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Title: KNOWLEDGE BASE EFFECTS ON THE MEMORY PERFORMANCE OF GOOD AND POOR READERS.
Creator: BERNHOLTZ, JEAN ELLEN., Florida Atlantic University, Bjorklund, David F.
Abstract/Description: Good and poor seventh grade readers were given a typicality rating task in session one. In session two subjects were given an incidental cued-recall task with item typicality individually defined. In session three subjects were given two free recall lists, with item typicality for the Self-Generated lists individually defined and item typicality for the Adult-Generated lists based on adult ratings. In session one, poor readers selected fewer items as appropriate category exemplars than did...
Show moreGood and poor seventh grade readers were given a typicality rating task in session one. In session two subjects were given an incidental cued-recall task with item typicality individually defined. In session three subjects were given two free recall lists, with item typicality for the Self-Generated lists individually defined and item typicality for the Adult-Generated lists based on adult ratings. In session one, poor readers selected fewer items as appropriate category exemplars than did good readers or adults, and correlations with adults were greater for the good readers for all twelve categories. Recall was equivalent for both groups for the incidental cued-recall and Self-Generated free recall tasks. Good readers recalled more only for the Adult-Generated free recall task. Poor readers have a different knowledge base than good readers resulting in differences in the extent to which semantic memory relations can be easily activated.
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Date Issued: 1985
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/14271
Subject Headings: Reading--Ability testing, Reading comprehension
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Understanding strategy development in gifted and nongifted children: A cross-sectional study.
Creator: Read, Lenore E., Florida Atlantic University, Bjorklund, David F.
Abstract/Description: The present study, a cross-sectional design involving 7 to 10 year olds, analyzed similarities and differences between gifted and nongifted children in spontaneous strategy acquisition through the concept of utilization deficiency (Miller, 1990). Children were classified into four strategic categories: utilizationally deficient, strategic and nonstrategic non-utilizationally deficient, and a new category termed quasi-utilizationally deficient. Strategy development between gifted and nongifted...
Show moreThe present study, a cross-sectional design involving 7 to 10 year olds, analyzed similarities and differences between gifted and nongifted children in spontaneous strategy acquisition through the concept of utilization deficiency (Miller, 1990). Children were classified into four strategic categories: utilizationally deficient, strategic and nonstrategic non-utilizationally deficient, and a new category termed quasi-utilizationally deficient. Strategy development between gifted and nongifted children was compared through a series of sort/recall trials. The targeted strategy was an organizational one which begins to be manifested in middle schoolage children. Additionally, the experiment examined the possible influences of metacognition, IQ, and motivation (e.g., self-attributions and self-efficacy) on the occurrence and outcome of strategy use in these two populations. The use of the strategic classifications proved successful in delineating both differences and similarities between the two groups.
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Date Issued: 1994
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/15051
Subject Headings: Gifted children, Cognition in children, Problem solving in children, Intelligence levels--Children
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: CHILDREN’S MORAL SENSITIVITY: AN EXAMINATION OF THE SUSPECTED LINK BETWEEN ALTRUISTIC PUNISHMENT AND MORAL JUDGMENTS.
Creator: Dukes, Charles, Bjorklund, David F., Florida Atlantic University, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Psychology
Abstract/Description: Developmental research on moral psychology has long been driven by the classic studies of Lawrence Kohlberg with an almost exclusive focus on reasoning. The adoption of an evolutionary perspective has opened moral psychology to investigations into the deep roots of morality. From this perspective, it is thought that group living (cooperation), evolved psychological mechanisms, disgust, emotion, and punishment make for the complex building blocks that is morality. Based on this notion, it is...
Show moreDevelopmental research on moral psychology has long been driven by the classic studies of Lawrence Kohlberg with an almost exclusive focus on reasoning. The adoption of an evolutionary perspective has opened moral psychology to investigations into the deep roots of morality. From this perspective, it is thought that group living (cooperation), evolved psychological mechanisms, disgust, emotion, and punishment make for the complex building blocks that is morality. Based on this notion, it is quite possible that morality is present early in life and driven by the forces of natural selection. Thus, moral development may be understood by taking a different approach, one that takes into account the tenants of evolution. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of third-party punishment on children’s moral sentiments using a common moral transgression (exclusion from a group). For this cross-sectional study, children in age groups 4-5, 7-8, and 12-13 years heard two short stories describing a perpetrator (matched in gender to the participant) who excludes a victim (also matched in gender to the participant). For each story, children were asked to imagine a different relationship to the victim: kin (i.e., brother or sister) or non-kin (i.e., friend/stranger). After each story, children were asked to rate the intensity of the moral transgression, choose a possible punishment for the perpetrator, identify an emotion associated with the transgression, and then offer a justification for the emotion. A total of 109 children were interviewed for the study. Results were mixed. Relationship (kin vs. non-kin) made a difference in some cases, while not in others. Overall, all children rated the treatment of the victim as wrong, deemed punishment as necessary, and reported neutral emotions. The children in the 12 to 13 age group were different on measures of wrongness and emotional responses. There is some evidence that relationship may influence moral sentiments, which is in line with an evolutionary hypothesis. Moral sentiments seem to be present early, and common moral transgressions are perceived as wrong early and consistently across age groups. This study provides some insight into the evolutionary roots of morality. Additional research is necessary to gain a greater understanding of other factors contributing to the evolutionary roots of morality.
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Date Issued: 2019
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00013300
Subject Headings: Moral development, Ethics, Evolutionary, Moral judgment, Children, Punishment, Moral psychology of the emotions
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: The development of anonymous giving in relation to ownership understanding, theory of mind, empathy, and differences in relatedness.
Creator: Machluf, Karin, Bjorklund, David F., Florida Atlantic University, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Psychology
Abstract/Description: Prosocial behavior can be defined as any behavior that an individual engages in to benefit another (Eisenberg, Fabes, & Spinrad, 2006). Prosociality is not one homogenous trait, however, but is made up of three specific types of behavior: helping, cooperating, and sharing (or, more accurately, donating) (Tomasello, 2009). Although helping and cooperating are important to understanding prosocial development, giving behaviors might be particularly informative when trying to understand...
Show moreProsocial behavior can be defined as any behavior that an individual engages in to benefit another (Eisenberg, Fabes, & Spinrad, 2006). Prosociality is not one homogenous trait, however, but is made up of three specific types of behavior: helping, cooperating, and sharing (or, more accurately, donating) (Tomasello, 2009). Although helping and cooperating are important to understanding prosocial development, giving behaviors might be particularly informative when trying to understand prosociality in young children as it poses a distinct problem for younger children (Tomasello, 1998). Research on proximate causes of prosocial behavior state that these behaviors are influenced by emotions of empathy (Batson, 1991), theory of mind, or understanding of social norms of ownership (Blake & Rand, 2010). Research on more ultimate causes of prosociality suggest that these behaviors evolved due to mechanisms or kin selection (Hamilton, 1964) and inclusive fitness (Trivers, 1971), and is evident by the effect of social category and relatedness on donations in resource- allocation games (Gummerum et al., 2009). Research with children using resource- allocations games, such as the dictator game, are sparse, but typically find that children donate more as they get older, and that out-group receive fewer allocations than in-group members (Moore, 2009). This research also highlight the importance of anonymity and its effect on prosociality. When tested using an anonymous design, children donate less and some children don’t donate at all (Benenson et al., 2007). Using an anonymous dictator game, children’s giving behaviors were examined across in- group, out-group, and family members. Thirty-five children (12 3-year-olds (7 male), 13 4-year-olds (8 male), and 10 5-year-olds (7 male) completed the experiment. Each child participated in each condition, as well as measures of theory of mind and ownership understanding. Children’s empathy scores were attained from a parent questionnaire regarding children’s empathic behaviors. Results revealed that some children did not donate any stickers at all; seven in total, and that these children differed significantly from those that gave on measures of empathy. Of those that donated, 3-year-old children donated significantly more than 5-year-old children (F(1,3) =3.64, p < .05). This is contrary to previous findings which find that giving increases across age., The was no main effect for Recipient, and no significant interaction between Age and Recipient. Five-year-olds scored significantly higher on measures of ownership understanding (F(2, 25) = 4.36, p< .05), suggesting that understanding of social norms of ownership may be partially responsible for their decrease in overall giving.
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Date Issued: 2014
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004213
Subject Headings: Altruism, Analysis (Philosophy), Ego (Psychology), Helping behavior, Identity (Philosophical concept), Motivation (Psychology), Social psychology
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: The behavioral, emotional, and attentional effects of human baby schema.
Creator: Machluf, Karin, Bjorklund, David F., Florida Atlantic University, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Psychology
Abstract/Description: Children exhibit neotenous, or physically immature, features, such as a large rounded head relative to body size, adult-sized eyes, round cheeks, a small chin, and a short narrow nose. Bowlby (1969) and others (Eibl-Eibesfeldt, 1989; Hrdy, 2005) propose that, in species whose young depend on care from an adult, these features could enhance offspring survival. Lorenz (1943) argued that adult humans are particularly attracted to these features, and that these characteristics, which he termed...
Show moreChildren exhibit neotenous, or physically immature, features, such as a large rounded head relative to body size, adult-sized eyes, round cheeks, a small chin, and a short narrow nose. Bowlby (1969) and others (Eibl-Eibesfeldt, 1989; Hrdy, 2005) propose that, in species whose young depend on care from an adult, these features could enhance offspring survival. Lorenz (1943) argued that adult humans are particularly attracted to these features, and that these characteristics, which he termed Kindchenschema or “baby schema,” trigger a cognitive system that processes and reacts specifically to infantile features for the purpose of enhancing motivation to engage in caretaking behaviors. The goal of the studies proposed here is to examine the behavioral, attentional, and emotional effects of baby schema.
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Date Issued: 2015
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004452, http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004452
Subject Headings: Ego (Psychology), Emotions in infants, Empathy, Evolutionary psychology, Genetic psychology, Human behavior, Identity (Philosophical concept), Moral development, Parent and child
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: The effect of competition on men’s sexual behavior.
Creator: Gorelik, Gregory, Bjorklund, David F., Florida Atlantic University, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Psychology
Abstract/Description: Evidence in humans suggests that men are especially competitive with other men over resources and, if successful, are valued as attractive mating prospects by women. Previous studies also show that men experience an increase in testosterone following a win and a decrease in testosterone following a loss. If an increase in testosterone following a victory is an evolved physiological response aimed at readying a man for an increase in mating opportunities, then experimentally manipulating...
Show moreEvidence in humans suggests that men are especially competitive with other men over resources and, if successful, are valued as attractive mating prospects by women. Previous studies also show that men experience an increase in testosterone following a win and a decrease in testosterone following a loss. If an increase in testosterone following a victory is an evolved physiological response aimed at readying a man for an increase in mating opportunities, then experimentally manipulating competitive outcomes should differentially affect men’s sex-drive. One-hundred thirteen men were randomly assigned to experience a win, a loss, or no competitive feedback. Participants’ sex-drive was gauged by their responses to photographs of women of differential attractiveness. Results showed that only single men exhibited a higher sex-drive in the winning condition, followed by the control and losing conditions, respectively. Limitations and practical applications to decreasing instances of rape and sexual coercion are discussed.
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Date Issued: 2014
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004198
Subject Headings: Mate selection -- Psychological aspects, Psychoneuroendocrinology, Sports -- Physiological aspects, Sports -- Psychological aspects, Testosterone -- Physiology
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Women’s Plasticity During Childhood and their Influence on Rape-Avoidance Behaviors.
Creator: Penaloza, Sammy, Bjorklund, David F., Florida Atlantic University, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Psychology
Abstract/Description: Evolutionary theory predicts that sexual coercion and rape are likely to occur in any species in which males are more aggressive, more eager to mate, more sexually assertive, and less discriminating in choosing a mate (Thornhill & Palmer, 2000). McKibbin and Shackelford (2011) state that males of many species have evolved strategies to sexually coerce and rape females. It is for this reason that researchers have speculated that several female traits or behaviors evolved to reduce the risks of...
Show moreEvolutionary theory predicts that sexual coercion and rape are likely to occur in any species in which males are more aggressive, more eager to mate, more sexually assertive, and less discriminating in choosing a mate (Thornhill & Palmer, 2000). McKibbin and Shackelford (2011) state that males of many species have evolved strategies to sexually coerce and rape females. It is for this reason that researchers have speculated that several female traits or behaviors evolved to reduce the risks of being raped (McKibbin & Shackelford, 2011). The rationale behind the proposed experiment examined whether parents’ childrearing practices and women’s plasticity during childhood may have influenced the development of psychological mechanisms in response to the recurrent adaptive problem of rape. Analyses showed that maternal support during childhood predicted how frequently rape-avoidance behaviors were exhibited by women as adults. Analyses also showed that father absence was related to earlier sexual activity but age of menarche did not predict and was not associated with any rape-avoidance behaviors.
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Date Issued: 2016
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004784
Subject Headings: Rape--Psychological aspects., Rape victims--Public opinion., Women--Violence against., Men--Sexual behavior., Men--Attitudes., Human behavior., Sex differences (Psychology), Evolutionary psychology.
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: The Influence of Belief in the Supernatural and Perceptions of Religious, Spiritual, or Natural Explanations on Ratings of Positive Affect, Negative Affect, and Intelligence.
Creator: Periss, Virginia A., Bjorklund, David F., Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Psychology
Abstract/Description: Living in complex social environments consists not only of sets of individuals with their own dyadic relationships but also whose own dyadic relationships with other group members must be observed and inferred from. Credibility enhancing displays may provide one effective tool for dealing with complex social environments by extracting and integrating adaptive information from an immense range of potential social partners. Organized religious beliefs typical of routine rituals and standardized...
Show moreLiving in complex social environments consists not only of sets of individuals with their own dyadic relationships but also whose own dyadic relationships with other group members must be observed and inferred from. Credibility enhancing displays may provide one effective tool for dealing with complex social environments by extracting and integrating adaptive information from an immense range of potential social partners. Organized religious beliefs typical of routine rituals and standardized religious ideologies may serve as one type of credibility cue. The aim of this study was to assess how others judge adult's expressing a religious, spiritual, or natural explanation on traits associated with Positive Affect, Negative Affect, and Intelligence. Results from the study revealed that religious explanations were more affective than spiritual explanations at influencing perceptions of Positive-Affect and Negative Affect for those high and low in religious beliefs.
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Date Issued: 2010
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00000806
Subject Headings: Interpersonal relations, Social groups, Religiousness
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: The Effect of Competition on Men's Sexual Psychology and Attitudes Toward Rape.
Creator: Gorelik, Gregory, Bjorklund, David F., Florida Atlantic University, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Psychology
Abstract/Description: In addition to the reproductive benefits associated with outcompeting sexual rivals and being seen as an attractive mating prospect by women, research suggests that competition adaptively regulates men's sexual interest and behavior in preparation for mating opportunities following competitive outcomes, with victory leading to an increase in sexual interest and loss leading to a decrease in sexual interest. One hundred fifteen undergraduate men engaged in a contrived competitive task in which...
Show moreIn addition to the reproductive benefits associated with outcompeting sexual rivals and being seen as an attractive mating prospect by women, research suggests that competition adaptively regulates men's sexual interest and behavior in preparation for mating opportunities following competitive outcomes, with victory leading to an increase in sexual interest and loss leading to a decrease in sexual interest. One hundred fifteen undergraduate men engaged in a contrived competitive task in which a third were led to believe that they won, a third were led to believe that they lost, and a third were led to believe that they neither won nor lost. Participants completed the Rape Attitudes and Beliefs Scale (RABS), which was used to test whether the effects of competition extend to men's proneness to sexual aggression. In addition, the current study attempted to replicate Gorelik and Bjorklund's (2015) finding that only single men's sexual interest is affected by competition. Results did not reveal an effect of competition on men's rape proclivity, although there were effects in the predicted direction on two of the RABS items. Gorelik and Bjorklund's (2015) effect of competition on men's sexual interest was not replicated. Limitations, implications for the understanding of the biology of sexual aggression, and directions for future research are discussed.
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Date Issued: 2015
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004500
Subject Headings: Man woman relationships, Men -- Attitudes, Psychoneuroendocrinology, Rape -- Public opinion, Stereotypes (Social psychology), Violence in men, Women -- Violence against -- Attitudes
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: DEVELOPMENTAL DIFFERENCES IN THE TIMING OF ORGANIZATION IN CHILDREN'S RECALL.
Creator: HIBEL, JANET, Florida Atlantic University, Bjorklund, David F., Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Psychology
Abstract/Description: In the present experiment possible developmental differences in the timing of organization in children's free recall were examined. It was hypothesized that children who organize information at input would show a smaller decrement in recall as a result of delayed testing with related than with unrelated materials. If the categorical similarity among items is discovered at input, the resulting organizational scheme(s) would make the individual items more resistant to forgetting over time....
Show moreIn the present experiment possible developmental differences in the timing of organization in children's free recall were examined. It was hypothesized that children who organize information at input would show a smaller decrement in recall as a result of delayed testing with related than with unrelated materials. If the categorical similarity among items is discovered at input, the resulting organizational scheme(s) would make the individual items more resistant to forgetting over time. However, since no organizational scheme could be imposed upon unrelated items, many items would be lost as a result of delayed testing. This pattern of data was predicted only for junior high students and not for second and third graders. However, contrary to expectation, both the younger and older groups of subjects showed this pattern, indicating that children of both age groups organize categorically related information at input. The possibility of a semantic facilitative effect for the younger subjects was discussed.
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Date Issued: 1978
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/13934
Subject Headings: Recollection (Psychology), Memory in children
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Kin Investment by Step-Grandparents—More Than Expected.
Creator: Pashos, Alexander, Schwarz, Sascha, Bjorklund, David F.
Date Issued: 2016-03-01
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/flvc_fau_islandoraimporter_10.1177_1474704916631213_1634304612
Format: Citation

Title: Attentional basis of deontic reasoning about permission rules in 3-5 year-old children.
Creator: Sellers, Patrick D. II, Bjorklund, David F., Florida Atlantic University, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Psychology
Abstract/Description: Deontic reasoning is a domain of reasoning concerning permissions, obligations, and prohibitions often utilizing conditional logic (Wason, 1968). Correct identification of rule violations is bolstered by the addition of a social valence to the rule for both adults (Tooby & Cosmides, 1992) and children (Harris & Nunez, 1996). This “deontic advantage” for violation-detection is taken as evidence for evolved social-cognitive mechanisms for reasoning about cheaters in the context of social...
Show moreDeontic reasoning is a domain of reasoning concerning permissions, obligations, and prohibitions often utilizing conditional logic (Wason, 1968). Correct identification of rule violations is bolstered by the addition of a social valence to the rule for both adults (Tooby & Cosmides, 1992) and children (Harris & Nunez, 1996). This “deontic advantage” for violation-detection is taken as evidence for evolved social-cognitive mechanisms for reasoning about cheaters in the context of social contracts (Fiddick, 2004), and the early development of this advantage supports an evolutionary account of such abilities (Cummins, 2013). The current research hypothesized that differential attention to rule elements underlies the early emergence of the deontic advantage. Accuracy to a change-detection paradigm was used to assess implicit attention to various rule elements after children were told 4 different rules (2 social contracts, 2 epistemic statements). Thirteen 3-year-olds, twenty 4-year-olds, and sixteen 5-year-olds completed the experiment. Each participant completed 64 change-detection trials embedded within a scene depicting adherence to or violation of the rule. Results indicate that 4 and 5 year-olds consistently attend to the most relevant rule information for making decisions regarding violation (F(6, 124)=3.86, p<.01, ηp 2 = .144) and that they use observed compliance/non-compliance with the rule to further direct attention (F(6, 138)=3.27, p<.01, ηp 2 = .125). Furthermore, accuracy of change-detection to scenes of rule violation increases from ages 4 to 5, but not 3 to 4. However, a novel finding emerged suggesting that children use the absence of benefit to direct attention, suggesting possible “being-cheated” detection, rather than cheater-detection (F(9, 345) = 21.855, p<.001, ηp 2 = .322). This work is the first to investigate a deontic effect on attentional processes and opens a new avenue of inquiry to understanding the internal and external variables contributing to the development of deontic reasoning. Follow up studies are currently underway to clarify how children use these environmental cues and in/out group membership to direct attention to rule violations.
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Date Issued: 2014
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004159
Subject Headings: Child development, Child psychology, Judgment (Ethics), Judgment in children, Moral development, Reasoning in children
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: An analysis of religiosity in the United States: testing the secure society theory.
Creator: Liddle, James, Bjorklund, David F., Shackelford, Todd K., Florida Atlantic University, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Psychology
Abstract/Description: The current study sought set to replicate and extend previous findings regarding Norris and Inglehart’s (2004) “Secure Society Theory” (SST) of religiosity, which states that religiosity varies as a function of the extent to which one feels secure in their environment. However, the relationship between individual perceptions of societal security—as opposed to national indicators—and religiosity has yet to be tested. The current study addressed this by analyzing data from the General Social...
Show moreThe current study sought set to replicate and extend previous findings regarding Norris and Inglehart’s (2004) “Secure Society Theory” (SST) of religiosity, which states that religiosity varies as a function of the extent to which one feels secure in their environment. However, the relationship between individual perceptions of societal security—as opposed to national indicators—and religiosity has yet to be tested. The current study addressed this by analyzing data from the General Social Survey, supplemented by FBI and U.S. Census data. Results indicated that the extent to which one feels safe walking around their neighborhood at night is a significant predictor of religiosity, even when crime rate, poverty rate, age, sex, and race are also considered. Additionally, time series analyses of data from 1980 to 2012 with a lag of 10 years provided partial support for SST, with neighborhood fear and poverty significantly predicting future religiosity.
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Date Issued: 2014
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004302
Subject Headings: Religion and politics, Religion and sociology, Secularism, Security (Psychology)
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: The Development of Synchronous Vocalizations and Behaviors in Juvenile Male Wild Atlantic Spotted Dolphins.
Creator: Myers, Alyson J., Bjorklund, David F., Florida Atlantic University, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Psychology
Abstract/Description: The ability of adult wild Atlantic spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis) to synchronize vocalizations and behaviors has been found to be a key factor in overcoming much larger bottlenose dolphins during interspecies aggression (Cusick & Herzing, 2014). Furthermore, an adult baseline of behaviors and vocalizations during aggressive events containing synchrony has been established (Myers, Herzing, & Bjorklund, 2017). The present study examines juvenile aggression that contains bouts of...
Show moreThe ability of adult wild Atlantic spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis) to synchronize vocalizations and behaviors has been found to be a key factor in overcoming much larger bottlenose dolphins during interspecies aggression (Cusick & Herzing, 2014). Furthermore, an adult baseline of behaviors and vocalizations during aggressive events containing synchrony has been established (Myers, Herzing, & Bjorklund, 2017). The present study examines juvenile aggression that contains bouts of synchrony to look at the development of this valuable skill. Differences of duration between adult and juvenile synchronous bouts, lag sequential analyses, frequencies of behavioral classes depending on the age class of the aggressor-recipient dynamic, differences in the frequencies of behavioral classes depending on the synchronous state and aggressorrecipient dynamic, and differences in behavioral classes exhibited by adults and juveniles during different synchronous states were analyzed. Adults, across group size, were able to maintain physical synchrony for a longer duration. Juveniles were often in loose synchronous groups before forming into a tight synchronous group as seen in adult synchrony. Vocal synchrony during adult aggression in terms of synchronized squawks were longer in duration than vocal synchrony during juvenile aggression. Juveniles used more pursuit behaviors during aggression, which indicates practice of a behavior that was found to be the most frequently used in interspecies aggression (Volker, 2016). Additionally, when adults were present in juvenile aggression, they used fewer aggressive behavioral classes demonstrating self-handicapping based on their opponent. This illustrates that there is a learning period for both vocal and physical synchrony for juvenile dolphins and that juvenile aggression, or play-fighting, is an important aspect of the development of these skills. This study is the first to describe juvenile synchrony in a population of wild Atlantic spotted dolphins.
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Date Issued: 2018
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00013088
Subject Headings: Atlantic spotted dolphin., Atlantic spotted dolphin--Behavior., Atlantic spotted dolphin--Vocalizaton., Stenella frontalis.
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: The effects of predatory status on developing understanding of mental state functioning subsequent to death.
Creator: Cormier, Christopher A., Bjorklund, David F., Florida Atlantic University, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Psychology
Abstract/Description: Bering and colleagues (2004, 2005) reported that the expectation that conscious mental states cease with the onset of death (discontinuity reasoning) emerges developmentally, and discontinuity reasoning for some states (emotions, desire, epistemic) remains lower than for others (psychobiological, perceptual). Cormier (2005) reported very similar findings for the context of sleep and proposed a modular explanation of these effects (“intentional persistence”) and suggested that intentional...
Show moreBering and colleagues (2004, 2005) reported that the expectation that conscious mental states cease with the onset of death (discontinuity reasoning) emerges developmentally, and discontinuity reasoning for some states (emotions, desire, epistemic) remains lower than for others (psychobiological, perceptual). Cormier (2005) reported very similar findings for the context of sleep and proposed a modular explanation of these effects (“intentional persistence”) and suggested that intentional persistence represents an evolved adaptation designed to maintain vigilance and behavioral preparedness while in the presence of animals of ambiguous agency status (e.g., death, sleep, hibernation, feigned death). The current study extended this line of research to realistic animal characters. Although results revealed patterns of discontinuity reasoning and intentional persistence that were consistent with those of previous studies, the prediction that intentional persistence would be more pronounced for predators was not fulfilled. A newly proposed evolutionary product, “Cooptation,” was introduced to further explain the results.
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Date Issued: 2014
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004094
Subject Headings: Cognitive neuroscience, Developmental psychology, Mental representation, Philosophy of mind, Thought and thinking
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Keeping an eye on cheaters: cognitive and social determinates of successful deontic reasoning in preschool children.
Creator: Sellers, Patrick D. II, Bjorklund, David F., Florida Atlantic University, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Psychology
Abstract/Description: Deontic reasoning is a domain of reasoning concerning permissions, obligations, and prohibitions founded on conditional logic (Wason,1968). The inclusion of a social valence to deontic rules leads to increased rule violation identification in both adults (Cosmides & Tooby, 1992) and children (Harris & Nunez, 1996), suggesting an evolutionary advantage for a specific class of reasoning known as “cheater-detection” (Fiddick, 2004). The current investigation is the first attempt to understand...
Show moreDeontic reasoning is a domain of reasoning concerning permissions, obligations, and prohibitions founded on conditional logic (Wason,1968). The inclusion of a social valence to deontic rules leads to increased rule violation identification in both adults (Cosmides & Tooby, 1992) and children (Harris & Nunez, 1996), suggesting an evolutionary advantage for a specific class of reasoning known as “cheater-detection” (Fiddick, 2004). The current investigation is the first attempt to understand the cognitive and social variables that account for children’s logical reasoning advantage in social violation situations.
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Date Issued: 2015
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004464
Subject Headings: Cognitive neuroscience, Cognitive psychology, Deontic logic, Developmental psychology, Judgment (Ethics), Judgment in children, Moral development, Moral motivation, Practical reason, Reasoning in children
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Investigating the Mechanisms Underlying Infant Selective Attention to Multisensory Speech.
Creator: Tift, Amy H., Bjorklund, David F., Florida Atlantic University, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Psychology
Abstract/Description: From syllables to fluent speech, it is important for infants to quickly learn and decipher linguistic information. To do this, infants must not only use their auditory perception but also their visual perception to understand speech and language as a multisensory coherent event. Previous research by Lewkowicz and Hansen-Tift (2012) demonstrated that infants shift their allocation of visual attention from the eyes to the mouth of the speaker's face throughout development as they become...
Show moreFrom syllables to fluent speech, it is important for infants to quickly learn and decipher linguistic information. To do this, infants must not only use their auditory perception but also their visual perception to understand speech and language as a multisensory coherent event. Previous research by Lewkowicz and Hansen-Tift (2012) demonstrated that infants shift their allocation of visual attention from the eyes to the mouth of the speaker's face throughout development as they become interested in speech production. This project examined how infants, from 4-14-months of age, allocate their visual attention to increasingly complex speech tasks. In Experiment 1, infants were presented with upright and inverted faces vocalizing syllables and the results demonstrated that in response to the upright faces, 4-month-old infants attended to the eyes and 8- and 10-month-olds attended equally to the eyes and mouth. In response to the inverted face presentation, both the 4- and 10-month-olds attended equally to the eyes and mouth but the 8-month olds attended to the eyes. In Experiment 2, infants were presented with a phoneme matching task (Patterson & Werker, 1999, 2002, 2003) and the results demonstrated that the 4-month-old infants successfully matched the voice to the corresponding face, but that older infants did not. Measures of their selective attention to this task showed that the 4-month-old infants attended more to the eyes of the faces during the task, not attending to the redundant speech information at the mouth, but older infants attended equally to the eyes and mouth, although they did not match the voice to the face. Experiment 3 presented infants with a fluent speech matching task (Lewkowicz et al., 2015) which demonstrated that although the infants (12-14-months) did not systematically match the voice to the corresponding face, the infants attended more to the mouth region, which would have provided them with the neces sary redundant information. Overall, these studies demonstrate that there are developmental changes in how infants distribute their visual attention to faces as they learn about speech and that the complexity of the speech is a critical factor in how they allocate their visual attention.
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Date Issued: 2015
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004551
Subject Headings: Child development, Cognition in infants, Interpersonal communication in infants, Language acquisition, Visual perception in infants
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Synchrony in adult male Atlantic Spotted Dolphins (Stenella frontalis) during aggression.
Creator: Myers, Alyson J., Bjorklund, David F., Herzing, Denise L., Florida Atlantic University, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Psychology
Abstract/Description: Synchrony between Atlantic spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis) is crucial for successfully fending off bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) during interspecies aggression. The present study examined synchrony in adult Atlantic spotted dolphins during aggressive encounters with bottlenose dolphins. Across group size, aggressive behavioral events increased preceding synchrony, peaked during synchrony, and decreased dramatically after synchrony. Although smaller groups ( 10 dolphins),...
Show moreSynchrony between Atlantic spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis) is crucial for successfully fending off bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) during interspecies aggression. The present study examined synchrony in adult Atlantic spotted dolphins during aggressive encounters with bottlenose dolphins. Across group size, aggressive behavioral events increased preceding synchrony, peaked during synchrony, and decreased dramatically after synchrony. Although smaller groups (< 10 dolphins) became synchronous more frequently than larger groups (> 10 dolphins), larger groups remained synchronous longer; however, smaller groups exhibited more frequent aggressive behavioral events during synchrony, suggesting that additional aggressive behaviors may be necessary to compensate for the small group size, whereas larger groups may be able to rely on synchrony alone. Disorganized squawk bouts synchronized as physical synchrony began, but only if coupled with escalating aggressive behaviors. The synchrony during aggressive episodes observed in adult Atlantic spotted dolphins can be used as a baseline to determine the process of the development of this critical skill in juveniles.
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Date Issued: 2015
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004454
Subject Headings: Atlantic spotted dolphin, Atlantic spotted dolphin -- Behavior -- Research, Bottle nose dolphin, Bottle nose dolphin -- Behavior -- Research, Dolphins, Social behavior in animals
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Pluralistic ignorance and explicit attitudes on academic cheating in college students and faculty.
Creator: Hubertz, Martha J., Bjorklund, David F., Monson, Thomas C., Florida Atlantic University, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Psychology
Abstract/Description: Academic integrity essentially centers on an individual’s ethical attitudes and behaviors as well as injunctive norms, or norms that dictate what is socially accepted and lauded. One key influence may be pluralistic ignorance; here arguments for cheating posit that students cheat because they perceive that others are “doing it” to a greater extent than is actually true and thus what they are doing is minimized in relation to others. Research indicates that students perceive cheating as more...
Show moreAcademic integrity essentially centers on an individual’s ethical attitudes and behaviors as well as injunctive norms, or norms that dictate what is socially accepted and lauded. One key influence may be pluralistic ignorance; here arguments for cheating posit that students cheat because they perceive that others are “doing it” to a greater extent than is actually true and thus what they are doing is minimized in relation to others. Research indicates that students perceive cheating as more widespread than it actually is (Hard, Conway, & Moran, 2006). A considerable gap in the research is noted when looking at definitions of what constitutes academic fraud, research has indicated that when students are asked if they have cheated and then given a definition of cheating, their self-reports of cheating increase (Burrus et al., 2007). This indicates that students’ definition of cheating and a universities’ definition of cheating may be incongruent. Participants were 507 members of the Florida Atlantic University community during the 2012-2013 academic year who completed a survey that consisted of items, which centered on self-reported cheating, perceptions of what cheating constitutes, and estimates of cheating prevalence. Results indicate that students reported peer cheating to be higher then self reported cheating, that participants distinguished between five different forms of cheating, and that faculty and students hold differing definitions of cheating. The findings suggest a disconnect between faculty perceptions and definitions of academic integrity and students. This would suggest that greater efforts should to be taken to bring a more uniform operational definition of what constitutes academic dishonesty that universities, faculty, and students can rely on. Second, as a pluralist model of cheating was supported, universities could develop campaigns like those aimed at reducing drinking, hooking up, and increasing women in STEM fields (Lambert, Kahn & Apple, 2003; Mattern & Neighbors, 2004; Muldoon, 2002; Schroder & Prentice, 1998). Research has suggested social norm campaigns targeting pluralistic ignorance can be effective on college campuses. In educating students about what actually happens and the discrepancy between reality and perception, cases of academic dishonesty could be reduced.
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Date Issued: 2015
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004381
Subject Headings: Cheating (Education), College discipline, College students -- Attitudes, College students -- Conduct of life, Personality assessment, Plagarism, Professional ethics, Social ethics
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Multisensory Cues Facilitate Infants’ Ability to Discriminate Other-Race Faces.
Creator: Minar, Nicholas J., Bjorklund, David F., Florida Atlantic University, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Psychology
Abstract/Description: Our everyday world consists of people and objects that are usually specified by dynamic and concurrent auditory and visual attributes, which is known to increase perceptual salience and, therefore, facilitate learning and discrimination in infancy. Interestingly, early experience with faces and vocalizations has two seemingly opposite effects during the first year of life, 1) it enables infants to gradually acquire perceptual expertise for the faces and vocalizations of their own race and, 2)...
Show moreOur everyday world consists of people and objects that are usually specified by dynamic and concurrent auditory and visual attributes, which is known to increase perceptual salience and, therefore, facilitate learning and discrimination in infancy. Interestingly, early experience with faces and vocalizations has two seemingly opposite effects during the first year of life, 1) it enables infants to gradually acquire perceptual expertise for the faces and vocalizations of their own race and, 2) it narrows their ability to discriminate the faces of other-race faces (Kelly et al., 2007). It is not known whether multisensory redundancy might help older infants overcome the other-race effect reported in previous studies. The current project investigated infant discrimination of dynamic and vocalizing other-race faces in younger and older infants using habituation and eye-tracking methodologies. Experiment 1 examined 4-6 and 10-12-month-old infants' ability to discriminate either a native or non-native face articulating the syllable /a/. Results showed that both the 4-6- and the 10-12-month-olds successfully discriminated the faces,regardless of whether they were same- or other-race faces. Experiment 2 investigated the contribution of auditory speech cues by repeating Experiment 1 but in silence. Results showed that only the 10-12-month-olds tested with native-race faces successfully discriminated them. Experiment 3 investigated whether it was speech per se or sound in general that facilitated discrimination of the other-race faces in Experiment 1 by presenting a synchronous, computer-generated "boing" sound instead of audible speech cues. Results indicated that the 4-6-month olds discriminated both types of faces but that 10-12-month-olds only discriminated own-race faces. These results indicate that auditory cues, along with dynamic visual cues, can help infants overcome the effects of previously reported narrowing and facilitate discrimination of other-race static, silent faces. Critically, our results show that older infants can overcome the other race-effect when dynamic faces are accompanied by speech but not when they are accompanied by non- speech cues. Overall, a generalized auditory facilitation effect was found as a result of multisensory speech. Moreover, our findings suggest that infants' ability to process other- race faces following perceptual narrowing is more plastic than previously thought.
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Date Issued: 2015
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004525
Subject Headings: Cognition in children, Individual differences in children, Infant psychology, Infants -- Development, Intersensory effects, Perception in infants
Format: Document (PDF)

FAU Theses and Dissertations (35)	+ -
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Bjorklund, David F. (43)	+ -
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