Developmental Feedback, Ability, and Employee Effort in a Multitask Environment

This study explores whether employee responses to developmental feedback in a multitask setting differ when feedback focus on the task which is an employee’s relative strength (strength-congruent) or weakness (weakness-congruent), and wether employee response depends on whether the task is relatively more effort or ability driven. In a multitask setting, developmental feedback can be used to focus future employee efforts on one task over another. Using an experiment, I find that strength-congruent feedback on a more ability-driven task leads to a greater allocation of time to the task than when strength-congruent feedback is given on a more effort-driven task, or when weakness-congruent feedback is given. However, within the time spent on the task, I find greater performance improvement on the ability-driven task regardless of whether feedback is strength-congruent or weakness-congruent. This study broadens our understanding of the multitask environment and how employees allocate effort in the presence of communicated firm preferences

Automated Conjecturing Approach for Benzenoids

Benzenoids are graphs representing the carbon structure of molecules, defined by a closed path in the hexagonal lattice. These compounds are of interest to chemists studying existing and potential carbon structures. The goal of this study is to conjecture and prove relations between graph theoretic properties among benzenoids. First, we generate conjectures on upper bounds for the domination number in benzenoids using invariant-defined functions. This work is an extension of the ideas to be presented in a forthcoming paper. Next, we generate conjectures using property-defined functions. As the title indicates, the conjectures we prove are not thought of on our own, rather generated by a process of automated conjecture-making. This program, named Cᴏɴᴊᴇᴄᴛᴜʀɪɴɢ, is developed by Craig Larson and Nico Van Cleemput

The Role of Antenatal Physical Activity in Preventing Postpartum Depression

Background: Postpartum depression (PPD) is a debilitating and potentially dangerous illness that women face. Though there are several methods of treatment of PPD, there are currently no clinical recommendations for preventative measures that can be taken. Physical activity has been shown to prevent depression, however there is a lack of consistent evidence regarding the efficacy of physical activity in preventing postpartum depression. Objectives: The goal of this literature review is to determine the effects of antenatal physical activity interventions in preventing postpartum depression. Methods: This integrative literature review will search for interventional studies in CINAHL, PubMed, PsychInfo, and ProQuest. Data will be analyzed and displayed used Garrard’s matrix method. Conclusion: Overall, due to the lack of research and inconsistency in existing literature, it is not possible to determine whether physical activity performed antenatally has any impact on the incidence of postpartum depression

A forgotten shade of blue: support for the union and the constitutional republic in southeastern Kentucky during the civil war era.

This thesis analyzes Southeastern Kentucky’s political and military support for the Union during the Civil War era. In the decades prior to the 1860 election, Kentucky developed deep social and economic ties with all sections of the country. After the secession winter that followed Abraham Lincoln’s presidential election, the statewide population divided and pockets of significant Confederate sympathies emerged. Kentucky’s southeastern counties aligned with the Union at the outbreak of the Civil War because of a strong national identity and the absence of a large slave population. As the war unfolded, Southeastern Kentuckians played an important role in the disruption of repeated Confederate invasions. Kentucky split again in the emancipationist phase of the war when guerilla warfare engulfed the slave state, but southeastern Kentuckians continued to support federal efforts with votes, enlistments, and service. In the final months of the conflict, and the years that followed, a core of Kentucky’s southeastern counties did not drift toward the Confederacy’s “lost cause,” nor to the Democratic Party, as did much of the state. Instead, citizens from Southeastern Kentucky offered robust support for Union veterans and other Republican candidates who ran for both state and federal offices. This thesis illuminates the political activity and military service of citizens from Southeastern Kentucky during those turbulent years with attention to national events and other local populations proximate to the region of study

What Color is Your Shirt?: The Effects of Priming on Rock, Paper, Scissors

Literature on priming suggests that memory consists of a large network of associations. Through everyday experiences, individuals form associations that later facilitate recall. For example, we often pair items that are commonly presented together such as “cat” and “dog” or “bread” and “butter.” If one of these items is presented, it is likely that we will recall the other. Thus, the first item “primes” the association with the second. Priming may impact behaviors, even without conscious awareness of its occurrence (Higgins, Rholes, & Jones, 1977). The purpose of this research is to examine the potential impact of priming on a simple game of Rock, Paper, Scissors. Specifically, we are interested in whether participants may be primed to respond with a specific answer. Participants will include 40 individuals recruited within the Marshall University Psychology Department. To be eligible for this study, participants must be at least 18 years of age. Participants will be randomly assigned to a control and experimental group. Control group participants will be asked if they would like to play a round of Rock, Paper, Scissors with the researcher, and they would play a standard round with the researcher. Experimental group participants would also be asked to play Rock, Paper, Scissors. However, before these participants play, they would be asked, “Before we begin, what color is your shirt?” We believe asking participants to think about their shirt color will prime them with fabric and the letter “S”, leading them to choose “scissors” during the game

The Effects of Word Instruction During Classroom Read-Alouds on the Acquisition of Vocabulary

To focus on the need to improve literacy in rural Appalachia, this study investigates the use of Text Talk during read-aloud to increase the receptive vocabulary of participants. The investigator read six picturebooks to two groups of kindergarteners. Group A had 21 participants and Group B had 20 participants. Each group received instruction on two different sets of target vocabulary words, three in each book. The researcher administered a pre-test and post-test to each student patterned after the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. T-tests revealed that students made significant progress learning words when the reader used Text Talk during the lessons. When the students did not receive direct instruction on target words, they were unable to identify their meanings in the post-test. The researcher concludes that using Text Talk as a teaching strategy employed during read-aloud with kindergarteners, is an effective way to increase the receptive vocabulary of children. Since vocabulary relates to reading comprehension, this study suggests that Text Talk is a technique to make improvements in vocabulary retention