This year, nine students presented research at WPUPC hosted by Edinboro University.
For those interested in seeing RMU students "in action" at a conference, please take a peek at the PHOTO GALLERY!
The links below are to the pdf versions of the poster or paper handouts (if available). You will need a pdf viewer (e.g., Adobe Acrobat) in order to view these files.
Mack Carson: A challenge we confront when interpreting non-verbal communication is determining if a person is sincere in their expression of emotion. The present study examined interpretations of whether smiles appeared genuine or false. The method used was to focus on the relative contribution of the left and right sides of a face to perceptions of smile-sincerity. Four conditions were used: Real smile; False smile; Left real; Right real). The left and right real smiles were constructed by deleting one side of the original real-smile photo and replacing it with the mirrored image of the remaining side. It was predicted that if sincerity was a function of symmetry, then the created smiles would be rated as most sincere. If sincerity is determined asymmetrically, then this would otherwise be revealed. Aubrey Graham: Grapheme-color synesthesia occurs when a word, letter, or number elicits a perception of color among certain individuals. Research examining grapheme-color synesthesia routinely uses non-synesthetes as a control group. Significant differences between groups are then revealed which are attributed to synesthetic behavior. We hypothesize that this may be an exaggeration. A potential problem in using non-synesthetes as a control group is that in addition to the potential difference in brain mechanisms, there is a confounding difference between groups with regard to the importance of color in their day-to-day lives. The present study took into account color experience among non-synesthetes to determine whether color-important non-synesthetes (coloristas) behave in ways similar to synesthetes. Eric Levine: For more than 35 years, students and faculty from across Western Pennsylvania and outlying areas have gathered to present research and share ideas related to the field of psychology. Over this time, the number of participating schools as well as the number of attendees has grown. It therefore seems wasteful not to take additional advantage of the collective knowledge of these varied resources. Specifically, it is proposed that student representatives of the chapters of Psi Chi as well as the assorted psychology clubs make a special effort to gather at each WPUPC and share knowledge regarding fund raising, campus events and activities, dealing with student apathy, recruitment issues, etc. To illustrate this potential, we share two recent Psi Chi endeavors at RMU with some assessment data. Jocelyn Lewis: Considering that people have almost unlimited access to content on the Internet the goal of this study was to investigate how potentially disturbing media might affect the emotions of viewers. Not all of the information available on the Internet is genuine. Knowing this can protect us from over-reacting until we have certainty. The present study examined how people interpret their emotional reactions to disturbing videos in the context of knowing or not knowing if the material was real beforehand. Half of the participants were told immediately before viewing a video that it was not real while the rest were told immediately after viewing. It was predicted that viewers who learned the video was fake after watching it would be less upset than viewers told before due to emotional relief. David Lopus: Unlike vision where we can select stimuli to either attend to or to avoid altogether, audition provides no such opportunity. Auditory stimuli, which permeate all aspects of life, can spur movement and set a pace for individuals performing tasks. If qualities of auditory stimulation were specifically controlled, task performance may be directly affected. The present study examined different controlled sound conditions during performance on a manual dexterity task (the game of Operation). It was found that, indeed, certain sound qualities do affect performance. Kaitlin Michenko: The purpose of the present research was to explore the effectiveness of a phrase "every minute helps" on volunteering among college students. Over 150 students were surveyed as to whether they would volunteer for an on-campus activity promoting school spirit. Two versions of the survey were randomly distributed to students that included one of two phrases requesting volunteers; one used the key phrase "Every minute helps" and the other phrase was "Your contribution helps". Analysis showed that more minutes were donated when the key phrase was present in the survey. It was concluded that organizations interested in trying to increase volunteerism should look carefully at how they make their requests. Mackenzie Rack-Wildner: About 25% of college students report experiencing academic consequences due to the consumption of alcohol. Outside of the effect drinking has on one's academics it is essential to consider what such behaviors contribute to adolescent neurological functioning. The frontal lobe is responsible for emotions, motor functioning, problem solving, and memory. Through the Ruff Figural Fluency Test (RFFT), researchers have been able to reliably measure nonverbal fluency within the frontal lobe. If student drinking is related to frontal lobe functioning, then this should be revealed by RFFT scores. Indeed, a negative correlation between drinking and RFFT performance was observed. These results suggest that alcohol may negatively affect essential frontal lobe functioning among college students. Emily Streaker: First impressions of others based merely on visual cues can trigger inaccurate notions. The present study examined the importance of interactions among people when forming impressions. Participants were randomly assigned to pairs. Some pairs completed personality self-reports before engaging in a conversation with their partner. At the end of the conversation, they were asked to complete the same inventory again, but this time providing answers they believed their partners would have given. The inventories were cross scored for accuracy. The remaining pairs completed the same tasks but in the reverse order (partner first, self last). As expected, even the brief opportunity provided for people to interact resulted in greater accuracy in assessing personality. Kara Szoszorek: Music and the ways it can affect people has been an interest in the mental health field for decades. For example, Mozart's music is believed by some to improve spatial skills of infants and rap has been blamed for school shootings and gang activities. What has not been well researched is how musical preference relates to irritability when listening to non-preferred genres. This study examined how mood relates to listening of preferred and non-preferred genres. College students (N= 157) solved Sudoku puzzles and completed Anderson's State Hostility Test while listening to music. The goal was to determine whether students presented with a music genre that mismatched their preference would score more irritably compared with students who listened to a preferred musical genre.