College of Behavioral & Social Sciences
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Item EFFECTS OF REWARD CONTEXT ON FEEDBACK PROCESSING AS INDEXED BY TIME-FREQUENCY ANALYSIS(2016) Massey, Adreanna; Bernat, Edward; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The role of reward context has been investigated as an important factor in feedback processing. Previous work has demonstrated that the amplitude of the feedback negativity (FN) depends on the value of the outcome relative to the range of possible outcomes in a given context, not the objective value of the outcome. However, some research has shown that the FN does not scale with loss magnitude in loss-only contexts, suggesting that some contexts do not show a pattern of context-dependence. Time-frequency decomposition techniques have proven useful for isolating important activity, and have shown that time-domain ERPs can be better represented as separable processes in delta (0-3 Hz) and theta (3-7 Hz). Thus, the current study seeks to assess whether the role of context in feedback processing is better elucidated using time-frequency analysis. Results revealed that theta was more context-dependent and showed a binary response to best-worst differences in the gain and even contexts. Delta was more context-independent: the best outcomes scaled linearly with reward magnitude and best-worst differences scaled with context valence. Our findings reveal that theta and delta are differentially sensitive to context and that context valence may play a critical role in determining how the brain processes good and bad outcomes.Item The Unique Political Attitudes and Behaviors of Individuals in Aged Communities(2012) Bramlett, Brittany H.; Gimpel, James G; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation examines the political attitudes and behaviors of individuals residing in communities with large proportions of older adults. These types of locations are growing in number in the United States as the Baby Boomer Generation arrives at retirement age. Many scholars and journalists rely on theories of `senior power' and predict that the places with large numbers of senior citizens should be especially politically powerful. However, many studies have provided little evidence to support these claims. I explore the old questions with updated data, methods and approaches--theorizing that older adults living among their elderly peers will, in fact, exhibit unique levels of political knowledge, efficacy, and participation as well as hold distinct attitudes for safety net issues. Using large-scale surveys and multilevel modeling techniques, I find that older adults residing in aged communities display higher levels of political knowledge than their elderly peers living in places without the same aged context. However, they are less politically efficacious and somewhat less likely to vote. Older adults living among their peers are also more likely to support social welfare programs, controlling for party identification. I also examine the contextual effect of the aged context for younger residents. In particular, I find that young people are also quite supportive of the safety net policies, which provide assistance for their elder neighbors. Because of this support from the younger generation, older adults in aged communities may rarely, if ever, face threats to their livelihood, driving them into political action. Taken together, the results from this dissertation show that older adults living amongst their peers are certainly equipped for intense political engagement or senior power--but they choose political retreatism rather than activism.