Year: 2026, 2026
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>Ageism is pervasive and harmful, creating an urgent need to understand how ageist attitudes can be improved. Building on the novel age-conscious student concept, this thesis explored the outcomes of a pilot intergenerational classroom, aimed at reducing ageism, that integrated 13 older community participants into a university-based psychology of aging course alongside 60 younger students… more Year: 2026, 2026
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>Maladaptive fear can develop when nonthreatening stimuli are misinterpreted as dangerous. While fear extinction has been extensively studied, organisms can also learn safety through relief learning, in which cues signalling the termination of an aversive event acquire positive value. Although the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is implicated in regulating responses to threat and safety… more Year: 2026, 2026
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Name(s): Creator (cre): Steinke, Leah Jade, Thesis advisor (ths): Brown, Liana E, Degree committee member (dgc): Paquette, Sebastien, Degree committee member (dgc): Henriques, Denise, Degree committee member (dgc): Fournier, Neil, Degree granting institution (dgg): Trent University Abstract: <p>Freezing is a debilitating phenomenon that reduces quality of life for people withParkinson's disease (PwPD). This study tests the hypothesis that: 1) freezing is linked to
executive dysfunction; 2) freezing is a global motor phenomenon, not limited to gait. We
compared 14 PwPD to 16 controls. Several aspects of executive function were measured
using pro- and anti-saccade tasks… more Year: 2026, 2026
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>Freezing of gait is a debilitating symptom affecting individuals with Parkinson's disease. Emerging evidence suggests freezing may represent a global motor control deficit beyond gait. We investigated freezing episodes in the upper limbs using spatially-constrained reaching tasks known to elicit freezing of gait. Fourteen people with Parkinson's disease and 13 controls… more Year: 2026, 2026
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>Stress during adolescence has profound effects on psychological, behavioral, and neurobiological outcomes in adulthood. This study investigates the impact of adolescent stress on safety learning, anxiety- and depressive-like behaviors, and associated neurocircuitry using a rat model. Adolescent male Long Evans rats underwent an unpredictable intermittent stress regimen, followed by… more Year: 2025, 2025
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>Pain conditions occur at an increasing rate alongside people with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and can include chronic headaches, migraines, and neuropathic pain. In order to begin to understand the concurrence, this experiment aimed to investigate the effect of long-term amygdala kindling, a model of TLE, on the affective and nociceptive components of pain in rats. Formalin-induced… more Year: 2025, 2025
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>It is well known that pain can heighten sensitivity to stimuli that signal threat in most species. In rodents, exposure to predator odor, such as 2,5-dihydro-2,4,5-trimethylthiazoline (TMT), induces anxiety and alters pain sensitivity. This study explored the effect of predator odor stress on mechanical pain sensitivity in a rat model of acute inflammatory pain induced by suboptimal… more Year: 2025, 2025
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>Metaphors are a ubiquitous component of communication, which are either conventional (familiar) or novel phrases. Metaphors are useful for discussing abstract concepts such as emotions that can be difficult to discuss literally, and as such benefit social relationships (Nippold et al., 2017). Research on contributors to novel metaphor production is limited and previous methodologies have… more Year: 2025, 2025
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>Prevailing rates of sexual violence have necessitated research on sexual consentcommunication to remedy these issues. Research has found that individuals possess sophisticated
knowledge of consent, and that discrepancies between people's attitudes and behaviours are
resulting in sexual violence and compliance behaviours. The BDSM community–with its greater
diversity and effective… more Year: 2025, 2025
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>An athlete's psychological response to a sports-related concussion may influence thesuccess of recovery and return to play. This exploratory study explored how athletes
psychologically respond to concussion, using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to
examine the role of psychological flexibility in recovery and return to play. Thirty
athletes who experienced a concussion in the past… more Year: 2025, 2025
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>This thesis aimed to explore students' perspectives on university exams in two studies. Using a phenomenological approach, Study 1 recruited 10 senior undergraduate students to participate in semi-structured interviews. A thematic analysis revealed key themes related to exam purpose, effectiveness, fairness, and emotional responses. These insights informed the development of a… more Year: 2025, 2025
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>Office workers consistently report greater productivity in the workplace when standing compared to sitting (Chambers et al., 2019; MacEwan et al., 2015; Mantzari et al., 2018). In contrast, laboratory studies report inconsistent evidence that posture (sitting vs. standing) affects cognitive performance, usually operationalized as selective attention (Caron et al., 2020; 2022; Rosenbaum… more Year: 2025, 2025
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>Stress can significantly affect neurobiological processes crucial for learning and memory. While repeated stress enhances fear memory, it impairs memory retrieval. In most studies, however, stress exposure typically preceded fear and extinction learning. Thus, the impact of previously acquired memories formed before exposure to stress is not well understood. The goal of this thesis is to… more Year: 2025, 2025
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>This study investigates associations between self-other differentiation (the ability to distinguish and coordinate the self and other perspective during social problem-solving) and specific ego functions (reality testing, judgement, sense of reality, object relations, and synthetic-integrative function) from a cognitive perspective in two groups of adolescents aged 12 to 18 years. One… more Year: 2025, 2025
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>In today's digital era, smartphone use is having a profound effect on family life. There is growing concern about parental phubbing, which occurs when parents ignore their children in favour of using their phones. This study examined how parental phubbing was associated with children's problematic media use (PMU), and problem behaviours (internalizing, externalizing,attention)… more Year: 2025, 2025
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Name(s): Creator (cre): McCallum, Daniel, Thesis advisor (ths): Lehmann, Hugo, Degree committee member (dgc): Chan-Reynolds, Michael, Degree committee member (dgc): Humphreys, Terry, Degree committee member (dgc): Toufexis, Donna, Degree granting institution (dgg): Trent University Abstract: <p>Damage to the hippocampus (HPC) causes retrograde amnesia for some memories, but spaced learning mitigates this. Contextual fear conditioning (CFC) studies in rats demonstrate that distributing conditioning over multiple sessions makes a memory less vulnerable to HPC damage, and it has been suggested this occurs through incremental strengthening of the memory outside the HPC via separate… more Year: 2025, 2025
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>Risk-taking (e.g., dangerous driving, substance use) rises during adolescence and can result in both adaptive consequences (e.g., social acceptance) and maladaptive consequences (e.g., alcohol poisoning, premature death). Adolescents also experience an increase in self-conscious emotions, including shame. Shame-prone adolescents may engage in risk-taking to cope with negative self-… more Year: 2024, 2024
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>It is widely believed that basic mental processes involved in skilled reading are automatic in the sense that they occur without intention. Evidence that reading occurs without intention comes from the observation that the meaning of a colour word (e.g., "red") affects the time to name the ink-colour of the word in the Stroop task. Evidence also suggests that non-colour words (… more Full Text: HOW FAR IS A WRITTEN WORD WE ARE TRYING TO IGNORE PROCESSED? A Thesis Submitted to the Committee of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of Master of Science in the Faculty of Arts and Science TRENT UNIVERSITY …
Year: 2024, 2024
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>Previous researchers have linked lower levels of stress and greater ability to mobilize energy toward a goal (self-motivation); confidence in their ability to complete/achieve a particular task or goal (self-efficacy), and ability to willfully control their thoughts, emotions and behaviour (self-control) to regular physical activity (PA). In an effort to provide further insight into the… more Full Text: WHY CAN’ I STICK TO MY WORKOUT ROUTINE? AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO SELFREGULAITON AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY A Thesis Submitted to the Committee on Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in the Faculty of …
Year: 2024, 2024
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>AbstractOral Language and the Approximate Number System – A Preliminary Study
Janice Shewen
The approximate number system (ANS) involves the processing of rudimentary quantity and is
thought to be an innate developmental building block for mathematics and its sister construct, the
symbolic system. The conventional belief is that the ANS is language independent; however, this
notion is… more Full Text: ORAL LANGUAGE AND THE APPROXIMATE NUMBER SYSTEM – A PRELIMINARY STUDY A Thesis Submitted to the Committee on Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in the Faculty of Arts and Science TRENT …
