Master of Arts, Miami University, 2017, Psychology

The uncanny valley is the tendency for highly humanlike, but non-human agents (e.g., robots, animated characters, dolls) to be perceived as creepy or unsettling, relative to their less humanlike counterparts. Recent research has pointed to mismatching signals of humanity as a possible explanation for the uncanny valley. The current work aimed to extend this hypothesis by investigating whether conflicting signals of humanity from face processing styles and featural cues can trigger negative affect. To this end, participants viewed faces that were morphed on a continuum from full dolls to full humans and indicated the extent to which these faces are unsettling. Critically, on half of the trials, faces were inverted to disrupt configural face processing, a processing style that involves viewing faces as a single Gestalt and is a cue for humanity. When faces were highly humanlike, they were experienced as less creepy than less humanlike faces, but when such targets were inverted, processing and featural signals did not disagree with one another, and some of the feelings of unease were alleviated.

Committee: Kurt Hugenberg PhD (Committee Chair); Heather Claypool PhD (Committee Member); Jonathan Kunstman PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology

MA, Kent State University, 2015, College of the Arts / School of Art

This thesis critically analyzes installations of telepresence art since 1986 and argues that the phenomological experience of engagement in telepresence suggests a new state of subjectivity at the end of the twentieth century: the hyper-subject, an overlapping of self and multiple others. I place telepresence art firmly in the genealogy of Surrealism by comparing artworks to Hans Bellmer's infinitely recombinant doll, La Poupee. While Bellmer represented the physical anagram of the body through the doll, telepresence art produces psychic anagrams of participants in the virtual sphere. Installations of telepresence art by multiple artists are probed to critically engage the artistic design of each, including humanoid telerobots, screen-based telepresence, and human avatars, and to assess their efficacy in upholding telepresence as what Lombard and Ditton define as "the perceptual illusion of non-mediation." By integrating psychoanalysis, post-anthropocentric posthumanism, and feminist disability theory, I examine telepresence art as a platform for social change. This research contributes the first art historical application of the uncanny valley to telepresence artworks, the first comparison of telepresence art to Bellmer's La Poupee, and advocates for more art historical research on the hyper-subject as a new state of viewing and experiencing art in the twenty-first century.

Committee: Navjotika Kumar Ph.D. (Advisor); Gina Zavota Ph.D. (Committee Co-Chair); Gustav Medicus Ph.D. (Committee Member); Fred Smith Ph.D. (Committee Member); Diane Scillia Ph.D. (Committee Member); Carol Salus Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Art History

Psy. D., Antioch University, 2012, Antioch Seattle: Clinical Psychology

Many journal articles about autism spectrum disorders have been published. The definition of “high-functioning autism” used in these papers may need to be reconsidered, as a segment of the population may be more skilled than has been historically thought. A percentage of people on the autism spectrum work in a high-paying professional capacity, in industries such as computer technology and health care. Their intellectual capacities allow them to successfully perform the portions of their jobs that require deep technical knowledge. However, they struggle with the cognitive and social issues associated with the autism spectrum, such as: concrete thinking; literal information processing; contextual misunderstanding; and social misunderstandings. This qualitative study examines the issues encountered by high-functioning people on the autism spectrum who are in the top quartile of American wage earners. It also recounts the reaction of the participants to a major employment lawsuit filed by a knowledge worker with Asperger's. In addition, the subjects describe what they believe are the strengths that they bring to the workplace that they do not perceive in people who are not on the autism spectrum. The electronic version of this dissertation is at OhioLink ETD Center, www.ohiolink.edu/etd.

Committee: Mark Russell Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Richard Coder Ph.D. (Committee Member); Alex Silverman J.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Developmental Psychology; Occupational Psychology; Psychology