scores on subsequent testing sessions (Stieger & Reips, 2016). Consequently, both Primi, Morsanyi, Chiesi, Donati and Hamilton (2016) and Travers, Rolison and Feeney (2016) have since developed longer versions of the tasks; Primi et al.’s (2016) consisted of 6 items, whilst Travers, Rolison and Feeney’s (2016) consisted of 8. The present study combined items from both papers, taking 6 critical items from Primi et al. (2016) and 4 items, used as fillers, (adapted) from Travers, Rolison and Feeney (2016). The fill…
publisher: Lancaster University
date: 2018
contributor: Ellie Ball
rights: Open
relation: None
format: data/Excel.csv
language: English
type: Data
coverage: LA1 4YF

Perception of sounds sequences: predictions for behavioural measurements generated with a computational model of auditory cortex
subject: Cartesian state space difference calculations
description: Behavioural and neuroscientific research into sound perception shows that our auditory system is able to represent the temporal structure of sounds over a wide range of time windows – a process labelled as temporal binding. Recent computational modelling work suggests that synaptic depression in auditory cortex, responsible for adaptation of neural responses to repeated stimuli, is also the memory mechanism which allows for temporal structure of sounds to be represented. This project aimed to generate behavioural predictions of this explanation of temporal binding. Simulations examined how the cortex is able to discriminate between sound sequences differing from each other in terms of the timing, amplitude, and frequency of the sequence elements. Along with the temporal length of the sequences, the lifetime of neural adaptation was manipulated. The results predict that the thresholds for discriminating sound sequences should be tuned to a given sequence duration. These findings are discussed in light of the previous research on how the dynamics and anatomical structures within the auditory cortex may facilitate neural adaptation.
creator: Zsofia Belteki
source: The current project investigated the processing of sound sequences by applying a computational model of the auditory cortex described in more detail in the study by May and Tiitinen (2013). The coding of the experiment, including stimulus design and experimental design, along with data analysis all took place in MATLAB. Model structure and dynamics Structure. The model is made up of 14 brain areas, with 13 cortical areas that include three core, eight belt and two parabelt areas of the auditory cortex, and one sub-cortical area simulating the thalamus. Each area is made up of 16 computational units representing cortical columns, with each column comprising one excitatory (pyramidal) and one inhibitory population of neurons. Altogether, this meant that there are 224 columns within the model. There are three levels of structural connections, namely interaction within columns, interaction between columns and interactions between the different cortical areas. Structural connections are expressed through connection matrices that describe synaptic connections between the excitatory populations (Wee), from inhibitory to excitatory populations (Wei), and from excitatory to inhibitory populations (Wie). Intra-column connections are assumed to be the strongest, with the synaptic weight for the within-column excitatory feedback (i.e., the diagonal values of Wee ) being set to 6, and the within-column weight values of Wei and Wie (inter-neuron connections targeting excitatory and inhibitory cells respectively) being set to 3.5. The excitatory population of each column made lateral connections to the excitatory populations of neighboring columns within the area. These connections extended to a distance of two columns on either side. Similarly, the excitatory population connected to neighboring inhibitory populations across a distance of five columns, with these connections accounting for lateral inhibition (see Figure 1). In both cases, there was a Gaussian drop off of the weigh…
publisher: Lancaster University
date: 2015
contributor: Ellie Ball
rights: Open
relation: None
format: Data/MATLAB
language: English
type: Data
coverage: LA1 4YF