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Third Annual MCLA Undergraduate Research Conference
Thursday May 5, 2005
Papers: Campus Center 324A & B
10:30 am-12:00 pm
Paper 1: 10:30-10:55 am
Title: Ethanol Self-Administration and Observing Responses: The Effects of Alternative Non-Drug Reinforcers
Author: Eric Denette
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Tom Byrne, Psychology
The purpose of this study is to examine whether or not ethanol self-administration is more resistant to an alternative reinforcer when an observing response is available. Observing responses produce stimuli that signal the availability of drug reinforcement. Response rates for ethanol reinforcement were calculated under the different stimulus conditions and data were analyzed via visual inspection. An alternative reinforcer will be introduced in the last phase and its effects will be measured.
Paper 2: 11:00-11:25 am
Title: Molecular Analysis of Native Yeast Populations at Turtle Creek Winery
Author: Devan Harding
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Ann Billetz, Biology
This research was done to characterize native yeast samples from Turtle Creek Winery, Lincoln, MA. This is a segment of a larger research project to determine if there are differences in the native yeast, associated with grapes, from various regions of the state. The yeast DNA was purified then subjected to polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). The results were then compared to known yeast samples to determine genus and species of the yeast.
Paper 3: 11:30-11:55 am
Title: Slower Reading Times but Poorer Recognition Rates for Romantic Sentences
Authors: Gina Caucci & Allison Fusini
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Tim Jay, Psychology
The purpose of this experiment was to elucidate specific factors underlying recognition memory for erotic narratives. Participants read a narrative with erotic, romantic and neutral sentences in normal or random order, followed by a series of surveys. Then, participants were presented with a surprise forced-choice recognition task. As expected, neutral sentence reading times were fastest, yet romantic sentences were recognized less accurately than neutral and erotic sentences regardless of order. Participants made more lexical recognition errors than semantic errors.
Posters: Church Street Center Social Hall
1:00-3:00 pm
Poster 1
Title: The Effects of a High School Peer Harassment Intervention on Self-Reports of Victimization
Author: Eric Denette
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Maria Bartini, Psychology
The purpose of this study was to determine if high school students reported different levels of victimization after the implementation of a peer harassment intervention. Students were administered a self-report questionnaire which instructed them to rate their victimization experiences on a 5-point Likert Scale. The instrument was administered pre and post intervention. A 2(gender) x 2(victimization type) x2(time) with repeated measures on the last two factors will be conducted for data analysis.
Poster 2
Title: Who's Fastest : Soccer Athletes, Video Gamers or Neither
Authors: Chris Whalen and Zachary Natale
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Peggy Brooks, Psychology
Twelve college students were instructed to perform a reaction time test during pseudo-random and fixed intervals. Headphones were used and an audio stimulus (beep) was heard that cued them to press the hand held button. The twelve students were broken down into three equal groups; soccer athletes, video gamers, and neither. It was the authors’ prediction that the video gamers were the fastest, which was proven correct by the results.
Poster 3
Title: Grade Level and Gender Differences in Self-Perception Among High School Adolescents
Author: Erin Phaneuf
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Maria Bartini, Psychology
Research has shown that self-esteem tends to go up as people move out of adolescence. There have been mixed results, however, regarding whether this change occurs as teens move through high school. A sample of 589 adolescents completed the Self-Perception Profile for Adolescents (SPPA) questionnaire on self-perception. Expected results are that self-perception will increase with grade level and that males will have a higher self-perception than females.
Poster 4
Title: Circadian Rhythm and Academic Performance
Authors: Joan Clevenger and Lindsay Dickinson
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Peggy Brooks, Psychology
Twenty-two participants were asked to fill out questionnaires designed to assess circadian rhythm as well as sleep quality. A modified version of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) included questions about sleep as well as grade point average (GPA). We hypothesized that waking time and average time spent asleep would affect a student’s GPA. Results showed trends that supported our hypothesis.
Poster 5
Title: Priming Effects of Taboo Words
Author: April Tovani
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Tim Jay, Psychology
Influences of taboo words on priming will be examined using taboo, clinical, neutral and non-words as primes. ISI manipulation will be employed to determine the automaticity of such priming as well. It is hypothesized that facilitation in lexical decision times will occur for taboo prime clinical target trials contrasted with clinical-taboo trials. A priming effect is expected for taboo-taboo trials that received high relatedness ratings at shorter ISI’s on the assumption of automatic activation.
Poster 6
Title: Red Bull Gives You Wings, or Does It?
Author: Ryan Blackall
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Peggy Brooks, Psychology
In this study, the results show the contrary. Testing 6 subjects (3 experimental, 3 control) with similar circadian rhythms, it was discovered that Red Bull lowered body temperature from .6º to over 2º within 30 min. Memory recall was only slightly improved and reaction time improvement was similar to that of the control group. Since sample size was small, generalizations to a broader population cannot be made.
Poster 7
Title: Plant Species Inventory of MCLA-Owned Woodland
Author: Debbie Kaczowski
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Mike Ganger, Biology
MCLA owns an 80 acre woodland adjacent to the Zavattaro Atheletic Complex. A study was undertaken in 2004 to identify the vascular plants that grow in this woodland. Over 300 species of plants have been identified. A study collection was prepared for inclusion in the Biology Department's herbarium.
Poster 8
Title: Reaction Times in Soccer Players
Authors: Ciaran Cullen & Mike Giovine
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Peggy Brooks, Psychology
Soccer players are known for their footspeed and high fitness levels. The purpose of this study was to test their hand reaction time. By comparing the reaction times of male and female soccer players, the authors find that males generally had faster reaction times. Male and female soccer players with various positions were compared; it was found that male goalkeepers had the quickest times.
Poster 9
Title: Research in Enology
Author: Heather Davis
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Ann Billetz, Biology
My research is on Enology, the study of wine. The yeasts studied were obtained from the grapes and leaves of Turtle Creek Winery in Lincoln, MA. Pure cultures of the yeast were obtained to use during the fermentation process and molecular analysis. Through PCR and RFLP, regions of the DNA were amplified and digested leading to identification of the yeast to genus and species.
Poster 10
Title: Visual Fixation on Portraits and Landscapes
Authors: Brandi Gillen and Kyrra Tandy
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Peggy Brooks, Psychology
Seven college students participated in this study to measure visual fixation and concentration on different image types. Their electrooculogram (EOG) wave patterns were plotted using the Biopac Student Lab Pro Version, while looking at four portraits and four landscapes. The portrait stimulus resulted in areas of higher visual concentration than the landscapes, as shown in the dot plots. A further expectation was that the plots would show visual fixation on the horizon (landscapes) and the eyes (portraits).
Poster 11
Title: The Effects of Parental Education on Adolescents’ Endorsement of Aggression
Author: Nick Cave and Lindsay Fox
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Maria Bartini, Psychology
We recently did research at a small New England High School. The research focused on relational aggression and its impact on students. For our presentation we are focusing on how parents’ education level, an index of socio-economic status, relates to the students’ endorsement of aggression. The scale determines how strongly students support aggressive behavior. Our research will show us if socio economic status affects one’s views on aggression.
Poster 12
Title: Dissociative Identity Disorder: A Case Study
Author: Lindsay Fox
Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is a diagnosis of at least two or more individual personalities in which each identity takes control over the core person’s thoughts and behaviors. There is skepticism and controversy about the validity of this disorder. Marisa, a 30 year old female presents with 27 personalities. Past history involves severe sexual and physical abuse by multiple family members. This case illustrates the many complex issues DID presents in everyday life, treatment, and integration.
Poster 13
Title: Autonomic Response to Taboo Words Induced by a Shadowing Task
Author: Brendan Gaesser
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Peggy Brooks, Psychology
Previous studies show that when taboo material is processed an emotional response is elicited and results in a significant increase in galvanic skin response (GSR). This study attempts to replicate these effects by having participants (N=12) listen to messages consisting of taboo and neutral words and then repeating verbatim what is heard. Data reveal that taboo words, more than neutral words, engender an emotional response. Thus, taboo material influences the body to react at an unconscious level.
Poster 14
Title: Taboo Words in a Dichotic Listening Task
Author: Brendan Gaesser
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Tim Jay, Psychology
This study attempted to reveal the attention capturing effects of taboo language. Participants were instructed to repeat verbatim the words heard in their right ear and ignore the words heard in their left ear. The experimental group periodically heard taboo words, while the control group was exposed to household words. We believe that the experimental group will display an increase in shifts of attention to the left channel. However, this study is still in progress.
Poster 15
Title: The Effects of an Intervention on Levels of Aggression Endorsement
Authors: Gina Caucci and Brendan Gaesser
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Maria Bartini, Psychology
This research was designed to determine whether the implementation of a five-week aggression intervention with high school students (N = 444) had an effect on the endorsement of three types of aggression. Pre-intervention endorsement levels were compared with post-intervention endorsement levels for focus group participants (N = 27) and control group participants (N = 417). We hypothesized that aggression endorsement levels would decrease for focus group participants while remaining constant for the control group. Data are still being analyzed.
Poster 16
Title: Are Actors Better than Non-Actors at Lying on a Polygraph Test?
Authors: Alison Cook, Jade Sanders, and José Ramos
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Peggy Brooks, Psychology
Eight participants, four female and four male, two actors per gender, were tested using Biopac equipment that measured galvanic skin response (GSR), heart rate, and respiratory rate in response to Yes or No questions such as “Have you ever visited another planet?” Results indicated that these variables changed in relation to baseline values to certain questions. Further comparisons between actors and nonactors are explained.
Poster 17
Title: Gendered Perceptions of Aggression among High School Students
Author: Maura J. Mills
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Maria Bartini, Psychology
This study hypothesized that high school females would perceive both overt and, more specifically, relational aggression to be more aggressive than their male counterparts would perceive them to be. Participants completed the Definitions of Aggression Scale, a short survey consisting of questions relating to relationally and overtly aggressive behaviors, in addition to questions regarding prosocial behavior. The data supported the hypothesis, in addition to showing that males’ and females’ reports were most similar when rating prosocial behaviors.
Poster 18
Title: Are Sleep Patterns, Depression, and Academic Performance Related?
Authors: Alicia Girgenti and Maura Mills
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Peggy Brooks, Psychology
The purpose of this study was to identify relationships among sleep patterns, depression, and academic performance in college students. Preliminary results indicate that 43.5% of the sample reported experiencing depression for more than two weeks over their lifetime, and 38% of participants reported trouble sleeping. We found that fewer hours of sleep predicted higher depression scores. Further, a significant negative correlation was found between participants’ GPA and the time they awoke in the morning.
Poster 19
Title: Random Numbers: What They Are, How to Get Them, and How to Use Them
Author: Betsey Willis
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Alla Kucher, Math
This project is to analyze random numbers (RN) and their applications. I explored different ways to conceptualize RN and how to effectively present it in classrooms. For this, I explored the nature of random and pseudo-random numbers and how they are used in sciences and everyday life. I designed computational algorithms to produce RN sequences using technology. As a future development of the project, I plan to use Random Number Tests to analyze if the distribution of my RN are close to uniformal.
Poster 20
Title: Relations of Physical and Relational Aggression with Perceived Popularity
Authors: Allison Fusini and Lesley Burdick
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Maria Bartini, Psychology
This study examined the intercorrelations between physical and relational aggression, and of sociometric and perceived popularity. Constructions of popularity were assessed with sociometric measures (e.g. liked most/least nominations) and perceived popularity nominations. Participating in the study were 444 high school students (Females = 256, Males = 188). We predicted strong correlations between the different types of aggression and perceived popularity, yet we expected that those who are perceived as popular are not always well liked.
Poster 21
Title: Focus on Visual Stimuli
Author: Ithai Larsen
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Peggy Brooks, Psychology
A study of six subjects presented with two images on three different stimuli. Using electrooculography (EOG), the gaze of subjects was recorded for ten seconds for each stimulus. When the stimulus showed two landscape pictures, the subjects were drawn to both equally, while in a stimulus with a human figure the subjects tended to focus on the figures. Data suggest a correlation between number of eye movement saccades and areas of intense concentration on the dotplot.
Poster 22
Title: The Science of Behavior Display table
Authors: Various
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Tom Byrne, Psychology
Students enrolled in CCST 249 have completed a series of laboratory assignments designed to demonstrate basic principles of learning. In addition, the students are now working on experiments and demonstrations that they developed themselves. The display table will include data depicting investigations of reinforcement schedules, extinction, and stimulus control. Various experimental apparatuses, some designed and built by the students, will be displayed.
Poster 23
Title: CCST 244 Sleep and Dreams: Electroencephalography (EEG) Demonstration
Students: Lindsay Dickinson: Sleeping Subject
Amanda Derosier and Meagan Harrington: Lab Assistants
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Peggy Brooks, Psychology
Watch the electrical activity of a sleeping brain in real time! A student volunteer from CCST 244 this semester will be outfitted with electrodes to measure electrical activity from the surface of her scalp while she sleeps. Students will demonstrate how electrodes are placed on the scalp, how brain activity is recorded, various waveforms detected on the EEG and their behavioral correlates.
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