Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2007, Organizational Behavior

Although there is substantial research on mindfulness and experiential learning there has been no effort to study how the two constructs relate to one another. This study explores the relationship between mindfulness and experiential learning to develop a construct called mindful experiential learning. It details two types of mindfulness research streams and administers the Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) and the Langer Mindfulness Scale (LMS) to measure the two approaches respectively as they relate to experiential learning measured by the Kolb Learning Style Inventory (LSI) and adaptability of learning style as measured by Adaptive Styles Inventory (ASI). An integration of the two mindfulness streams was hypothesized to load into three factors and resulted in four factors of novelty seeking, novelty producing, engaging, and attention/awareness. An integrated definition of mindfulness is proposed and a scale is suggested. As it relates to experiential learning, the thesis aimed to clarify whether or not mindful experiential learning is a metacognitive or sensory/contextual process. Data revealed positive correlations between mindfulness as measured by the LMS and concrete experience on the LSI and negative correlations between the LMS and reflective observation on the LSI. There were no significant relationships found between learning styles and mindfulness as measured by the MAAS, and no relationships found between the ASI and either mindfulness scale. The data suggests that a mindful experiential learning is a sensory/contextual process. Mindful experiential learning involves the concrete experience of knowledge acquisition in order to seek and produce novelty that allows one to learn in a way that best fits the context of the learning environment. From this starting point, the learner may navigate a range of experiential learning styles to improvise with the demands of the environment. Mindful experiential learning is proposed as an engaged process (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: David Kolb (Advisor) Subjects:

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2024, Psychology

Introduction: This study aims to better understand the psychosocial mechanisms by which individuals who report subjective concerns about their memory (SCI) are at a higher risk for objective cognitive impairments (OCI) over time. It also aims to identify modifiable risk factors that may disrupt this progression. Aim 1 tests if symptoms of affective disorders mediate the relationship between SCI and OCI over time. Aim 2 tests if self-perceptions of aging moderate the relationship between SCI and symptoms of affective disorders over time. Aim 3 tests if self-perceptions of aging moderate the indirect effect of symptoms of affective disorders on the relationship between SCI and OCI over time. Method: Data was sourced from the Health and Retirement Study, a national longitudinal dataset, across 8 years. 4,002 adults, 65 and older, were included in the sample. The moderation, mediation, and moderated mediation analyses were conducted using a path model in Mplus (Version 8 Plus). Relevant covariates including demographic and health variables were controlled for. Results: Analyses confirmed that symptoms of affective disorders partially mediated the relationship between SCI and OCI. For individuals with negative self-perceptions of aging, the relationship between SCI and symptoms of affective disorders strengthened over time, while for individuals with positive self-perceptions of aging, the relationship ceased to exist. Finally, positive self-perceptions of aging weakened, while negative self-perceptions of aging strengthened the indirect effect of symptoms of affective disorders on the relationship between SCI and OCI. Conclusion: Results of the current study clarify the psychosocial mechanisms involved in the progression from SCI to OCI, and add support to literature identifying positive beliefs about aging and mental health as protective factors against cognitive impairment among older adults. This study implicates the need for more interdisciplinary research studying (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Katherine Abbott (Committee Co-Chair); Aaron Luebbe (Committee Co-Chair); Vaishali Raval (Committee Member); Angela Curl (Committee Member) Subjects: Aging; Clinical Psychology; Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2019, Philosophy, Applied

In this dissertation, I construct scientifically and practically adequate moral analogues of cognitive heuristics and biases. Cognitive heuristics are reasoning “shortcuts” that are efficient but flawed. Such flaws yield systematic judgment errors, cognitive biases. For example, the availability heuristic infers an event's probability by seeing how easy it is to recall similar events. Since dramatic events like airplane crashes are disproportionately easy to recall, this heuristic explains systematic overestimations of their probability (availability bias). The research program on cognitive heuristics and biases (e.g., Daniel Kahneman's work) has been scientifically successful and has yielded useful error-prevention techniques, cognitive debiasing. I try to apply this framework to moral reasoning to yield moral heuristics and biases. For instance, a moral bias of unjustified differences in animal-species treatment might be explained by a moral heuristic that dubiously infers animals' moral status from their aesthetic features. While the basis for identifying judgments as cognitive errors is often unassailable (e.g., per violating laws of logic), identifying moral errors seemingly requires appealing to moral truth, which, I argue, is problematic within science. Such appeals can be avoided by repackaging moral theories as mere “standards-of-interest” (a la non-normative metrics of purported right-making features/properties). However, standards-of-interest do not provide authority, which is needed for effective debiasing. Nevertheless, since each person deems their own subjective morality authoritative, subjective morality (qua standard-of-interest and not moral subjectivism) satisfies both scientific and practical concerns. As such, (idealized) subjective morality grounds a moral analogue of cognitive biases, subjective moral biases (e.g., committed non-racists unconsciously discriminating). I also argue that cognitive heuristic is defined by its relation to rationa (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Sara Worley Ph.D. (Advisor); Richard Anderson Ph.D. (Other); Theodore Bach Ph.D. (Committee Member); Michael Bradie Ph.D. (Committee Member); Michael Weber Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Cognitive Psychology; Ethics; Philosophy; Philosophy of Science; Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2003, Curriculum and Instruction (Education)

Educational reforms currently underway in athletic training have focused on improving the quality of educational programs through new pedagogical paradigms. Assessment of students' individual learning styles can provide athletic training educators with an opportunity to develop a more personalized approach to instruction by facilitating students to learn through their own style. Matching or guided mismatch of student and educator learning styles could provide the best environment for cognitive growth. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to establish a valid, but efficient, assessment of undergraduate athletic training students' and educators' learning styles. The Gregorc Style Delineator (GSD) was chosen to assess learning style differences. This instrument focuses on two-types of cognitive abilities in adult learners perception and ordering. Each cognitive ability is a bipolar continuum. The continua are combined using a quaternary design to create four mediation channels: concrete sequential (CS), abstract sequential (AS), abstract random (AR), and concrete random (CR). Two hundred (M = 68; F = 132) undergraduate athletic training students and 43 (M = 22; F = 21) program directors volunteered to participate. Principle components factor analysis with varimax rotation revealed reasonable construct validity. Internal consistency of the four channels yielded alpha coefficients of .53 to .68. Frequency analysis of the responses yielded 44.4% (n = 89) of students and 58.1% (n = 25) of program directors preferring the CS channel. The research design was MANOVA utilizing the CS, AS, AR, and CR channels as the dependent measures. The independent variables were gender, education level, and academic role. Data analysis revealed a significant main effect for gender (F4,194 = 3.13, p<.05) and academic role (F4,239 = 4.49, p<.01), but not for education level (p = .310). These main effects reflected mild associations with the dependent variables, partial η² = .061 and .070 (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Ralph Martin (Advisor) Subjects:

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2021, Psychology

A rapid migration of people to the US is changing the linguistic and cultural landscape of society. In turn, linguistic and cultural diversity have grown as the number of immigrants increases in the US. To date, only a few studies provide an in-depth look at children's bilingual development with the focus on aspects of multilingual households and bicultural environments in the US (Harris & Almutairi, 2016; Kalia, 2007). One way to understand the influence of acculturation and language attitudes on children's bilingual development is to examine immigrant families. There seems to be little well-documented research that has been done on the influence of the association between acculturation and attitudes toward preserving heritage culture and language among Turkish immigrant parents in the US (Nisanci, 2019). The current study explored the relationship between parental demographic variables (e.g., parents' educational level, child's age) and children's heritage language proficiency (Becker, 2013) using both Vygotsky's sociocultural theory and Berry's Acculturation Model. Fifty-two (52) Turkish parents age (M = 38.15, SD = 4.84) and their children age from 5 to 11 years (M = 8.23, SD = 2.18) living in various states (e.g., Ohio, Connecticut) participated in this study. The parents were administered a package of questionnaires and children's Turkish productivity samples were elicited for proficiency evaluation via a Turkish expressive vocabulary test (TIFALDI). The findings illustrate that parental language attitudes were negatively correlated with marginalization, assimilation, and integration attitudes but positively correlated with separation attitudes. Notable factors that influenced children's heritage language proficiency were also identified. Children's age was negatively associated with heritage language proficiency. Conversely, actively speaking Turkish with siblings at home, was positively correlated to children's Turkish proficiency. However, the amount of rea (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Yvette Harris R (Advisor); Christopher Wolfe (Committee Member); Lily Halsted (Committee Member); Darrel Davis (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology

Master of Science (MS), Wright State University, 2020, Human Factors and Industrial/Organizational Psychology MS

We looked at the facilitation and transfer of a flow state in a cognitive context. Subjects played a manipulated version of the game Tetris, and we gathered data on their gameplay performance on pre- and post-tasks, as well as a set of questionnaires which measure flow and perceived task effort. The altered version of Tetris includes an artificial intelligence agent that continually assesses the participant's skill and adapts the challenge level of the game to match the participant's skill. An adaptive condition characterized by challenge-skill balance was hypothesized to induce flow, reduce perception of effort, and improve performance. We found differences in reported flow state between conditions, with the easy condition inducing greater flow than adaptive condition, which induced greater flow than the hard condition. We did not find significant differences for performance measures.

Committee: Ion Juvina Ph.D. (Advisor); Joseph Houpt Ph.D. (Committee Member); Pamela Tsang Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Cognitive Psychology; Psychology

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2020, Psychology/Industrial-Organizational

As organizations increasingly modernize and globalize, they depend on employees who can perform in these dynamic environments. Self-driven and agentic employees are, thus, integral to organizations. Employees high in proactive personality, defined as a willingness and desire to assume additional responsibilities and pursue meaningful changes, are well-equipped for these uncertain environments. One way for highly proactive employees to effect change is through job crafting. Job crafting is defined as an ongoing process where employees continuously alter and shape their job tasks and environment. Although job crafting and proactive personality are often discussed in tandem due to the proactive nature of job crafting, proactive personality's status as a predictor of job crafting is relatively unexplored. Further, it is likely that lack of job autonomy limits engagement in job crafting, and proactive personality and level of autonomy might differentially influence engagement in the three forms of job crafting (task, relational, and cognitive crafting). The current study examined proactive personality as a predictor of task, relational, and cognitive job crafting and tested autonomy as a moderator of these relations. Proactive personality was positively correlated with task, relational, cognitive, and overall job crafting. Proactive personality led to increased job crafting, and the strength of this relation was moderated by level of autonomy. Employees high in proactive personality engaged in all forms of job crafting to a greater extent under high rather than low levels of autonomy. These findings align with the proposition that restriction of autonomy within an organization does not fully prevent engagement in job crafting, but rather that it constrains job crafting.

Committee: Scott Highhouse (Advisor); Eric Dubow (Committee Member); Samuel McAbee (Committee Member) Subjects: Occupational Psychology; Organizational Behavior; Personality; Psychology

BA, Oberlin College, 2018, Psychology

A recent increase in transgender visibility has highlighted gaps in the social psychology literature about attitudes and biases. There is a relatively large body of literature that examines people's reactions to gender role violation, but little that examines reactions to gendered trait violation. To assess negative attitudes towards transgender and gender nonconforming people, this experiment asked participants to make attitude judgements (warmth and competence) about a series of gender stereotypic and counterstereotypic face-voice pairs. This procedure was based on the paradigm used to construct the Stereotype Content Model, which categorizes stereotypes/prejudice into four categories (paternalistic, contemptuous, envious, admirable). Participants also rated stimuli on gender using both a continuous (very masculine to very feminine) and categorical (male or female) scale. Overall, counterstereotypic face-voice combinations were rated less warm, but not necessarily less competent than stereotypic face-voice combinations. When plotted in the stereotype content model framework, stimuli that paralleled the gender cues of transfeminine people and non-male-passing transmasculine people were subject to contemptuous and envious prejudice respectively. This kind of prejudice is reflected in the discrimination that transgender people face, including their exclusion from employment and social welfare, as well as their position as a scapegoat for gender-based violence and other socio-political issues.

Committee: Cynthia McPherson Frantz (Advisor) Subjects: Psychology; Social Psychology; Social Research

Master of Education (MEd), Bowling Green State University, 2015, Human Movement, Sport and Leisure Studies /Kinesiology

Cognitive strategies have been used by experienced and inexperienced exercisers in order to achieve positive psychological states, improved physiological functioning, and enhance performance. However, the type of cognitive strategy used, association or dissociation, differentially influences the possible outcomes and benefits of exercise. The primary purpose of the current study was to examine how the cognitive strategies of association and dissociation influenced psychological, physiological, and performance outcomes. More specifically, exercise enjoyment, mood states, self-efficacy, heart rate, ratings of perceived exertion, and time to completion were examined as male, recreational exercisers completed a 1.5-mile jog at a moderate-intensity. Participants included 21 male, recreational exercisers who exercised for at least 120 minutes/week in the previous month. Participants' completed two 1.5 mile jogging sessions using both an associative and dissociative strategy. During the exercise, heart rate and ratings of perceived exertion were recorded every four laps, and time to completion and state enjoyment were recorded following the completion of the run. Self-efficacy and mood states were measured pre- and post-exercise. No evidence was produced that to indicate that state enjoyment, heart rate, ratings of perceived exertion, time to completion, and scheduling self-efficacy were influenced by the type cognitive strategy used. However, participants did report increases in RPE over time and increases in coping self-efficacy and task self-efficacy pre- to post-exercise. The participants' mood states of Tension, Confusion, and Depression were found to decrease, but only when using the dissociation intervention first. It was concluded that the cognitive strategy intervention did not directly influence any dependent variables, and that this outcome was likely the result of a controlled intensity instead of a self-selected intensity. Nonetheless, following a 20-minute ex (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Bonnie Berger Dr. (Committee Chair); Lynn Darby Dr. (Committee Member); David Tobar Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Kinesiology; Psychology

Master of Science in Industrial and Human Factors Engineering (MSIHE) , Wright State University, 2015, Industrial and Human Factors Engineering

Introduction: This thesis research examined a novel decision support aid ("Spatial Cue + Virtual Agent") on human performance in a simulated complex visual search task. Method: Participants in the “Control” condition did not receive support from an aid. Participants in the “Spatial Cue” condition received support from an aid in the form of a bounding box. Participants in the “Spatial Cue + Virtual Agent” condition received support from an aid in the form of a bounding box and a virtual agent. The aids' reliability was held constant at one level, 70 percent. Image difficulty was based on clutter; clutter was manipulated by varying image white space. Results: The "Spatial Cue + Virtual Agent" improved participants' Probability of Detection, sensitivity, trust, and confidence. Discussion: This study indicates that there is a potential to mitigate declines in automation trust by simply increasing aids' humanness.

Committee: Jennie Gallimore Ph.D. (Advisor); Subhashini Ganapathy Ph.D. (Committee Member); Alissa Golden Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Cognitive Psychology; Experimental Psychology; Industrial Engineering

Master of Science (MS), Wright State University, 2014, Human Factors and Industrial/Organizational Psychology MS

Previous research has been divided on whether or not multisensory cues can speed visual search relative to their component unisensory cues alone. Some studies (e.g., Mateo et al., 2012) found reaction times for multisensory cues were not faster than the RT of the faster component unisensory cue alone. Other studies (e.g., Oskarsson et al., 2012) found the multisensory cue to be faster than either unisensory cue alone (i.e., multisensory enhancement). This study aimed to determine whether the relative effectiveness match between auditory and tactile cues affects multisensory enhancement on a visual search task. In Experiment 1 we estimated for each subject three auditory cue inaccuracy values that corresponded to RTs equal to, 25% faster than, and 25% slower than tactile cue RTs. In Experiment 2 we combined each estimated auditory cue inaccuracy with a tactile cue to produce the multisensory conditions. We then compared RTs across the three different multisensory conditions. Our results suggest enhancement was more likely to occur when the auditory and tactile cues were closely matched in effectiveness and interference was more likely to occur when auditory and tactile cues were not closely matched. Although additional work will be needed to determine whether the interference was due to ineffective cues, poor strategies by the subjects, or a combination of thee factors, our results seem to demonstrate the utility of providing two equally-matched cues as a strategy to speed visual search.

Committee: Robert Gilkey Ph.D. (Advisor); Scott Watamaniuk Ph.D. (Committee Member); Brian Simpson Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Cognitive Psychology; Experimental Psychology; Psychology

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2014, Psychology

Two experiments used the lateralized readiness potential (LRP) to establish a neurological basis for response competition between decisions involving subjective preferences. Affectively-valenced pictures and monetary gambles were used as stimuli in binary decision tasks in Experiment 1 and 2, respectively. The results of Experiment 1 provide evidence that the LRP is capable of measuring preparatory motor activity underlying the dynamic accumulation of subjective preference in the premotor cortex. The experiment revealed that there was more response competition that occurred when participants chose between stimuli with greater similarity as seen by a reduced amplitude LRP as well as a Gratton dip preceding the decision response. Contrary to our hypothesis, we did not see increased response competition when participants chose the riskier gamble. Future directions and proposals for improved methodology of Experiment 2 are discussed.

Committee: Joseph Johnson PhD (Committee Chair); Robin Thomas PhD (Committee Member); Christopher Wolfe PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Cognitive Psychology

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2007, Arts and Sciences : Philosophy

This dissertation concerns the role of language in cognitive development. I consider two kinds of continuity and discontinuity in cognitive development: 1) Continuity Cthesis: conceptual representation is built out of nonconceptual representation; 2) Discontinuity Cthesis: conceptual representation cannot be built out of nonconceptual representation; 3) Discontinuity Lthesis: acquiring a language makes possible new kinds of representation; 4) Continuity Lthesis: acquiring a language does not make possible new kinds of representation. I argue for discontinuity Cand suggest a way to vindicate discontinuity L. I engage a number of different theorists in the course of this dissertation who likewise attempt to vindicate discontinuity L, but I argue that they are unsuccessful in doing so and that they ultimately embrace the continuity Lthesis.

Committee: Dr. Christopher Gauker (Advisor) Subjects: Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2005, Psychology

While the field of psychology has directed a great deal of attention towards educating the public about what psychologists do and what the field has to offer, little attention has been focused inward on the internal fragmentation of the field and how psychologists actually view other psychologists. The current study was based on the general assumptions that psychologists identify by subfield, that they hold less positive attitudes towards other subfields compared to their own, and that these attitudes impact behavior. While these had not been looked at directly in previous research, empirical and theoretical support for these assertions existed in various lines of literature. More specifically, it was expected that psychologists would feel more positively about their own subfield than other subfields and that those displaying stronger self-stereotyping, subfield identification, affective commitment and subfield self-esteem would have less favorable attitudes towards members of other subfields than participants with lower levels. Further, it was expected that the greater the perceived threat from another subfield the less favorable one's attitudes toward that other subfield would be, that graduate students' perception of faculty attitudes would predict graduate student attitudes, that time within the field of psychology would predict favorable attitudes towards one's own subfield and that attitudes toward another subfield would influence behavior regarding that particular subfield. Psychology faculty members and graduate students across the United States were invited to participate by completing an online survey created for the purposes of the present study. Results indicated basic support for the three assumptions, with participants identifying by subfield as well as viewing other psychologists as belonging to subfields. They also felt more positively about their own subfield than others, with their attitudes predicting their behaviors toward other subfields. Howeve (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Don Dell (Advisor) Subjects:

Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Education, Cleveland State University, 2012, College of Education and Human Services

This study explored whether (1) adult cognitive development correlates with spiritual development, (2) wisdom development mediates the relationship, and (3) age, gender, education level, socioeconomic status, or religious denomination are associated with level of cognitive, wisdom, or spiritual development. University students and alumni (N = 134) completed a demographic questionnaire, the Model of Hierarchical Complexity Helper-Person Problem (Commons & Pekkar, 2004), the Spiritual Assessment Inventory (Hall & Edwards, 1996, 2002), and the Self-Assessed Wisdom Scale (Webster, 2003). This study hypothesized that wisdom, understood to derive from both personality qualities and life experience, mediates the influence of cognitive development on spiritual. This research hoped to provide empirical support for understanding the direction and degree of influence of cognitive, wisdom, and spiritual development. Using structural equation modeling, spiritual development was measured only as awareness of God. Cognitive development correlated significantly with spiritual awareness with moderate effect size. An inverse relationship was found between wisdom development and spiritual awareness. Wisdom development did not mediate the impact of cognitive development on spiritual awareness. Gender, age, education level, socioeconomic status, and religious affiliation were not associated with cognitive, wisdom, or spiritual development.

Committee: Elizabeth Welfel PhD (Committee Chair); Michael Horvath PhD (Committee Member); Elliott Ingersoll PhD (Committee Member); Katherine MacCluskie PhD (Committee Member); Lynn Underwood PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Cognitive Psychology; Counseling Psychology; Developmental Psychology; Psychology; Spirituality

Master of Arts in Psychology, Cleveland State University, 2011, College of Sciences and Health Professions

McLennan and Luce (2005) found no significant cost associated with changing which talker produced a particular word from the first block of trials to the second (no talker effects) when participants responded relatively quickly (easy lexical decision), and that talker effects emerged when participants responded relatively slowly (hard lexical decision). In a lexical decision task, participants hear words and nonwords and reaction times to correct responses are measured. In the current study, we examined whether social factors would lead to talker effects in an easy lexical decision task. In Experiment 1, participants were told that they have a chance to be part of a desirable high achieving group if they performed with high accuracy. Based on previous time-course findings, we predicted that talker effects would emerge in the current experiment, given that participants' attention to accuracy was expected to slow processing. Participants on the contrary sped up. We successfully demonstrated that group belonging is a sufficiently strong prime to alter the way participants perform in this task. In Experiment 2, participants (all males) were told that they would have the opportunity to meet the two talkers (one male and one female) they would hear during the experiment at the end. Moreover, participants were given some (fabricated) background information about the talkers, including mention that the female is attractive and the male is unattractive. Based on previous findings in social psychology, we predicted that the male participants would attend more to the female's voice than to the male's voice. We demonstrated that the female serves as a more effective prime for words later spoken by both the same female talker, and also by the male talker. Examining the relationship between social factors and talker effects should lead to improved models of spoken word recognition, and provide important new insights into how listeners perceive spoken words in various social conte (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Conor McLennan PhD (Committee Chair); Ernest Park PhD (Committee Member); Naohide Yamamoto PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Cognitive Psychology; Social Psychology

Master of Arts, University of Toledo, 2013, Philosophy

A productive relationship between the philosophy of mind and the empirical cognitive sciences not only is possible, but also is pursued productively by practitioners from both sides. In the first two chapters, I consider two examples of sets of concepts (“folk psychology” and the “architecture of the mind”) which are shared between the philosophy of mind and the empirical cognitive sciences and analyze them from both perspectives. I introduce a historical-analytical apparatus called “inherited ontologies” to track these sets of concepts and how they emerge, mutate, and replicate over time in order to show that what can begin as semantic opacity can end as ontological confusion. I argue that the important question is not whether we inherit our implicit ideas about the mind from our genes or our culture, but how shared inheritance manifests in different ways in different individuals. In the third chapter, I argue that the plurality of kinds of minds should inform how we research our minds. Instead of supposing that a plurality of approaches to study a plurality of minds is a problem to be solved, we should embrace cognitive and methodological diversity as not only possible but desirable in a shared problem space. The cognitive sciences should develop a unity of purpose without collapsing into a presumed uniformity of subject matter.

Committee: Madeline Muntersbjorn Ph.D (Committee Chair); John Sarnecki Ph.D (Committee Member); Stephen Christman Ph.D (Committee Member) Subjects: Artificial Intelligence; Behavioral Sciences; Cognitive Psychology; Education; Linguistics; Metaphysics; Neurosciences; Philosophy; Philosophy of Science; Psychology; Science History

Psy. D., Antioch University, 2025, Antioch New England: Clinical Psychology

Subjective Cognitive Decline (SCD), the self-perceived decline in cognitive abilities, is recognized as a preclinical marker for neurocognitive disorders (Jessen et al., 2014). Understanding the contextual factors informing SCD experience remains a research priority in this domain. At-risk older adults have heritable markers associated with dementia. Chronic exposure to embedded ageism burdens allostatic load (AL) and exacerbates epigenetic risk for cognitive decline (Levy, 2022; McEwen, 2020; Miller et al., 2021). The current qualitative study explored how ageism shapes the lived experience of SCD among at-risk older adults. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 participants, all doctoral level clinical practitioners, aged 60 to 79 and analyzed using thematic analysis, guided by the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping (TMSC). Findings revealed that ageism pervades three ecological domains—intrapersonal, interpersonal, and systemic—¬contributing to emotional distress, behavioral restriction, and reduced healthcare engagement. The present study extends the current literature on this topic by identifying ageism as a socio-cultural determinant of perceived cognitive health, shaping the outcome trajectory. The findings underscore the need to address ageism through clinical interventions and systemic reforms. Such strategies to reduce AL burden, through reduction of stigma and promotion of preventive healthcare engagement, may delay or even prevent onset of dementia among at-risk older adults. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu) and Ohio LINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu).

Committee: Katherine Evarts PsyD (Committee Chair); Gina Pasquale PsyD (Committee Member); Casey Culligan-Benoit PsyD (Committee Member) Subjects: Clinical Psychology; Gerontology; Mental Health; Psychotherapy; Social Psychology

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2006, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2008, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: