Psychology Undergraduate Honours Theses

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10294/8364

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Open Access
Impact of cultural adaptation in digital narrative therapy on psychological distress: a randomized controlled trial
(Faculty of Arts, University of Regina, 2024-04-26) Nasir, Areeba
This study delves into how narrative therapy, a tool that empowers individuals to reshape their life stories, intersects with digital methods and cultural considerations to influence mental health outcomes. While we embrace digital mental health tools, cultural intricacies are frequently ignored, potentially impacting the intervention’s effectiveness. This study addresses this oversight, investigating how cultural adaptation links with intervention efficacy, and investigates whether culturally sensitive interventions lead to improved mental health outcomes, uncover unique cultural strengths, influence help-seeking decisions, and resonate more effectively with specific subgroups. Participants in this study included University of Regina students (N=130) aged at least 18 years without significant recent trauma, substance use, mania, or psychosis. A mixed-methods approach was employed, integrating quantitative analysis through paired sample t-tests, one-way analyses of variance (ANOVAs), and multiple linear regressions along with qualitative thematic analysis of responses provided as part of the intervention. Findings revealed a significant improvement in feelings of tenseness and self-confidence post-intervention. However, no significant difference in anxiety scores from pre- to post-test were identified, suggesting that the brief nature of the intervention may not have been sufficient to cause measurable changes in levels of anxiety. Additionally, no significant difference between the outcomes from the culturally adapted and non-culturally adapted groups were found, which implies that mental health professionals can provide their patients with the option to choose between either type of intervention, advocating for a more inclusive and effective mental health treatment landscape.
Open Access
Impact of institutional betrayal and institutional courage on mental health in people with chronic disease
(Faculty of Arts, University of Regina, 2024-04-25) De Roo, Briana
People living with chronic disease are at an increased risk of developing psychological distress. Moreover, people living with chronic disease interact with healthcare institutions frequently and are, therefore, more likely to experience adverse medical events. Relatedly, institutional betrayal is an institution's failure to prevent and respond to harm experienced by the people they serve, whereas institutional courage may mitigate some of these harms. This study aims to understand how interactions in healthcare (i.e., adverse medical events, institutional betrayal, institutional courage) impact psychological outcomes. A case-control study was conducted with participants who were at least 18 years of age and living with and without chronic disease. Self-report questionnaires were administered to participants regarding healthcare experiences and mental health symptoms. Independent samples t-tests were conducted to compare people with and without chronic disease with regard to these experiences and symptoms. Hierarchical multiple regressions were run to determine if healthcare experiences predicted mental health symptoms. We found that people living with chronic disease reported significantly higher levels of depression, anxiety, trauma, institutional betrayal, and adverse medical events compared to people without chronic disease; however, people without chronic disease reported significantly higher levels of institutional courage compared to people with chronic disease. Moreover, institutional betrayal significantly predicted anxiety and trauma symptoms, but not depression symptoms. These results demonstrate the impact that healthcare institutions have on the well-being of their patients and highlight the need for better systems in responding to patient harm. Findings from this study could inform mental health treatment for populations with comorbid chronic disease and psychological distress.
Open Access
The relationship between migraines and mental health in women
(Faculty of Arts, University of Regina, 2022-04-24) Thorsteinson, Venezya
Women are three times more likely than men to experience migraines and endure worse migraine characteristics. Anxiety, depression, trauma, and discrimination have all been identified among migraine populations. The current study aimed at investigating the relationship between migraine characteristics (i.e., frequency, disability), mental health symptoms (i.e., depression, anxiety, trauma) and gender-based discrimination (i.e., anticipated discrimination, lifetime day-to-day discrimination) among adult women. Consequently, a case-control study with a migraine condition and a non-migraine condition was conducted. Eligibility included women who were at least 18 years of age. Recruitment occurred via the University of Regina’s Psychology Participant Pool. Participants with migraine completed questionnaires about their migraine characteristics. All participants completed questionnaires on mental health and gendered discrimination. A series of independent samples t-tests were conducted to compare mental health symptoms between the two conditions. Hierarchal multiple regressions were conducted to test the influence of migraine characteristics and gender-based discrimination on mental health. Analyses revealed that mental health and gender-based discrimination scores were higher within the migraine group compared to the non-migraine group. Results indicated that migraine frequency and lifetime day-to-day discrimination were a significant predictor for anxiety, depression, and trauma symptoms. Anticipated discrimination was found to be significantly predictive of trauma symptoms. Lifetime-day-to-day discrimination was significantly predictive of migraine-related reduction in work or school productivity, absence of household work, and a decrease in housework. Lastly, findings revealed that gender-based discrimination was a significant predictor of migraine-related absence from social events, however no individual predictors were significant. These findings may contribute to improvements in the assessment and management of migraines among women, adding to an often under identified population and an emergent field of literature.
Open Access
Wellbeing and protective factors in parents of typically developing young children
(Faculty of Arts, University of Regina, 2024-04) Hedlund, Andrea
Background: While parents of young children experience challenges to their wellbeing, there is limited research investigating potential protective factors. This study explored the association between potential protective factors (i.e., distress tolerance, emotion regulation, self-efficacy, resilience, and perceived social support) and wellbeing in parents of young, typically developing children. Methods: Participants included 99 parents (92.9% female, MParent Age = 32.95, SD = 5.134) of young (MChild Age = 24.46months, SD = 15.38), typically developing children recruited in Canada. Participants completed an online questionnaire consisting of demographics, wellbeing, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, self-efficacy, resilience, and perceived social support. Results: Significant associations were observed between wellbeing and all protective factors (p < .01). Results from linear multiple regression demonstrated that the model accounted for 41.6% of the variance in wellbeing F = (6, 98) = 12.65, p < .001, with emotion regulation (p < .05) and social support (p < .05) being significant predictors. Conclusions: Relationships exist between wellbeing and protective factors in parents of young, typically developing children. Protective factors account for a large proportion of the variance in parent wellbeing. Impact: The findings highlight potential contributory factors to parent wellbeing. As such, findings identify factors that may represent important targets (i.e., emotion regulation and social support) for programs or interventions focused on supporting and/or bolstering parent wellbeing.
Open Access
The impact of memory enhancement on emotion processing
(Faculty of Arts, University of Regina, 2024-04-24) Jason, Priyanka
Alexithymia, a cognitive-affective impairment, involves difficulties in recognizing and expressing emotions, and is linked to impaired memory function. This study investigates the relationship between memory and emotion processing. The Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS) was administered to 141 participants, 76 of which scored high (> 51) indicating likelihood of alexithymia. First, participants underwent an Emotional Stroop Task (EST) to assess emotion processing, then were randomly assigned to either verbal or sham training groups, where they either completed a botanical name memorization task or watched two short silent movies. Post-training, both groups completed the EST again and underwent cognitive tests to assess memory capacity differences. I hypothesize that the verbal training group will show improvements in emotion processing as well as greater memory function as compared with the sham group. A significant positive correlation was found between TAS scores and EST reaction times for emotional words, indicating a relationship between emotion processing times and alexithymic traits. As for the effects of the verbal training, independent sample t-tests demonstrated that differences in emotion processing times between low and high TAS scorers were reduced. Within the sham training group, high TAS scorers had significantly slower emotion processing than low TAS scorers, but in the verbal training group, no differences were found in emotion processing between high and low TAS scorers. This study’s pivotal finding underscores the impact of verbal training on automatic emotion processing. Despite no observable differences in memory capacity post-verbal training, a notable improvement emerged in the automatic processing of emotion.
Open Access
I know that person! Why can’t I remember?
(Faculty of Arts, University of Regina, 2024-04-24) Ueckert, Logan
The butcher-on-the-bus phenomenon refers to repeatedly encountering a person in a specific context and later failing to recognize them in a novel context. Despite the failure to recognize the person, a strong sense of familiarity occurs. Although this phenomenon commonly occurs, little is known about its underlying cause. One possibility is that the informativeness of the context increases the strength of the association between context and identity. This association may then interfere with recognizing the same person in a novel context. This study was designed to examine the following question: Is recognition of faces in previously-unseen contexts influenced by the allocation of attention to previously-seen contexts? Attention to context was manipulated by altering whether the context provided identity-specific information such as the target’s occupation or hobbies, and whether the context was consistent (mimicking the experience of repeatedly encountering a face in the same context) or varied. Unexpectedly, I found that identities first encountered in an informative context were later recognized better in a new context than those encountered in uninformative contexts. This suggests that the informativeness of context provides a powerful cue that aids in the learning of a new face, surpassing the benefit of exposure to within-person variability.
Open Access
Does within-person variability in learning faces eliminate own-age bias in remembering faces?
(Faculty of Arts, University of Regina, 2024-04-24) Sidhu, Amanpreet
The own-age bias is the finding that memory is better for faces that are similar in age to the rememberer than other-age faces. This experiment investigated whether exposure to increased variability when learning faces reduces own-age bias in remembering those faces. Previous research suggested that own-age faces are remembered better than other-age faces because they are learned on an individual level instead of a categorical level. As such, a manipulation that promotes individuation, such as exposure to high within-person variability, should reduce own-age bias. Previous research employed various methods to encourage individuation of other-age faces and found mixed results. I hypothesized that if high variability encourages individuation, then own-age bias should be reduced when faces are learned in a high variability context. To test this, participants were randomly assigned to three between-subjects learning conditions a) no-variability b) low-variability, c) high-variability, and two within-subjects conditions a) own-age, b) other-age. Face recognition was tested using a “seen” or “not seen” task. Similar to previous research, individuals were more accurate at recognizing own-age faces than other-age faces. Accuracy for both own- and other-age faces was best for those who trained with high variability images. Although not significant, the results suggested that own-age bias may actually have been larger for faces seen with high variability.
Open Access
Pointing fingers: moral judgements and law enforcement perception in online true crime communities
(Faculty of Arts, University of Regina, 2023) Nadeem, Safa
In the digital age, civilian interest in criminal cases has seen an upsurge over the past few years, leading to speculation, misinformation, and action on the part of online users. The November 2022 murder of four college students sent shockwaves across online communities, stoking widespread interest and drawing thousands to a single forum on Reddit. This study sought to analyze digitally-based civilian policing, addressing the current rise of online true crime communities. Leveraging Haidt and Graham’s Moral Foundations Theory (2007), this study examined the psychological processes that may be involved in public information consumption and online behaviour in response to criminal cases. The present research sought to understand whether the ubiquity of criminal cases in online spaces led citizens to participate in websleuthing forums as an outlet for moral judgement. We proposed that moral foundations language would be prevalent in Reddit discussions regarding the Idaho University criminal case and would be associated with police attitudes. Data was collected from the largest Reddit forum pertaining to the case. Both quantitative analyses (independent sample t-tests) and inductive methods (using Pennebaker et al.’s 2022 Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count Program and qualitative description) were used. Results demonstrated that fairness-related language was more prevalent in posts pertaining to law enforcement. Findings may advance knowledge on community engagement with law enforcement, and the broader scheme of internet culture relative to moral-psychological phenomena.
Open Access
Teacher and education students’ knowledge of children’s understanding of arithmetic concepts
(Faculty of Arts, University of Regina, 2023-04) Fohr, Raelynn.
Arithmetic concepts such as Equivalence (understanding the equals sign means that both sides of an equation are balanced), Inversion (understanding some pairs of operations are inversely related), and Associativity (understanding some problems can be solved in any order) are understood to give a deeper understanding of math (Wong, 2017). As well, the use of strategies that show an understanding of these concepts has been suggested to improve children’s accuracy on math problems (Chesney et al., 2013; Dubé & Robinson, 2010). Within this study, Teachers and Undergraduate Education students completed an online survey asking them to solve math problems that could be solved using a conceptually-based strategy. As well, participants were asked questions regarding their math anxiety and comfort teaching math. Finally, participants were asked to estimate at what grade 50% of children would apply a conceptually-based strategy to solve problems. Participants were only accurate estimating when 50% of children understood additive inversion. Participants overestimated children’s understanding of the concepts of associativity, equivalence, and multiplicative inversion. As well, it was found that higher math teaching anxiety was correlated with more conceptually-based strategy use, and higher maximum grade comfortable teaching math was correlated with less accuracy and conceptually-based strategy use. Overall, these findings indicated that more needs to be done to address education professionals estimates of children’s understanding.
Open Access
Eye love arithmetic: an inversion and associativity eye tracking study
(Faculty of Science, University of Regina, 2024-04) McCullough, Natalia
Arithmetic is important for developing the cognitive and problem-solving skills that are fundamental for higher levels of math. As such, it is important that individuals understand arithmetic concepts such as inversion and associativity, which can be reflected in how they solve three-term arithmetic problems. If an adult solves an inversion problem like 27 + 46 – 46 by cancelling the 46s, it suggests they understand inversion and have used an inversion shortcut. Similarly, when adults solve an associativity problem like 3 × 26 ÷ 13 by first computing 26 ÷ 13, they have used an associativity shortcut. To deconstruct why some individuals are better at using shortcuts, the current study used an eye tracker to generate heat maps and compare the visual attention of shortcut users to shortcut non-users. Participants (n =22) solved 32 three-term arithmetic problems while their eye fixations were tracked. Half of the problems were inversion, and the other half were associativity. Problems differed by operators (additive or multiplicative) and their format (conducive or non-conducive). Results support previous findings that adults are more accurate and use more shortcuts on inversion, additive, and conducive problems than associativity, multiplicative, and non-conducive problems. When comparing the eye movements of shortcut users to shortcut non-users, the heat maps indicate that participants focused on different areas. Further visual and statistical analyses are needed to compare the eye movements of shortcut users to shortcut non-users. Continuing to study the visual attention of shortcut users might explain why they perform well on these problems.
Open Access
Adults’ perceptions of child eyewitness credibility: multiple independent lineups
(Faculty of Arts, University of Regina, 2024-04) Engel, Katherine M.
Eyewitness testimony is a powerful piece of evidence in criminal cases (O’Neill et al., 2011; Neal et al., 2012), but this can be problematic as eyewitness testimony is a leading cause of wrongful convictions (Innocence Project, 2023). Mistaken eyewitness testimony is prominent in children, as children identify innocent suspects more frequently than adults (Fitzgerald & Price, 2015). Age-appropriate lineup techniques have been explored to reflect child eyewitness accuracy, such as the multiple independent lineups technique (MIL; Carr & Bruer, 2023). Although Carr & Bruer (2023) found promising results using the MIL technique with children, how adults perceive child eyewitness credibility through MIL was unstudied. This study aimed to fill this gap in how adults perceive child eyewitness credibility on the MIL. To do so, juryeligible participants (N =176. 73% female, 24% male, 3% identified as other [i.e., nonbinary], Mage = 23.26, SD = 7.85) read a mock trial transcript where the child eyewitness made their identification(s) of the suspect through the traditional lineup or the MIL technique. Perceived credibility for the participants was measured through several different dimensions (i.e., identification, overall credibility, honesty, and cognitive ability). Largely, the results did not indicate any significant differences across lineup techniques (traditional lineup or MIL), nor the age of the child eyewitnesses (younger or older). This indicates that adults perceive child eyewitness credibility similarly regardless of technique used and age of the child eyewitness. Implications and future directions are discussed.
Open Access
Punishment orientation and juror decision-making in sexual assault trials
(Faculty of Arts, University of Regina, 2023) Stevenson, Julianne
Objectives: The study aimed to determine whether gender differences and punishment orientation predict juror decision-making in sexual assault trials. Hypotheses: There will be a main effect of punishment orientation, such that the more punishment-oriented someone is, the more likely they will find the defendant guilty. There will be a gender difference in verdict decision, such that women will be more likely to find the defendant guilty. This relationship will be qualified by an interaction with punishment orientation, such that there will be a gender difference in verdict only among those who are less punishment-prone. Method: A sample of N = 211 (101 female, 110 male) Canadian jury-eligible community participants were recruited through the crowdsourcing platform Prolific. Participants read a trial in which a man is charged with sexual assault against a woman. Participants chose a verdict (guilty, not guilty) and rated their confidence in that verdict (where 0 = not at all confident, and 10 = very confident). Participants then completed measures of rape myth acceptance and punishment orientation. Results: Consistent with previous research, we found that men showed higher rape myth endorsement than women and women were more likely to find the defendant guilty. There was no gender difference in POQ scores. POQ scores did not predict verdict decisions. Conclusion: This study adds to the limited research on punishment orientation in sexual assault trials while helping us to better understand the role that punishment plays in guilt decisions. The study tests the current legal assumptions about the right to a fair trial and whether juries can render decisions without considering punishment.
Open Access
Walking trajectory by gender and reference frame is all-right
(Faculty of Science, University of Regina, 2024-04) Graham-Rowe, Darby Jordan
Each hemisphere of the brain has specialized functions. The right hemisphere is dominant for spatial processing in most people, and also processes the left field of vision. It is believed that these lateralized functions underlie the left visual field bias frequently observed on visuospatial tasks, wherein individuals appear to overattend the left side of space and slightly neglect the right. These lateralized functions are also thought to underlie the rightward collision bias frequently reported on laboratory navigation tasks, which would also necessarily entail a rightward walking trajectory. The present study used a naturalistic observational design to determine if walking behaviours in the real world demonstrate a rightward bias. Further, because differences in hemispheric function are more pronounced in men than women, perceived gender was also examined. Observations were made for both absolute walking side within a hall (allocentric reference frame) and passing side relative to another person (egocentric reference frame). Strict rightward biases were found independent of condition and perceived gender. These natural walking pattern findings are consistent with the rightward bias frequently reported on laboratory collision tasks, but are not consistent with findings on other laterality tasks in which women demonstrate smaller biases than men. This study is part of a larger international collaboration exploring the role that a country’s driving side may have in impacting natural walking biases and biases observed in laboratory collision and other visuospatial tasks.
Open Access
The efficacy of the coping with infertility self-help program on sexual and relationship satisfaction
(Faculty of Science, University of Regina, 2024-04) Wahl, Taryn D.
Infertility affects one in six Canadian couples and is associated with elevated psychological, relational and sexual problems. Sexual problems may not only exacerbate infertility-related distress in couples but may also reduce intercourse frequency and pregnancy likelihood for those not using fertility treatments. The Coping With Infertility (CWI) Program was developed by the Reproductive Mental Health Research Unit to target the infertility-related distress of individuals assigned female at birth and is currently being tested in an ongoing randomized controlled trial. Because few studies focus on the sexuality of infertile couples, this study aimed to examine sexual and relationship satisfaction among CWI trial participants and their partners. Independent t-tests calculated the effects of intervention on self-report measures of distress and sexual and relationship satisfaction in AFAB participants. General linear models examined potential moderators of the treatment effects. Though baseline characteristics were identical among the two treatment groups, participants assigned to the treatment group (n = 15) reported significantly higher sexual and relationship satisfaction after the intervention than the control group (n = 19). Baseline scores, age, time spent trying to conceive, and use of fertility treatments did not significantly interact with these effects. Qualitative feedback highlighted benefits related to positive behavioural change, improved communication, and increased partner support. Though the number of participants is low, these preliminary results are promising and suggest that the CWI program improves the unique concerns of infertile couples.
Open Access
Formula feeding stigma and perceived controllability: how different rationales for formula feeding impact judgements
(Faculty of Arts, University of Regina, 2024-04-25) UnRuh, Lauren
Only one study to date has experimentally demonstrated the existence of formula feeding stigma, negative attitudes towards mothers who formula feed rather than breastfeed. That study found evidence for the existence of formula feeding stigma and attributed its cause to perceived intentionality. That is, when researchers exposed participants to an Instagram post, allegedly written by a formula feeding mother, the participants rated the mother more negatively if she had always intended to formula feed than if she had not originally intended to formula feed. In the current study, we utilized a factorial design to explore whether the expressed stigma was truly a function of perceived intentionally or if perceived controllability was the more important factor. Participants were randomly assigned to view one of four social media posts about how a mother came to formula feed. In the posts, the mother formula fed for either a controllable reason (i.e., convenience) or an uncontrollable reason (i.e., surgery) and the decision was either intentional (i.e., she had always planned to formula feed) or unintentional (i.e., she had originally planned to breastfeed). Then they responded to questions measuring stigmatizing beliefs about the mother. Results indicated that when the mother reported formula feeding for a controllable reason she was rated less positively than when the mother reported formula feeding for an uncontrollable reason. As predicted, intentionality did not influence levels of formula feeding stigma. Therefore, when controllability is parsed out from intentionality, controllability is the more important factor in formula feeding stigma.
Open Access
Risk and protective factors associated with depression severity in Canada: a population-based study of the 2017-2018 Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS)
(Faculty of Arts, University of Regina, 2024-04-15) Tessier, Eric
Depression is a highly prevalent and costly contributor to the global burden of disease. Many empirically supported risk (e.g., sedentary behaviour) and protective (e.g., social support) factors associated with depression exist. Investigating the relationship of risk and protective factors with depression using a current, representative sample from the Canadian population provides utility for policy-makers and clinicians to shape messaging surrounding depression and target their future research and treatment effectively. The current investigation involved analysis of participant data (n = 113,290) from the 2017-2018 Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS). The CCHS makes use of psychometrically validated measures such as the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and the Social Provisions Survey (SPS-10) to assess depression and related factors. Using regression models, sleep, sedentary behaviour, and social support were demonstrated as pertinent risk and protective factors to be considered in future longitudinal research oriented towards depression (p <.001). Being younger, particularly between the ages of 20 and 29, and female emerged as sociodemographic predictors of depression (p <.001). Counterintuitively, physical activity was not a significant predictor of depression severity in the current study. Results of the present research provide valuable insight into the health behaviours of Canadians as they relate to depression. To address the unmet need in terms of mental health services in Canada, the development and dissemination of a self-guided program to treat mild-to-moderate depression may help to reduce the burden on primary care, and the Canadian healthcare system as a whole.
Open Access
Sexual desire in perimenopause: the role of sex hormones and depressive symptoms
(Faculty of Science, University of Regina, 2024-04-23) Preston, Duncan
Sexual dysfunction and diminished sexual desire are common complaints among midlife women. These sexual difficulties may relate to the ovarian hormone changes that occur during the menopause transition (i.e., “perimenopause”). Levels of estradiol fluctuate during this period, at times reaching very low levels, which may result in physiological effects that, in turn, impact sexual function and desire. However, the extent to which perimenopausal changes in libido are directly related to hormone shifts remains unclear. Since the menopause transition is also associated with an increased risk of depressive symptoms, perimenopausal mood changes may also contribute to perimenopausal changes in libido. This study aimed to examine the relative contributions of within-person changes in weekly depressive mood and ovarian hormone levels on weekly libido. Fifteen perimenopausal women reporting clinically elevated levels of depressive symptoms were recruited. Once a week for eight weeks, they completed a survey assessing depressive mood and sexual desire and provided a urine sample for the measurement of the urinary metabolites of estradiol and progesterone, resulting in a total of 120 hormone-survey pairs. Multilevel modelling examining the within-person effects of hormones and depressive mood on sexual desire revealed that while with-person weekly changes in depressive symptoms significantly impacted sexual desire, weekly changes in ovarian hormones did not. In the future, our team will recruit additional participants to examine these relationships in a larger sample as well as investigate potential moderators in the relationship between hormone changes and sexual desire, such as prior history of sexual dysfunction.
Open Access
Perceived intentionality and social perspective taking: when do we give others the benefit of the doubt
(Faculty of Arts, University of Regina, 2024-04) Minel, Raelynne Nicole
The intentions we attribute to others effect on how we perceive ambiguous actions. Think of the polarized interpretations of police conduct in the news where the same actions are witnessed by all but how those actions are perceived differs because of varying attributions of intent. The present study explored relationships between social perspective taking and attributions of intent in an online survey administered to ninety-three undergraduate students. Social perspective taking and attributions of intent were assessed in relation to an ambiguous sentence task as a measure of intentionality bias and a series of vignettes as a measure of hostile attributions of intent. It was hypothesized that intentionality bias would be associated with social perspective taking, social perspective taking would be associated with reduced hostile attribution bias, and a relationship between intentionality bias and hostile attribution bias would be mediated by social perspective taking. No relationship was found between intentionality bias and social perspective taking, but an inverse relationship was found between social perspective taking and hostile attribution bias as was found a relationship between intentionality bias and hostile attribution bias albeit not mediated by social perspective taking. These findings provide support for the assumption that intentionality bias and hostile attribution bias are related, and that social perspective taking and hostile attributions of intent are related, albeit negatively.
Open Access
Cognitive processes that support adult memory for novel sequential actions
(Faculty of Arts, University of Regina, 2024-04) McStravick, Haley B.
Recalling the order of action sequences plays a considerable role in everyday routine functioning, but relatively little is known about the underlying cognitive processes behind the learning of such action sequences. The current study explored the role of prior knowledge in sequence learning, and the relative importance of verbal and motor processing during this learning. Participants viewed a series of action sequences and were either given prior knowledge of the object categories used in the sequences or not and were additionally asked to perform a motor or verbal dual task during learning, or had no dual task. After a delay they were asked to recall the sequence with a novel set of items. Recall for the action sequence was significantly stronger without the presence of a dual task, both with and without prior knowledge. There was also partial evidence that verbal processes may be more heavily involved in learning in comparison to motor processing. These findings indicate that full attention is required for action learning, and that real-world learning of actions may rely most heavily on verbal working memory.
Open Access
Canadians’ opioid awareness: an analysis across multiple demographics
(Faculty of Arts, University of Regina, 2024-04) Klatt, Brenna
Canada is currently experiencing an opioid crisis that leads to many Canadian deaths each year. The present study is a quantitative analysis of data collected through Statistics Canada’s Survey on Opioid Awareness (2017). Participants (N= 5,116) answered questions related to their awareness of several topics including: the opioid issue in Canada, their personal opioid use, appropriate overdose response, sharing opioids, harm reduction services, and general information related to opioid use. These topics have been divided into 2 main scales: Awareness of Safe Opioid Use and Awareness of General Information Related to Opioid Use (6 items; r = 0.87). Factor analysis revealed 3 subscales within the first scale, Awareness of Safe Opioid Use. These subscales are Awareness of Appropriate Overdose Response (4 items; r = 0.75), Awareness of Related to Sharing Opioids (3 items; r = 0.63), and Awareness of Harm Reduction Services (3 items; r = 0.69). 3 in 10 participants reported using opioids in the past five years. The majority of those who used opioids were female (57.10% female vs. 42.90% male). Women also report being more aware of appropriate overdose response (54.41% female vs. 45.59% male). 80% of participants reported being at least somewhat aware that there is currently an opioid issue in Canada. Participants over the age of 80 are significantly less aware of general information related to opioid use and appropriate overdose response than most age groups. Residents of Quebec report significantly less opioid use in last five years as well as lower levels of awareness of general information related to opioid use than most provinces. Residents of British Columbia reported being significantly more aware of general information related to opioid use and appropriate overdose response. These findings provide insight into which Canadian populations have the greatest need for information related to opioid use and overdose.