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- Title
- An Exploration of Testosterone Mediated Effects on Auditory Learning in Northern Bobwhite Quail.
- Creator
- Bellinger, Seanceray A., Jones, Nancy Aaron, Florida Atlantic University, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Psychology
- Abstract/Description
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Elevated yolk progesterone has been shown to impair prenatal, but facilitate postnatal auditory learning in bobwhite quail chicks. Elevated yolk testosterone has facilitated prenatal learning, but its effects on postnatal auditory learning in quail are unknown. Either testosterone or an oil vehicle was injected into bobwhite quail eggs prior to incubation. Control eggs were unmanipulated. Following hatching, chicks were exposed to a conspecific maternal call (A or B) for 240 min. At 48 hr,...
Show moreElevated yolk progesterone has been shown to impair prenatal, but facilitate postnatal auditory learning in bobwhite quail chicks. Elevated yolk testosterone has facilitated prenatal learning, but its effects on postnatal auditory learning in quail are unknown. Either testosterone or an oil vehicle was injected into bobwhite quail eggs prior to incubation. Control eggs were unmanipulated. Following hatching, chicks were exposed to a conspecific maternal call (A or B) for 240 min. At 48 hr, chicks were tested for their preference for the familiarized vs. novel call. All groups demonstrated a preference for the familiar call (p < .05), but minimal between group difference were found. Contrary to previous research, elevated yolk testosterone neither facilitated nor impaired postnatal auditory learning in bobwhite quail chicks. Further research will examine underlying mechanisms responsible for differential effects and explore if similar systems are involved in other species-typical processes such as social motivation.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2017
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00005944
- Subject Headings
- Dissertations, Academic -- Florida Atlantic University, Bobwhite quail, Northern bobwhite., Chicks., Testosterone., Egg yolk.
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Behavioral and Electrophysiological Evidence for Hippocampal Involvement in Object Motion Processing in C57BL/6J Mice.
- Creator
- Asgeirsdottir, Herborg Nanna, Stackman, Robert W., Florida Atlantic University, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Psychology
- Abstract/Description
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Considerable research has been carried out to establish a rodent model for the study of human memory, yet functional similarities between the species remain up for debate. The hippocampus, a region deep within the medial temporal lobe of the mammalian CNS, is critical for long-term episodic memory. Projections from the medial entorhinal cortex convey spatial/contextual information, while projections from the lateral entorhinal cortex convey item/object information to the hippocampus. The...
Show moreConsiderable research has been carried out to establish a rodent model for the study of human memory, yet functional similarities between the species remain up for debate. The hippocampus, a region deep within the medial temporal lobe of the mammalian CNS, is critical for long-term episodic memory. Projections from the medial entorhinal cortex convey spatial/contextual information, while projections from the lateral entorhinal cortex convey item/object information to the hippocampus. The functional significance of these parallel projections to the rodent hippocampus has been suggested to support spatial processing, while the same projections to the human hippocampus support spatial and non-spatial memory. Discharging in a location-specific manner, hippocampal place cells contribute to spatial memory; however, evidence for neuronal correlates of non-spatial object memory has not been fully defined. The current experiments were designed to address the following questions, while utilizing electrophysiology, functional inactivation during a novel behavioral task, and immunohistochemistry. Is the memory for objects hippocampal-dependent, solely due to the location of the object, or are objects represented within hippocampal activity independent of location? To tease apart spatial and non-spatial processing by the hippocampus, the spatial aspects of 3D objects were enhanced by utilizing movement. A novel discriminatory avoidance task, Knowing Your Enemy, was adapted from an Enemy Avoidance task to test true object memory in mice. Current findings support the notion that object-associations acquisition depends upon a specific context. Retrieval of such object-associations is not context-dependent, yet remains sensitive to temporary inactivation of the CA1 region of the dorsal hippocampus. The avoidance impairments observed following hippocampal inactivation were shown to not be a result of reduced anxiety. Immunohistochemical marker expression suggests that the CA1 region was highly active during object exposures, yet the hippocampal system responded differentially to moving and to stationary objects. Recordings of CA1 neurons yielded non-bursting object-related activity during object exploration, and place cell activity remained unaffected in the presence of moving objects; supporting independent, yet simultaneous processing of spatial and non-spatial information within the hippocampus. Together, the current findings support the notion that the CA1 region of the rodent hippocampus processes object-related information, independent of spatial information.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2017
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004981
- Subject Headings
- Dissertations, Academic -- Florida Atlantic University, Hippocampus (Brain), Declarative memory, Explicit memory.
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Dual Language Proficiencies of Second Generation Immigrants during Development and in Adulthood.
- Creator
- Giguere, David, Hoff, Erika, Florida Atlantic University, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Psychology
- Abstract/Description
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The current studies tested the hypothesis, that early exposure is sufficient for nativelike proficiency. Study 1 compared the English skill of 116 5 year olds who had been exposed to English and Spanish from birth with English monolingual and found that the bilingual children had significantly lower levels of vocabulary skill. Study 2 assessed 65 adult bilinguals, comparing them to 25 English and 25 Spanish monolinguals on a battery of language measures. The bilinguals had lower scores in...
Show moreThe current studies tested the hypothesis, that early exposure is sufficient for nativelike proficiency. Study 1 compared the English skill of 116 5 year olds who had been exposed to English and Spanish from birth with English monolingual and found that the bilingual children had significantly lower levels of vocabulary skill. Study 2 assessed 65 adult bilinguals, comparing them to 25 English and 25 Spanish monolinguals on a battery of language measures. The bilinguals had lower scores in Spanish in 7 of the 8 domains of language skill measured. The bilinguals were not different from the English monolingual speakers in most, but not all, aspects of language proficiency. These findings provide evidence that the monolingual-bilingual gap observed in childhood is no longer evident among adult bilinguals, but that despite early exposure and continued use into adulthood, second generation immigrants are not native-like in their heritage language skills.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2017
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004981, http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004971
- Subject Headings
- Dissertations, Academic -- Florida Atlantic University, Immigrants Language., Bilingualism., Language attrition.
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Dynamic Grouping Motion and Amodal Completion.
- Creator
- Datta, Debarshi, Hock, Howard S., Florida Atlantic University, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Psychology
- Abstract/Description
-
Objects in a scene are likely to occlude other objects partially and are itself likely to be partially occluded. A central question, therefore, is how the visual system resolves the resulting surface correspondence problem by successfully determining which surfaces belong to which objects. To this end, a recently developed dynamic grouping methodology has determined whether pairs of adjacent surfaces are grouped (Hock & Nichols, 2012). The grouping of adjacent surfaces, which depends on their...
Show moreObjects in a scene are likely to occlude other objects partially and are itself likely to be partially occluded. A central question, therefore, is how the visual system resolves the resulting surface correspondence problem by successfully determining which surfaces belong to which objects. To this end, a recently developed dynamic grouping methodology has determined whether pairs of adjacent surfaces are grouped (Hock & Nichols, 2012). The grouping of adjacent surfaces, which depends on their affinity state, is indicated by the direction of perceived motion across one surface when its luminance is perturbed. In the current stimuli, which consists of a horizontal surface partially occluded by a vertical bar, dynamic grouping also can occur for nonadjacent surfaces, providing they are linked in two-dimensions by a connecting surface. Results indicate that the dynamic grouping motion is stronger for amodal completion entailing the perceptual grouping of nonadjacent surfaces behind an occluder.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2017
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004998, http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004988
- Subject Headings
- Dissertations, Academic -- Florida Atlantic University, Visual perception., Visual system., Dynamic grouping
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Maternal influence on early infant emotional regulation: A study of 3-month infant behavior, cortisol and frontal EEG.
- Creator
- Sloan, Aliza T., Jones, Nancy Aaron, Florida Atlantic University, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Psychology
- Abstract/Description
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Prenatal maternal stress and mood, and early postnatal mother-infant interactions set the stage for the child’s psychobiological, neurological and social development. While a large body of research connecting maternal depression to infant EEG asymmetry exists, the current study sought to add to the sparse literature on maternal anxiety and infant EEG. Mother-infant dyads were assessed prenatally during the third trimester, soon after birth, at 6 weeks and 3 months postnatal. Association...
Show morePrenatal maternal stress and mood, and early postnatal mother-infant interactions set the stage for the child’s psychobiological, neurological and social development. While a large body of research connecting maternal depression to infant EEG asymmetry exists, the current study sought to add to the sparse literature on maternal anxiety and infant EEG. Mother-infant dyads were assessed prenatally during the third trimester, soon after birth, at 6 weeks and 3 months postnatal. Association between maternal depression and later development of right mid-frontal alpha asymmetry was confirmed, while trends suggested maternal anxiety may be associated with lateral frontal alpha asymmetry. Greater maternal sensitivity and anxiety were each associated with lower post-stressor cortisol in infants with right frontal asymmetry. Greater time spent in mutual gaze was associated with positive infant affect. Finally, quality mother-infant dynamics encourage positive infant affect and healthy physiological stress regulation even when brain patterns associated with dysregulation have been established.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2017
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00005929
- Subject Headings
- Dissertations, Academic -- Florida Atlantic University, Mother and infant., Infant Behavior., Cortisol., Emotion., Frontal Lobe--physiology., Electroencephalography--Psychological aspects.
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Patterns of Early Dual Language Proficiency: Correlates, Changes, and Stability From 2.5 Years Through 4 Years.
- Creator
- Ramirez, Nicolette, Hoff, Erika, Florida Atlantic University, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Psychology
- Abstract/Description
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Research indicates that there are numerous factors related to dual language proficiency. Furthermore, research suggests that the language skills of bilingual children are very heterogeneous. In this study, we will focus on four outcomes for those receiving dual language input. Those four patterns of outcome are as follows: bilingual children can have high levels of skills in English and Spanish, high skills in English and low skills in the Spanish or vice versa, or low levels of skills in...
Show moreResearch indicates that there are numerous factors related to dual language proficiency. Furthermore, research suggests that the language skills of bilingual children are very heterogeneous. In this study, we will focus on four outcomes for those receiving dual language input. Those four patterns of outcome are as follows: bilingual children can have high levels of skills in English and Spanish, high skills in English and low skills in the Spanish or vice versa, or low levels of skills in English and Spanish. The present study focused on the prevalence of these four patterns and their concurrent correlates amongst 30 month old (N = 87, 48 females) and 48 month old (N = 74, 40 females) simultaneous English-Spanish bilinguals with special emphasis on the distinguishing factors for those with high dual language skills. Overall, for those with high dual scores, the findings reveal that gender, birth-order, and maternal level of education are predictive of high dual language scores so that members of this group are largely first-born females of mothers with an average 15.8 years of education. English dominant scores were predicted by percent English input in the home and birth-order so that children in this group were mostly later-born children with 65% English input in the home. Spanish dominant scores were predicted by percent English input in the home and Spanish bookreading behaviors as children in this group received 23% of their in-home input in English and were read to for more than one hour per week in Spanish. Low dual scores were marginally predicted by gender and Spanish book-reading behaviors, children in this group were mostly male and received less than an in hour of Spanish reading per week.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2017
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00005935
- Subject Headings
- Dissertations, Academic -- Florida Atlantic University, Bilingualism in children., Bilingualism in children--Research.
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Self-Organization of Object-Level Visual Representations via Enforcement of Structured Sparsity in Deep Neural Networks.
- Creator
- LaCombe, Daniel C. Jr., Barenholtz, Elan, Florida Atlantic University, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Psychology
- Abstract/Description
-
A hypothesis for the self-organization of receptive fields throughout the hierarchy of biological vision is empirically tested using simulations of deep artificial neural networks. Results from many fields for topographic organization of receptive fields throughout the visual hierarchy remain disconnected. Although extensive simulation research has been done to model topographic organization in early visual areas, little to no research has investigated such organization in higher visual areas...
Show moreA hypothesis for the self-organization of receptive fields throughout the hierarchy of biological vision is empirically tested using simulations of deep artificial neural networks. Results from many fields for topographic organization of receptive fields throughout the visual hierarchy remain disconnected. Although extensive simulation research has been done to model topographic organization in early visual areas, little to no research has investigated such organization in higher visual areas. We propose that parsimonious structured sparsity principles, that permit the learning of topographic receptive fields in simulated visual areas, are sufficient for the emergence of a semantic topology in object-level representations of a deep neural network. These findings suggest wide-reaching implications for the functional organization of the biological visual system and we conjecture that such observed results in nature could serve as the foundation for unsupervised learning of taxonomic and semantic relations between entities in the world.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2017
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004965, http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004955
- Subject Headings
- Dissertations, Academic -- Florida Atlantic University
- Format
- Document (PDF)