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

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2024, Business: Business Administration

In today's digital era, understanding how observer perceptions are shaped via the visual appearance of an on-screen individual is imperative. Observers pick up on a variety of visual cues to infer how they feel about someone they meet on-screen for the first time, and this impression is formed even before the first word is uttered. Such online interactions are different from in-person interactions because many of the traditional sensory cues used to develop these perceptions in real life are unavailable in digital space. The current research examines how online impressions are formed based on cues such as how much of the image frame the person occupies and the clarity of their on-screen image. These visual cues form the foundation of the observer's perception of the individual and how close (far) the observer psychologically feels from them, potentially affecting future behavior. Unlike in-person interactions, where the only visual distance in play is geographic, digital communication (namely video calls) introduces distance between an individual and their screen (camera). Over a series of four studies, the present work demonstrates how visual cues such as one's on-screen size and image clarity (both of which are affected by how far an individual is from their screen or camera) influence psychological distance and how these perceptions can, in turn, lead to changes in observer perceptions of the individual's personality and intention to continue to engage with them. The implications of these findings are particularly relevant to service providers who have switched to online formats to deliver services.

Committee: Rashmi Adaval Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Chung-Yiu Peter Chiu Ph.D. (Committee Member); Susan Mantel Ph.D. (Committee Member); Frank Kardes Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Marketing

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2015, Communication

Previous research on interactivity has focused on active engagement with a source and feature-based aspects of online platforms. This study seeks to clarify how merely viewing the interactions of others can meaningfully influence impressions of the source. Specifically, this study explores responsiveness and tailoring as key facets of interactivity. The results indicate that viewing specific types of interactions impact perceptions of interactivity. In addition, there is a significant indirect effect of the source providing responses to existing messages, through participants' perceptions that they could receive a response, on attitudes toward the source and behavioral intention. There is also a significant indirect effect of the source providing tailored responses to existing messages, through participants' perceptions that they could receive a tailored response, on assessment of quality of future interactions with the source, attitudes toward the source, and behavioral intention. The implications of this study's results for interactivity, interactivity perceptions, and further research are discussed.

Committee: David DeAndrea Ph.D. (Advisor); Roselyn Lee-Won Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication

Master of Arts, Case Western Reserve University, 2014, Psychology

Four experiments are reported on the importance of retrospective judgments of performance (postdictions) on tests. Participants answered general knowledge questions and estimated how many questions they answered correctly. They gave higher postdictions when easy questions preceded difficult questions. This was true when time to answer each question was equalized and constrained, when participants were instructed to not write answers, and when questions were presented in a multiple choice format. Results are consistent with the notion that first impressions predominate in overall perception of test difficulty.

Committee: Robert Greene PhD (Advisor) Subjects: Cognitive Psychology; Experimental Psychology; Psychology

Doctor of Psychology (Psy.D.), Xavier University, 2000, Psychology

The relationship between social cognition and impression formation was investigated through an examination of the immediate effects of newly presenting homosexually-cued behavior on recognition memory. Participants read an elaborate case history depicting the life of either a woman named Betty K. or a man named Bob K. Immediately after reading the case history, participants learned that the character they read about either pursued a heterosexual lifestyle or a homosexual lifestyle. The impact of this information on recognition memory was then assessed. Information regarding participants beliefs about sexual expression and the degree to which they adhered to homophobic beliefs was also collected as a means of grasping the effect of these variables on recognition memory for information considered stereotypic of homosexual men and women. The results indicated that mean effects for sexual orientation, participant gender, and character gender were not significant. However, an interaction between participant gender and character gender emerged such that male participants attributed more stereotypes to the female stimulus persona than to the male stimulus persona. Additionally, participants who were more conservative in their views regarding sexual practices made a significant number of memory errors when reflecting upon the stimulus persons about whom they read.

Committee: Cynthia Crown Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Christine Dacey Ph.D. (Committee Member); Janet Schultz Ph.D., ABPP (Committee Member) Subjects: Gender; Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2013, Political Science

The divisive political climate in Congress in recent decades has been the subject of much scholarship in political science and commentary in the political media. Given the polarized nature of Congress, it is important to advance our understanding of both variation in trends in congressional party voting and constituents' reactions to party voting over the course of a congressional member's (MC's) career. The goal of this dissertation is to explore the dynamic relationship between representatives and their constituents through three investigations of party voting. My specific focus is on temporal dynamics, that is, the role that various conceptualizations of “time” play in shaping congressional party voting and constituents, reactions to loyal party voting. The dissertation consists of three empirical investigations. The first explores the question, “legislators significantly alter their party voting habits throughout their careers” Here, I consider time as the MC's tenure in office, and so I model how party voting changes over the course of legislative careers. A second research question emerges: “How does faithful party voting influence constituent support over the span of a legislator's career?” While the first section of my research analyzes congressional voting behavior, the second part focuses on constituents and how they are influenced by MC's party voting. In order to address the second research question, I consider time in two ways. The first is by exploring the extent to which seniority - whether a MC is newly elected or if he or she has spent several terms in office- has an impact on constituents' reactions to party voting information. The second is by observing the formation of impressions of representatives in real time. The dissertation research methodology consists of a triangulation of experimental, survey, and congressional data analyses. First, congressional party voting data over a period of twenty-eight years are analyzed using fixed-effects re (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Kathleen McGraw (Committee Chair) Subjects: Political Science

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2013, Psychology

People tend to report feeling ambivalent in their attitudes toward objects that are associated with both positive and negative reactions. Across three studies, I investigated if people who have both positive and negative reactions to a novel target would feel less ambivalent about their attitudes if they simply expected to process valence-inconsistent information, compared to if they expected consistency or had no explicit expectations. In each study, people received either mixed or consistent behavioral information about a target individual as well as a summary. The summary either was presented before the behavioral information where it could foster an expectation or after where it could not. Study 1 replicated past work on ambivalence when the summary followed the behavioral information but established a new finding when it came first, namely that people who expected valence-inconsistent (versus consistent and negative) information reported less subjective (but not objective) attitudinal ambivalence than people who did not expect valence-inconsistent information. Study 2 replicated and expanded on these findings in comparison to other types of expectations (e.g., no expectations, undermined expectations), and Study 3 generalized these findings in comparison to consistent and positive expectations. Finally, the latter two studies provided mediational evidence that the extent to which people felt that their expectations had been confirmed (versus disconfirmed) accounted for the decreased feelings of ambivalence.

Committee: Richard Petty Ph.D. (Advisor); Russell Fazio Ph.D. (Committee Member); Duane Wegener Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology; Social Psychology

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2011, Communication

Computer-mediated communication (CMC) research has long been interested in how interpersonal impressions form online. This research argues that, given the advance of technology and the diversity in online environments, researchers must now consider the context in which social information appears in order to more fully understand the effects of social information on impression formation. This study found, in hypotheses based on correspondent inference theory (Jones & Davis, 1965) and the hyperpersonal model (Walther, 1996), that the context of a website impacts credibility impressions. An original 2 (valence of photograph: casual vs professional) x 2 (normative context: WebMD vs Facebook) experiment examining the impact of moving identical cues across contexts found normative expectations impact impression formation. In particular, this experiment assessed how observers judge a doctor's credibility and task-attractiveness based on whether they saw a normative or non-normative picture for the context of the website in which they are presented. Findings indicate support for a non-normativity effect: cues that defied normative expectations were more influential. Based on these findings, it is concluded that a non-normativity effect, based on expectations of the type of information for a specific context, drives the other effects.

Committee: Brandon Van Der Heide PhD (Advisor); Kelly Garrett PhD (Committee Member); Jesse Fox PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2010, EDU Policy and Leadership

This study used qualitative methodology including observations and interviews to attempt to discover how secondary students form impressions of their teachers and how those impressions are perpetuated among students, leading to teacher reputation. The study was conducted with students in grade 10 at a Midwestern suburban high school. The findings from the study indicate that students form impressions of their teachers by assessing certain immediate elements about the teacher and class including teacher demeanor, teacher enthusiasm, teacher self-disclosure, teacher academic press, teacher approach to discipline, and teacher discussion style. Students monitor and consider three additional elements when forming extended impressions, additionally contributing to teacher reputation: level of self-confidence, teacher academic support, and sense of classroom community.

Committee: Eric Anderman PhD (Advisor); Anna Soter PhD (Committee Member); Antoinette Errante PhD. (Committee Member); Heather A. Davis PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Educational Theory

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2010, Psychology (Arts and Sciences)

How do individuals form impressions of options when they have access to population-level descriptions and sample-level experiences? In the current study, participants were given descriptions of two options and were then given the opportunity to learn about the options. Results showed that inaccurate descriptions led to poorer performance than accurate descriptions. Additionally, the influence of descriptions was positively related to the perceived credibility of the source of descriptions. Therefore, perceived source credibility amplified the effect of the accuracy of descriptions of options. A mathematical model is proposed to describe how descriptions are combined with experiences in dynamic choice tasks.

Committee: Claudia Gonzalez-Vallejo (Advisor); Bruce Carlson (Committee Member); Bellezza Francis (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2007, Psychology (Arts and Sciences)

The current studies explored the moderating role length of exposure has on the processing of dynamic stimuli. Across two studies, the results suggest that processing negative stimuli at minimal exposures leads to more extreme impressions than longer exposures. Study 1 demonstrated that participants forming impressions after viewing clips taken from an invariant negative video formed more negative impressions than participants watching the full video. Study 2 replicated the findings in Study 1 and additionally suggested that cognitive processing plays a role in the more moderate impressions formed after longer exposures. Cognitive processing was induced via a thought-listing task after viewing the stimuli. Participants engaging in the thought-listing task prior to answering the impression questionnaire formed similar impressions regardless of length of exposure.

Committee: G. Lassiter (Advisor) Subjects: Psychology, Social

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2008, Psychology

Previous research has demonstrated that nonconscious and conscious goals are more similar than different. Research has also demonstrated that active goals influence various processes and outcomes: accessibility of constructs, evaluations of goal-related objects, and information recall. The present research was designed to demonstrate that goals would be best considered in a dual-process framework, with nonconscious and conscious processes being identified as having different precursors and outcomes. The research examined how the impressions of an individual are influenced by the simultaneous possession of a nonconscious and conscious goal. It was predicted that implicit and explicit evaluations of the individual would vary based on the activated goals; however, the results were inconclusive. Limitations of the research, as well as proposed future directions, are discussed in terms of a dual-process model of goals.

Committee: Amanda Diekman PhD (Advisor); Kurt Hugenberg PhD (Committee Member); Allen McConnell PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Social Psychology

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2007, Speech Pathology and Audiology

The purpose of the study was to obtain information regarding speech-language pathologists' (SLPs) perceptions of appropriate clinical dress. Two hundred twenty seven participants working in a variety of clinical settings including private practice, acute and rehabilitation hospitals, home health care, long term care and general clinics completed a questionnaire. The questionnaire contained items regarding current work setting including information regarding dress code practices at the participants' place of clinical practice. Four photographs depicting different forms of clinical attire accompanied the questionnaire. Results indicated that business formal attire is most preferred by SLPs and casual dress is least preferred. The second most preferred type of attire was a white lab coat. Results also indicated business formal attire yields the highest ranking for perceived level of interpersonal skills, appropriateness for therapy, perceived level of intelligence, amount of experience in the field and professionalism.

Committee: Alice Kahn (Advisor) Subjects: