Browsing by Author "Owen, Margaret Tresch"
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Item Developmental Trajectories of Physical Aggression in Low-Income African American and Hispanic Children: Relations to Household Risk and Child Inhibitory Control(2017-08) Pacheco, Daniel Frank; 0000 0003 5627 7714 (Barnes, JC); 291931116 (Owen, MT); Owen, Margaret Tresch; Barnes, James C.This dissertation examined developmental trajectories of physical aggression in low-income African American and Hispanic preschoolers as they transitioned to primary school. Three developmental trajectories were expected to be identified in the data: a low physical aggression group, a group that begins higher in physical aggression that the low group but declines to near zero levels by Wave 4, and a group high in physical aggression across all four time points. More boys and African American children were expected to be classified into the high physical aggression group whereas children with higher inhibitory control competency were expected to be classified into the low physical aggression group. Additionally, cumulative risk was measured at all four time points and more cumulative risk was expected to be characteristic of the high physical aggression group. Data from the Dallas Preschool Readiness Project (DPReP), a longitudinal study of 407 low-income African American and Hispanic children and families, were used to estimate developmental trajectories across four waves beginning when the children were 2½ years of age. Additional waves were included when children were 3½, in kindergarten, and in first grade. Using group-based trajectory modeling, a model consisting of four trajectories of physical aggression was selected. The model identified a no physical aggression group (18%), a low declining group (41%), a high declining group (32%), and a high chronic group (9%). The groups did not differ by child gender but more Hispanic children were classified into the no physical aggression and low declining groups while more African American children were classified into high declining and high chronic groups. To gain a better understanding of the trajectories, cumulative risk and inhibitory control were modeled as predictors of physical aggression group membership but in different ways. Cumulative risk was modeled as a time-varying covariate of physical aggression and showed to distinguish the low declining and no physical aggression groups from high chronic and high declining physical aggression groups. Higher levels of cumulative risk characterized the high chronic physical aggression group and lower cumulative risk characterized the no and low declining physical aggression groups. Inhibitory control at Wave 2 when children were 3½ distinguished the no physical aggression from the low declining and high chronic groups. No differences related to cumulative risk or inhibitory control were found between the high chronic and high declining groups. This study extends extant research on the developmental course of physical aggression at these early ages by examining individual differences related to variations in risk and inhibitory control within a high-risk sample of ethnic minority children. Most of the prior research investigating physical aggression in young children has included predominantly middle-income, Caucasian samples. The current study addressed the unanswered question of whether the developmental course of physical aggression in very young, low-income, African American and Hispanic children is similar to that found in Caucasian-majority samples in prior studies. The findings reported here show substantial within-group variability in physical aggression in low-income African American and Hispanic children. The current study findings appear to indicate consistency with prior research. That is, distinct high chronic, high declining, low declining and no physical aggression groups were identified from the analysis, with significant between group differences between the extreme groups. Inconsistencies with past research are discussed at length.Item Family Income Trajectory During Childhood is Associated with Adiposity in Adolescence: A Latent Class Growth AnalysisKendzor, D. E.; Caughy, M. O.; Owen, Margaret Tresch; 291931116 (Owen, MT)Background: Childhood socioeconomic disadvantage has been linked with obesity in cross-sectional research, although less is known about how changes in socioeconomic status influence the development of obesity. Researchers have hypothesized that upward socioeconomic mobility may attenuate the health effects of earlier socioeconomic disadvantage; while downward socioeconomic mobility might have a negative influence on health despite relative socioeconomic advantages at earlier stages. The purpose of the current study was to characterize trajectories of family income during childhood, and to evaluate the influence of these trajectories on adiposity at age 15. Methods. Data were collected as part of the Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD) between 1991 and 2007 at 10 sites across the United States. A latent class growth analysis (LCGA) was conducted to identify trajectories of family income from birth to 15 years of age. Analyses of covariance (ANCOVAs) were conducted to determine whether measures of adiposity differed by trajectory, while controlling for relevant covariates. Results: The LCGA supported a 5-class trajectory model, which included two stable, one downward, and two upward trajectories. ANCOVAs indicated that BMI percentile, waist circumference, and skinfold thicknesses at age 15 differed significantly by trajectory, such that those who experienced downward mobility or stable low income had greater adiposity relative to the more advantaged trajectories. Conversely, upwardly mobile children and those with consistently adequate incomes had similar and more positive outcomes relative to the most disadvantaged trajectories. Conclusions: Findings suggest that promoting upward socioeconomic mobility among disadvantaged families may have a positive impact on obesity-related outcomes in adolescence. © 2012 Kendzor et al.; e BioMed Central Ltd.Item Laboratory Animation Productions: Strategies to Produce Customizable Animations to Be Used as Materials for Experimental Research on Media(May 2023) Doust-Haghighi, Elham 09/16/1977-; Veras, Christine; Veras, Christine; Veras, Christine; Veras, Christine; Veras, Christine; Veras, Christine; Farrar, Eric; Farrar, Eric; Owen, Margaret TreschThe interventional experimental method is a standard method for investigating the effects of media on children. Due to budget and time constraints, researchers use the lowest priced methods to create visual content to be used as stimuli in the research. Surveys and correspondence with researchers have been used to examine experimental research conditions and limitations. I studied recent animation industry technologies and developments to create a cost-effective animation production track compatible with experimental research conditions. This thesis shows that animations can be produced in a way to meet experimental psychology research. Due to its use of motion capture facilities, motion libraries, ease of use, and expertise in quickly creating simple animations, I found Adobe Character Animator to be advantageous for creating laboratory animations. Image generating capabilities of AI programs can also accelerate the preproduction phase. It takes 80–253 hours to make 12 minutes of 2D digital animation in an academic animation lab. The animations could then be stored in an online library to be available to other experimental researchers without extra cost or time.Item Semantic interference and facilitation: the role of feature cues and category in naming(August 2023) Dugas, Christine Sofka April 12 1985-; Hart Jr., John; Owen, Margaret Tresch; Maguire, Mandy J.; Lee, Yune; Spence, JefferySemantic interference effects have been observed in a variety of naming paradigms where categorically related items, (i.e., cow, horse, sheep), elicit longer naming latencies than categorically unrelated items (i.e., book, knife, mirror). However, under certain conditions, semantic facilitation effects (i.e., shorter naming latencies) may be observed from categorically related items depending on the context and order of presentation within a paradigm. Semantic interference and facilitation effects observed in naming are also proposed to be differentially influenced by the correlational nature of the features that comprise these concepts. Using a lexically cued naming paradigm with word pairs designated as either “distinctive” or “shared” features to elicit a target concept which was either related to other concepts within a category or not, evidence for semantic facilitation effects were found for concepts from categorically related items (e.g., farm animals, zoo animals, pets, etc.) when cued by distinctive features. Interestingly, semantic interference effects were not observed in a lexically cued naming paradigm. Likewise, event-related potentials (ERPs) were evaluated, and a significant effect of category (related vs unrelated) was found in the left frontotemporal and right centroparietal regions between 600-1100ms. These ERPs are proposed to represent in the initiation of feature integration beginning approximately 600ms following stimulus presentation and approximately 1200ms prior to naming, indicating an amplitude divergence between categorically related and unrelated concepts. Given the behavioral and EEG data, the following account of semantic and lexical processing is proposed: Categorically related concepts facilitate semantic processing at the superordinate level (i.e., categorical or domain) and features of concepts less likely to co-occur with other concepts (i.e., “distinctive” features) facilitate activation of concepts at the basic level (i.e., specific concept) as measured by naming. Frequent activation of features common among related concepts facilitate subsequent activation of related concepts which facilitates superordinate level semantic processing and distinctive feature cues facilitate access to the basic-level identification required for naming. Categorical level effects are shown to influence naming and neural correlates and when related concepts (or concepts with increased activation of features) are cued by distinctive feature cues, naming latencies and errors are decreased compared to other conditions. Our results suggest when facilitation occurs at both superordinate and basic levels of conceptual processing, naming performance improves.Item The Cognitive, Neurophysiologic, and Connectivity Effects of Multiple Sclerosis on Information Processing Speed and Memory(2022-08-01T05:00:00.000Z) Zuppichini, Mark Daniel; Owen, Margaret Tresch; Rypma, Bart; Spence, Jeffrey; Filbey, Francesca; Hart Jr., JohnMultiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system that can negatively impact both motor and cognitive ability. About 70% of MS patients experience cognitive impairment with reduced information processing speed (IPS) and memory decrements as the most prevalent. IPS, defined as the amount of time needed to process elementary cognitive operations, might be especially critical for cognitive functions that require the coordination of widely distributed brain regions. Current models of working memory posit that it is a widely distributed system involving persistent neural activity in various brain regions during memory delays. In my dissertation, I first hypothesize that reduced IPS in MS disrupts the timely coorination needed between the brain regions associated with working memory function and that this reduced IPS underlies memory declines in MS patients. Furthermore, MS-related neuroinflammation might lead to a strain on oxygen resource availability that can cause neurologic and neurocognitive deficits. Therefore, my second hypothesis is that MS-related metabolic resource constraints impede the ability of neurons to fire persistently and are associated with MS-related reductions in IPS performance. Additionally, timely coordination of interregional connectivity is critical for IPS and memory function. Therefore, dysfunction to the persistent neural activity within a region could affect interregional connectivity. Therefore, my third hypothesis is that, due to altered metabolic resource availability, connectivity between brain regions involved in cognitive function is adversely affected. To test these hypotheses, MS and healthy control (HC) participants underwent extensive neuropsychological evaluation and then advanced dual-echo functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to obtain measures of blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) signal, cerebral blood flow, maximum blood-oxygen capacity (the factor M), and cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen (CMRO2) while they performed an IPS task. Participants also underwent resting-state fMRI and structural diffusion imaging to investigate functional and structural connectivity. Neuropsychological evaluation results showed that MS-related variability in IPS explained variability in verbal episodic and working memory ability in MS patients even after controlling for motor, visual, disease and demographic variables, and after using a composite variable to attenuate task-specific variability. Neurophysiologic results showed that levels of metabolism in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), and area known to be associated with IPS, significantly predicted IPS ability in MS patients. Connectivity analysis results showed that MS-related changes in prefrontal metabolism that significantly explained IPS ability were explained by MS-related changes in resting-state connectivity from the cerebellum. Furthermore, disrupted functional and structural connectivity between the cerebellum and parahippocampal gyri was associated with verbal learning and episodic memory impairment. These results suggest that MS-related metabolic disruptions in an executive area, the dlPFC, are associated with reduced IPS and connectivity changes in MS, and that this disruption has negative effects on episodic and working memory.