2007-2008 Faculty Advisor Research Grant Abstracts
The Effect of Pregnancy on Olfactory Sensitivity
Leslie Cameron, PhD
Carthage College (WI)
Considerable anecdotal evidence suggests that women are more sensitive to odors than are men and that they are particularly sensitive to odors during pregnancy. The scientific evidence for pregnancy, however, is lacking. This study investigated both sex differences and the effect of pregnancy on detection thresholds for phenyl ethyl alcohol (PEA; a rose odor). There was no significant difference in odor detection thresholds between male and female college students. A trend suggested that women rated their sense of smell higher than males, although males appeared to be more confident in trial-by-trial confidence rankings. Preliminary data from pregnant women suggest a decrease in threshold and an increase in self-rating of sense of smell compared to non-pregnant controls. Large individual differences in odor perception were observed, and more data are needed in order to draw strong conclusions about differences in odor perception based on sex or pregnancy status.
Efficacy of Narrative Elaboration and Verbal Labels for Preschool and School-Aged Children
Lorinda B. Camparo, PhD
Whittier College (CA)
Given the increasing number of children called to testify in court, questioning techniques must be examined for their efficacy and developmental appropriateness. We are comparing the efficacy and developmental appropriateness of three such techniques, Narrative Elaboration (NE), Verbal Labels (VL), and a standard Police Protocol (PP), for preschoolers, 2nd/3rd graders, and 4th/5th graders (N = 90). In November 2006, nine undergraduates trained in each technique questioned the children individually about a staged event they had experienced 10-16 days earlier and a fictitious event using one technique per child. Interviews were videotaped and audiotaped. Four undergraduate assistants transcribed the audiotapes (Psi Chi grant funds paid for two transcribing machines) and two more undergraduate assistants are currently coding the amount of accurate and inaccurate information produced by each child. Data will be analyzed during the fall 2007. This study is the first to compare these techniques on preschoolers with a fictitious event.
The Physiological and Psychological Stress of Automobile Commuters
Jennifer L. Lucas Hughes, PhD
Agnes Scott College (GA)
Commuting is a daily routine with little research available. This study focused on stress levels reported during the commute, the accuracy of the evaluations of the stress levels, and expected peaks in salivary cortisol levels in relation to reported stress. Almost all of the 12 participants reported mild to no commuting stress, and this is contrary to the findings in the commuting literature. This hypothesis on evaluations was supported which could mean the participants tend to be accurate with their assessments. The third focus showed a difference for the salivary cortisol levels with post-commute levels being lower, which could imply that the commute is calming. More research with greater sample sizes needs to be conducted to verify these results.
The Impact of Student Research on Attitudes Toward Science
Debra B. Hull, PhD
Wheeling Jesuit University (WV)
Working in small groups, undergraduate students in an experimental design course completed independent research projects dealing with characteristics of scientists. At the end of the course, students were significantly more likely to say that they would enjoy a career as a scientist, and that they did not feel the demands of a career in science were too much for a woman who wants a family. However, they were also more likely to say that scientific thinking is masculine thinking, that sciences are biased against women, and that they feel uncomfortable talking about science with friends, and less likely to say that they enjoyed scientific writing.
Proper Name Learning in Aging: A Comparison of Recall and Recognition Memory Tests
Lori E. James, PhD
Univ of Colorado at Colorado Springs
No previous research has tested whether the specific age-related deficit in proper name memory that has been identified in recall tasks also occurs for recognition tasks. Age-related changes in learning and memory for names and occupations were compared on 3 types of memory tests: recall, matching, or multiple choice. Young and older participants saw pictures of unfamiliar people, they learned a name and an occupation for each person, and they were tested on 1 type of memory test. Percent correct for each memory task was analyzed in a 2 (young or older adults) x 2 (name or occupation) mixed factorial ANOVA. The pattern of data was similar for all 3 types of memory measure: more occupations were remembered than names, young adults remembered more than older adults, and older adults had disproportionately poor memory for names.
Non-Racism Affect Perceptions of Targets Who Make Racist Jokes or Comments
Kathryn A. Morris, PhD
Butler University (IN)
This study investigated attitudes toward targets that utilize humorous versus nonhumorous forms of racism after claiming to be nonracist or not making any such claim. Participants (N = 224) read a conversation in which a target made a claim of being nonracist or did not, and then told a racial joke, made a racial statement, or neither. Although participants evaluated the target most positively in the control condition, participants rated the target more positively and as having less negative racial attitudes in the racial joke condition than in the racial statement condition. In addition, participants evaluated the target more positively whenever he made a claim of being nonracist, but this effect was stronger in the racial joke condition than in the racial statement condition. These results contribute to a growing body of evidence suggesting that humorous forms of racism are perceived to be relatively innocuous, particularly when humor is combined with claims of nonracism.
Mentoring Persons of Color in Professional Psychology: Where Are We Now?
Carla J. Reyes, PhD
University of Utah
Faculty and graduate students of color are still far from parity when compared to the percentage of people of color in the U.S. Mentoring is a key variable in retaining this population.
An Internet survey was sent to individual members in APA divisions that represent professional psychology. The most striking finding related to how the two groups obtained mentors. For the majority of Caucasians, this relationship was either mentorinitiated or assigned. For persons of color, most mentoring relationships were self-initiated, and they were more likely to self-initiate communicating their mentoring needs to the mentor.
These results have important implications for efforts toward enhancing the diversification of the field of psychology, particularly toward recruitment and retention of individuals of color.
Effects of Conversation and Passenger Exposure to Driving Conditions on Driving Performance
Mark G. Rivardo, PhD
Saint Vincent College (PA)
Research on the negative effects of cellular telephone conversations on driving performance (e.g., McKnight & McKnight, 1993) has led to the examination of passenger conversations as well. Strayer, Drews, and Johnston (2003) suggested that the attention devoted to carrying on a telephone or passenger conversation can affect driving performance, but a passenger’s ability to share situation awareness with the driver can reduce the negative effects of the conversation. Like Drews, Pasupathi, and Strayer (2004), we found normal passengers talked more about the driving situation, but in the present study, performance was worse in this condition than the blind passenger condition. Our conversation topic, vacation, may have led to less serious conversations than in Drews et al., where participants talked about close call situations. Additional research into whether conversation topic affects the impact of passenger and cellular telephone conversations is needed.
Text Reuse in Psychology Journal Articles: A Reexamination
Miguel Roig, PhD
Saint John’s University, Staten Island Campus (NY)
All articles from 2 recent issues of 3 different psychology journals were obtained and stored digitally. For each target article, up to three of its most recently published references written by the same author or coauthors were also obtained and stored digitally. Using WCopyfind©, a computer program that identifies identical text across documents, each article was compared to each of its same-authored references to determine the extent to which text from the article had been ostensibly reused from its earlier published references. A review of the comparisons revealed that, for a number of target articles, a considerable amount of text had been reused from their references. As expected, however, the vast majority of text common to both, target article and reference, was from methodology sections and often involved complex and highly technical descriptions of equipment, procedure, etc. The present findings are consistent with those of an earlier exploratory study.