SUNY Old Westbury Student Work: Recent submissions
Now showing items 21-27 of 27
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The effects of team win:loss ratio on individual motivation and performanceAthletes experience performance pressures to win competitions regardless of their team's Win:Loss ratio (W:L). However, little is known regarding how such pressures influence athlete's motivation. Prior studies have attempted to determine which factors motivate athletic competition, yet factors that motivate team performance and its impact on the individual athlete require further investigation. To provide insight in addressing this problem, we conducted a case study using a novel Sport Psychology Assessment Scale (SP-MAS) and distributed it among SUNY Old Westbury basketball; lacrosse and soccer teams. The SP-MAS showed that an athlete's motivational performance can be impacted by their team's W:L as it relates to four functional relationships: 1) decreased team W:L & decreased athlete motivation [DD] 2) decreased team W:L & increased athlete motivation [DI] 3) increased team W:L & decreased athlete motivation [ID] 4) increased team W:L & increased athlete motivation [II] Data suggests that II athletes rate highest on the SP-MAS and further assessment of the shifts from DD-DI-ID-II can be tracked overtime to continually evaluate athlete's and team's motivational interactions and performance trajectories in predicting overall W:L. Thus, the SP-MAS may provide useful athlete feedback with consideration across various sport and divisional contexts.
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A Guide to teaching Statistics and Research Methods II: Helping students with perceptual and physical disabilitiesThe purpose of this handbook is to give faculty, students and staff some insight on how to best help a student with a physical and/or perceptual disability. It is informed by my experiences learning to overcome just those very challenges that I faced. While this handbook is focused on Statistics/Research Methods II, the teaching methodology which was used herein, can be further applied to various courses and be as equally useful to the students. It is hoped that this guide will be useful to the next generation of students, staff and faculty while motivating them to expand upon what is already written.Though two persons diagnoses may appear alike, their individualized needs both inside and outside of an academic setting may vary greatly.
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An Assessment of Low Level Lead Exposure on Encephalization and Cortical Quotients and its Relationships with Cortical Thinning & Neurodegeneration.Lead (Pb) is a neurotoxin that causes lifelong cognitive dysfunction. Depending upon 1) gender, 2) the developmental time-period, and 3) the duration of Pb exposure, different patterns of brain damage may emerge during neurodevelopment or following the majority of brain growth. We examined an environmentally relevant Pb exposure (25 ppm) given to rats during different stages of neurodevelopment (i.e., perinatal [Peri] vs. postnatal [PND]) would negatively affect their encephalization and the cortical quotients (EQ & CQ) when assessed at PND 55 (i.e., the time point of cortical maturation in rats). EQ and CQ data are used to assess brain mass: body weight ratios in the former and to assess cortical mass: brain weight ratios in the latter to predict intelligence. Our data revealed that female rats have significantly higher EQ and CQ values when compared to males. EQ data revealed in Peri-PND O, Peri-PND 22, and Birth-PND 55 males a 6%, 16%, and 12% reduction in brain mass and in females, an 11%, 3%, and 3% reduction in brain mass when compared to controls. CQ data revealed in Peri-PND 0, Peri-PND 22, and BirthPND 55 males a 7%, 18%, and 0% reduction in cortical mass and in females, a 16%, 2%, and 12% reduction in cortical mass when compared to controls. Pb exposure causes different patterns of brain volume loss that decreases both EQ and CQ intelligence outcomes. This model offers translation potential in using fMRl clinical screenings for Pb exposed children and later life outcomes (SUNY-OW Faculty Development Grant).
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Parental Influence: Potential long-term effects of strict parentingAlthough parental involvement in childhood can increase a child's academic success (Landers, Friedrick, Jawad & Miller, 2016), an authoritarian parenting style — characterized by strict enforcement of rules, a high degree of control, and an emphasis on obedience — can reduce a child's motivation and cause poor acceptance of responsibilities. The question remains, however, as to whether these effects persist into adulthood. A correlational design was used to determine whether the self-perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors of adults who report being raised by strict parents are different from those of adults who say they were raised by permissive parents. Results showed that participants with strict parents were less likely than participants with permissive parents to describe themselves as "street-smart," but described themselves as being more responsible. They also were more likely to feel ready to move out and to say they would not be strict as parents. However, they also were more likely to say they would use a strict punishment if their child smoked marijuana, drank underage, or did not pursue an advanced degree. Although this is a correlational study and therefore does not permit cause-and-effect conclusions, these findings suggest that parents should be educated about the potential long-term effects of the parenting style they adopt on the well-being of their children in adulthood.
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Validating Visual Eye Tracking Technology to Assess Accommodative Technology for Students with Disabilities in Undergraduate EducationThe National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) 2011-2012, reported that 11% of undergraduate students are identified as having a disability (i.e., 38% are enrolled in 2year vs 9.8% at 4-year institutions). Students with disabilities require support services such as accommodative technologies. However, little data exist on whether or not such technologies are sensitive to accommodating individual needs, that are tailored to specific or having multiple disabilities. There are five main categories describing students with disabilities: 1) learning disabilities (LD), 2) emotional/psychiatric conditions (EPC), 3) orthopedic/mobility impairments (EMI), 4) attention deficit/hyperactivity disorders (AD/HD) and 5) health impairments (HI). However, most data do not include students with multiple disabilities (MD), which is the most frequent and underserved. The literature lacks studies: 1) investigating the cognitive processing in people with multiple disabilities 2) whether technologies given to these students are beneficial; and 3) what are the educational outcomes in using such technologies. The study determined whether assessing student's visual processing abilities (i.e., eye gaze) through a 10-minute Flanker Task could be used as a predictive diagnostic tool to screen students with disabilities. The research protocol employed a triple blind procedure. Results indicate that visual eye gaze technology can detect and characterize visual processing differences in populations with LD, EPC, EMI, AD/HD, HI, and MD. Our future goal is to characterize and assess the needs of different groups of students with disabilities to identify which visual-based accommodative technologies available at our college are best matched to address their educational needs (SUNY-OW Faculty Development Grant).
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Metastatic Cancer: The Migration of Cancerous CellsMigration is a movement from one place to another and it occurs in every aspect of life. Migration is not bound by size. In a biological sense, it can be macroscopic with the seasonal movements of an animal species, or microscopic at the cellular level of an individual organism. Most migrations that occur at the cellular level of an organism are required for health and survival. However, some rare migrations can have adverse and even deadly effects. One example of this type of migration is in cancer. When these migrations occur, the cancer becomes metastatic; the malignant cell migrates from its origin to another location in the body. This occurs due to a process called EMT, or Epithelial Mesenchymal Transition. At the point EMT occurs the immune system process have to come to the Escape stage of immunoediting, where instead of fighting the malignant cells, the immune system supports their growth and transition. If an individual's cancer has reached a metastatic level, it is very hard to fight the cancer. Cancer is the second leading cause of deaths after heart disease. Fortunately, a lot of research has been going into curing cancer with some promising results. Since every cancer is unique and complicated, most treatments are unique to each patient. If a patient has metastatic cancer the theoretical course of treatment would be to use chemo and radiotherapy to kill metastatic cells and reduce the size of the parent tumor. The poster presentation will look into new studies that focus on gene therapy such as down regulating certain oncogenes and upregulating others, as well as therapies that stop the migration of the malignant cells. Such therapies would look at ways to reverse EMT to MET (mesenchymal to epithelial transition). Would targeting CHD5 and/or its family of proteins such as SUV39H1 or SIRT halt the metastatic process?
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Low Level Lead Exposure Impairs Attentional Set Shifting Task Performance Depending Upon Sex and Developmental Periods of ExposureLead (Pb) is a well-known neurotoxin, that when exposed in early development causes lifelong cognitive dysfunction. Pb toxicity research focuses more on memory and motor disturbances and less on executive processes. Further, the extent to which the brain is most susceptible to Pb exposure and its relationship with aberrant cognition remain to be elucidated. Here we examined the effects of an environmentally relevant Pb exposure (150 ppm) in Long Evans Hooded rats abilities to learn simple (SD) and complex (CD) discriminations with reversals (Rev) of compound stimuli (i.e. odors and digging materials presented simultaneously) in the Attention Set Shifting Task (ASST). Rats also learned to cognitively shift within a stimulus dimension (i.e. odor-to-odor) as an Intra-Dimensional Shift (ID) or between stimulus dimensions (i.e. odor-to-material) as an Extra-Dimensional Shift (ED). We examined the differences between gender and three treatment groups: 1) Control (Cont - No Pb Exposure), 2) Perinatal Exposure (Peri- from pairing to birth), and 3) Early Postnatal Exposure (EPN - from birth to parturition). EPN male rats weren't able to learn (CD) and failed to complete the ASST. Peri male rats were able to complete the ASST, but had difficulty with (ID+ID-Rev) when compared to Cont rats, and showed increased latencies to respond during training and in the (ED). Interestingly, EPN female rats were able to complete the ASST and had difficulty in both the (ID+ED-Rev) when compared to Cont rats. Peri female rats completed the ASST with difficulty in the (ED-Rev) when compared to Cont rats. Notably, the Peri female rats performed better than Cont rats on the (ID-Rev). EPN and Peri rats exhibited shorter response latencies in training when compared to Cont rats. In the (ID) stage Peri female rats maintained short latencies to respond while EPN rats were delayed when compared to Cont rats. Results show Pb induced ASST specific deficits on rats cognitive task performance as a function of gender and time of developmental Pb exposure. This suggests that Pb may cause different attention/executive-based cognitive impairments based on the developmental period of exposure due to frontal lobe dysfunction.
