VTechWorks
VTechWorks provides global access to Virginia Tech scholarship, including journal articles, books, theses, dissertations, conference papers, slide presentations, technical reports, working papers, administrative documents, videos, images, and more by faculty, students, and staff. Faculty can deposit items to VTechWorks from Elements, including journal articles covered by the University open access policy. Email vtechworks@vt.edu for help.
Open Access Policy
Virginia Tech's open access policy enables researchers to deposit the accepted version of scholarly articles with no embargo.
Theses and Dissertations
Virginia Tech was first in the world to require ETDs in 1997, and continues to add scans of older theses and dissertations.
Open Textbooks
More than 50 freely available and openly licensed textbooks are among our most downloaded items.
Communities in VTechWorks
Select a community to browse its collections.
Recent Submissions
Comparing the Utility of Scoring Methods for the Hinting Task in a Heterogeneous Clinical Sample
McKemey, Rory MacAndrew (Virginia Tech, 2025-12-04)
The Hinting Task is a popular theory of mind measure that has been criticized due to poor psychometric properties. A revised set of scoring criteria has reduced ceilings effects and improved convergent validity of Hinting Task scores in individuals with psychotic-spectrum disorders and matched non-clinical controls. In the current study, we are the first to compare the psychometric properties of the original and revised criteria in a heterogenous clinical sample not characterized by psychotic-spectrum disorders. Given the stringent nature of the revised criteria, we also test the novel hypothesis that participant verbosity may explain differences in performance across scoring criteria. Participants were 173 patients (65% female; 80% non-Hispanic White; M age = 34.4, SD = 12.9) in a partial hospitalization program. Participants completed the Hinting Task, Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test, Patient Health Questionnaire-9, Prodromal Questionnaire-Brief, and Behavior And Symptom Identification Scale on their first or second day of treatment. Hinting Task performance was scored by independent raters using both criteria. Results demonstrated that revised criteria scores had significantly lower ceiling effects compared to original criteria scores. Convergent validity of Hinting Task performance was partially supported and did not differ between scoring criteria. Revised, but not original scores were impacted by verbosity, such that less verbose participants demonstrated worse performance. In summary, our results suggest that the revised criteria improve one psychometric aspect of the task while simultaneously introducing verbosity as a confounding variable. We recommend controlling for verbosity when implementing the revised criteria in future research.
An Examination of Household Chaos and Neighborhood Collective Efficacy on Adolescents’ Legal Cynicism and Delinquency
Simmons, Amelia F. (Virginia Tech, 2025-10-10)
The purpose of this project is to examine how household chaos and neighborhood collective efficacy influence fifteen-year-old teens’ legal cynicism and delinquent behavior. This research utilizes the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) to conduct a path analysis. The theoretical framework for this project draws from social disorganization theory and ecological systems theory. This study longitudinally explores household chaos and neighborhood collective efficacy at year nine and legal cynicism and delinquent behavior at year fifteen to examine this relationship. Methodologically, the variables are examined using a path model and multivariate analyses. The results show that household chaos at year nine is a positive predictor for delinquency at year fifteen. There was no statistically significant association between neighborhood collective efficacy and the outcomes. The findings also point to the importance of maternal resources and structured socialization for children in adolescent outcomes. Implications for future research are also discussed.
This Autistic Professor Chooses Hope
McLain, Elizabeth (University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing, 2025-04-21)
Simulating U.S. Presidents for a Friendly Chat: Applying Generative AI to Study Political History
Nour, Sami; Ghaffarzadegan, Navid; Naugle, Asmeret; Godfrey, Joseph R. (Springer, 2026)
Advancements in generative artificial intelligence have created new opportunities to develop large language model (LLM)-based simulation models. By designing distinct personas and training them with relevant information, modelers can simulate a wide range of agents, representing diverse personalities, socio-economic backgrounds, and demographics. The potential of these simulation models, often referred to as generative agents, extends beyond creating average representations of groups; they can also be tailored to simulate specific individuals, predicting their responses or opinions under various scenarios. In this study, we take on the challenge of simulating 60 U.S. presidents to demonstrate how this approach can contribute to the study of political history. We simulate 60 generative agents using an LLM (GPT o1) primed on the inaugural addresses of presidents from 1789 to 2025. We then ask each simulated president the question, “what factors influence the economy?” We validate the simulated responses with other LLMs tasked with predicting which president is most likely to have given each response. We then use a causal loop diagram generation tool called SD Bot to extract variables and relationships from the text responses and depict mental models. Finally, we quantify and visualize presidents’ relative similarities to each other as a network.
Virginia Horticulture Production Trends: 2017-2022
Stallknecht, Eric J.; South, Kaylee (Virginia Cooperative Extension, 2025-08-15)