Biopsychology: Sleep and Circadian Rhythms

Open Educational ResourceSleep is a fundamental and reversible state of reduced responsiveness to the environment accompanied by altered consciousness. This active process involves characteristic changes in brain activity measurable by EEG and is more than just passive rest. Given that it occupies a significant portion of our lives, adequate sleep is critical for maintaining overall health and well-being. CC BY NC S

Biopsychology: Development and Brain Plasticity

Neural development and brain plasticity are critical processes that shape the structure and function of the brain from the earliest stages of life through adulthood and into aging. The brain's ability to change and adapt contributes to everything from learning and memory to recovery from injury. This chapter explores these complex and dynamic processes, focusing on how they contribute to behavior and cognition, as well as the biological mechanisms that drive them. Understanding neural development and plasticity is essential for anyone interested in biopsychology, as these processes play a fundamental role in mental health, learning, and overall brain function across the lifespan. CC-BY-NC-S

Biopsychology: The Motor System

Open Educational ResourceThe motor system is a complex network of structures and pathways that coordinate and execute voluntary and involuntary movements. It involves various parts of the nervous system, including the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves, which work together to control muscle activity and movement. This system is essential for performing everyday tasks, from simple actions like walking and talking to more complex activities such as playing a musical instrument or engaging in sports. CC-BY-NC-S

Finding Aid for the Richard W. Nygren Papers (HSF-80)

The Richard Nygren Papers is composed of notebooks, reports, memos, notes, photographs, correspondence, technical manuals, technical requirements records, technical documents, technical drawings, certificates and awards, directories, training and meeting logs, telephone directories, charts, audiocassette tapes, VHS video tapes and other materials, used and kept by Richard Nygren during his NASA career. Nygren worked at NASA Johnson Space Center, NASA Headquarters, and as an independent consultant with NASA throughout his career. He began working at NASA Manned Spacecraft Center [later Johnson Space Center] in 1966 on the Apollo Program. Nygren is most known as being the Chief of the Vehicle Integration Test Team (VITT), for which he would travel with the NASA Shuttle astronauts from Johnson Space Center to Kennedy Space Center leading up to Shuttle mission launches. The bulk of the materials are Nygren’s green fabric work notebooks, in which he documented details from meetings, business trips, and work with NASA astronauts prior to the launch of Space Shuttle missions. They also contain NASA project information, contact information for aerospace professionals and other NASA personnel, and any information that Nygren thought was significant to record for his daily work. The notebooks date from November 1966 to September 2001, covering Nygren’s entire NASA career. The collection includes correspondence, memos, and photographs documenting Nygren’s role with the Space Shuttle Program, as well as various other NASA activities and projects. One of the more unique items in the collection are a set of 18 Russian-language diazo reproduction blueprints of engineering drawings for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP). These drawings are of the outer and internal components of the American and Russian space vehicles showing the docking mechanisms during the test of space rescue operations

Biopsychology: Sensation and Perception

Open Educational ResourceSensation and perception are fundamental processes in the nervous system that allow organisms to interpret and respond to their environment. Sensation involves the detection of physical stimuli by sensory receptors, while perception is the interpretation of these sensory signals by the brain. Sensory system take the energy of the environment (e.g. light, chemical) and turn it into action potentials for the brain to process. CC-BY-NC-S

Biopsychology: Higher-Order Cognitive Functioning

Open Educational ResourceThis OER is a chapter on Higher-Order Cognitive Functioning as part of the course Brain and Behavior. This resource provides a general overview of higher order cognitive functioning, discussing the neural underpinnings of various processes such as executive functioning, problem solving, decision making, and social cognition. CC BY NC S

Excel Model for Beer Simulation and Dice Game

An Excel optimization model developed to illustrate the value of information during supply chain disruption and an Excel simulation model to illustrate the concept of bottleneck in production or supply chain. CC BY-NC-S

Finding Aid for the Glynn S. Lunney Papers (HSF-90)

The Glynn S. Lunney Papers is composed of correspondence, telegrams, photographs, negatives, personnel records, resumes, notebooks, flight plans, binders, scrapbooks, papers, transcripts, press materials, booklets, proclamations, awards, certificates, agendas, event programs, invitations, flyers, yearbooks, newsletters, magazines, newspaper articles, ephemera, audio reel tapes, artifacts, and miscellaneous materials, documenting the personal and professional life of NASA engineer, flight director, and program manager Glynn S. Lunney of Old Forge, Pennsylvania, and Houston, Texas. The collection spans from his high school years in Pennsylvania, through post-retirement life. The materials date from the 1940s through 2013, with the bulk of the materials dating from 1960 to 1990. One of the largest sets of materials in the collection is photographs. The collection contains over 1,700 original photographs documenting all aspects of Glynn Lunney’s life, work, and some parts of his family’s lives between the 1940s through the 2010s. The greatest strength of the photographs is their documentation of his role with various NASA missions at NASA Johnson Space Center from 1965 to 1984. The largest set of photographs in the entire collection documents the operation of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project from October 1970 through the program’s conclusion in 1975. Some of the most unique and most original photographs in the collection relate to ASTP. There are photographs from every meeting and training held both in Houston, Texas, and Moscow, Russia, between the USSR-US Joint ASTP Working Group. Another large set of materials is housed within Glynn Lunney’s memento and work binders. Removed from the physical binders for preservation, these materials were originally arranged in three-ring binders to document Lunney’s role in the various NASA programs and missions from the Gemini Program through the Space Shuttle Program. The original binders were arranged in the following categories: Gemini to Apollo 7; Apollo 7-12; Apollo 13; Apollo 13; Apollo 14 to ASTP; Apollo 16; Skylab 3; and an original Lunney-produced set of photographic National Space Transportation System Overview Slides. There are unique pieces of correspondence, photographs, and other items from the Apollo 13 and ASTP missions found in these binders, including an original teletype message from the Apollo 13 crew aboard the USS Iwo Jima after their safe return to Earth. Another important set of materials included in the papers is correspondence, which Lunney curated to maintain a specific set representative of the different types of people and purposes for which people corresponded with him. There are unique letters from NASA Johnson Space Center Director Christopher C. Kraft Jr., retired Apollo 7 astronaut Walter Cunningham, and astronaut and NASA official Deke Slayton. The collection includes Glynn Lunney’s NASA personnel records, including his original personnel file, providing a detailed description and history of his job positions, job responsibilities, promotions, and supervisor assessments, from 1958 through 1985

Childhood Maltreatment and Academic Outcomes in College

Individuals face numerous challenges throughout their lifetimes, and for many this may lead to problematic academic outcomes. More specifically, a history of childhood maltreatment impacts biological and cognitive processes, which can affect levels of academic engagement, perceived academic stress, school connectedness, and overall academic performance. This study investigates the relationship between college students’ self-reported childhood maltreatment and GPA, and seeks to determine if academic engagement (AE), perceived academic stress (PAS), and school connectedness (SC) mediate the relationship between childhood maltreatment and GPA. It was hypothesized that there is a significant relationship between childhood maltreatment and GPA, and that separately, academic engagement, perceived academic stress, and school connectedness will partially mediate the relationship. To test the hypotheses, data was collected from online self-report surveys completed by college students to assess childhood maltreatment, perceived academic stress, school connectedness, and academic engagement (N = 309). The results found that the relationship between childhood maltreatment and GPA was not significant but childhood maltreatment was related to SC, AE, and PAS. Additionally, in models that did not control for the variance explained by the other hypothesized mediators, childhood maltreatment had significant indirect effects on GPA through AE and PAS, but not SC; however, when accounting for other mediators in the model, the individual indirect effects through each specific mediator were not significant. Finally, AE, PAS, and SC together mediated the relationship between childhood maltreatment and GPA. This study establishes that experiences of maltreatment during childhood can negatively impact academic performance in college by decreasing academic engagement and increasing perceived academic stress

Childhood Maltreatment and the Mediating Effects of Rumination on Trait Mindfulness and Executive Functions in College Students

Childhood maltreatment has been associated with a myriad of challenges in later life, including difficulties related to cognitive processing, emotional regulation, social-behavioral functioning, and academic achievement (Becker-Blease & Kerig, 2016). The current study investigated how childhood maltreatment affects college students by examining the interrelationship of several important variables known to be associated with maltreatment: trait mindfulness, executive functioning, and rumination. Findings suggest that ruminative thoughts may have a mediating effect on the relationship between childhood maltreatment and trait mindfulness. Findings also suggest that ruminative thoughts may have a mediating effect on the relationship between childhood maltreatment and executive functions. These findings may be useful for colleges and universities in considerations for providing a tiered system of support for students with maltreatment histories who experience ruminative thoughts. Addressing ruminative thoughts may help improve important life functions of those students