Psi Chi would like to thank Allyn & Bacon Publishers for sponsoring the 2002–2003 research award competition. Allyn & Bacon provided cash awards to the winners as follows: $1,000 for first place, $650 for second place, and $350 for third place. This year’s first-place winner is M. Leslie Box of the University of Alabama at Birmingham for her paper entitled "Development of Accelerometry as an Objective Measure of Motor Neglect." The second-place winner is Lindsey M. Root of Hope College (MI) for her research entitled "Enhancing Recall of Names by Providing Feedback on the Use of Expanding Retrieval." The third-place winner is Luciane M.B. Paula-Pereira of Saint Peters College (NJ) for her paper entitled "Assessing the Recollective Nature of Source Misattributions." Psi Chi congratulates these 2002–2003 winners of the Allyn & Bacon Awards and wishes them continued success in their education and careers.

Read abstracts of these award winning papers here.

M. Leslie Box, the first-place winner was graduated summa cum laude from the Psychology Departmental Honors Program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, in August 2003. Ms. Box is also a 2001 graduate from Meridian Community College in Meridian, MS, home of her parents, Thomas and Susie, and brother, Adam.
     Participation in the Psychology Departmental Honors Program allowed Ms. Box to gain exceptional research training. Ms. Box completed her honors thesis entitled "Development of Accelerometry as an Objective Measure of Motor Neglect" under the supervision of her mentor, Dr. Gitendra Uswatte. Ms. Box presented her research at the Southeastern Psychology Undergraduate Research Conference and the John Ost Undergraduate Research Competition. The research was made successful by Dr. Uswatte’s patience and attention to detail. Also instrumental was her honors advisor, Dr. Edwin Cook III, who provided wisdom and guidance. Ms. Box was inducted into Psi Chi Psychology Honors Society, Golden Key International Honor Society, Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society, and Phi Theta Kappa National Honor Society, and was on the President’s and Dean’s Lists. Ms. Box was a finalist for the Outstanding Psychology Student of the Year Award and the Passey Prize.
     In addition to completing academic requirements, Ms. Box worked as a project coordinator in Dr. Uswatte’s Accelerometry Lab, which required scheduling patients for testing, evaluating patient’s measures of cognitive ability and motor ability, and processing and analyzing obtained data. Dr. Uswatte and Ms. Box developed a new testing procedure, the spontaneous Actual Amount of Use Test (sAAUT), which measures spontaneous arm use in persons with stroke.
     Ms. Box also collected and processed data from seven universities for the National Clinical Trials for Constraint-Induced Therapy, which was developed by Dr. Edward Taub. Becase most of Ms. Box’s time was spent in a rehabilitation center, she began to thoroughly enjoy interacting with survivors of stroke. This inspired Ms. Box to pursue a career in occupational therapy; she will be applying to UAB’s Master of Occupational Therapy program this fall in hopes of being admitted in fall 2004.

The second-place winner, Lindsey Root, is originally from Novi, MI, where her parents, Jan and Randy Root, and her brother, Tyler, still live. Ms. Root graduated summa cum laude from Hope College in May, with a BA in psychology and minor in music. Ms. Root was an active member of Psi Chi for two years, serving as vice-president during her junior year and president in her senior year. She and a classmate also presented in a Psi Chi paper session at the Midwest Psychological Association Conference in May 2003. Ms. Root was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa in the spring of 2003. She has been blessed to have two wonderful psychology mentors at Hope College. Dr. John Shaughnessy gave her the opportunity to study memory, specifically expanding retrieval and the learning of names. Ms. Root has also worked with Dr. Charlotte Witvliet on several projects, focusing on forgiveness, justice, and psychophysiology. Ms. Root is very excited to begin a PhD program in clinical psychology at the University of Miami (FL) in August 2003. There Ms. Root will have the opportunity to study forgiveness, gratitude, and spirituality across the lifespan under direction of Dr. Michael McCullough. Ultimately, Ms. Root wants to continue doing research and to teach in a university setting.

Luciane Maria Bernardes de Paula Pereira, the third-place winner, is an international student from Brazil. Ms. Paula-Pereira graduated summa cum laude from Saint Peter’s College (NJ) in May 2003 with a BS in psychology and a minor in philosophy. Ms. Paula-Pereira served as president of the Psychology Club and secretary of Psi Chi for 2002–03. In Ms. Paula-Pereira’s four years at Saint Peter’s, she has accomplished two manuscript submissions with a faculty member, one published abstract, one conference oral presentation, seven regional conference poster presentations, and her independent honors thesis. Research experience with three members of the Psychology Department during her last three years at Saint Peter’s played an important role in her decision to pursue a doctorate degree in psychology. Ms. Paula-Pereira is currently attending the Cognitive/Experimental Psychology PhD program at SUNY at Stony Brook on a full tuition scholarship.