Psi Chi would like to thank Allyn & Bacon Publishers for sponsoring the 2003-04 research award competition. Cash awards were provided by Allyn & Bacon 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 Michael Kirk Goode of Earlham College (IN) for his paper entitled "Cross-Language Conceptual Priming in English-French Bilinguals of Different Levels of Fluency." The second place winner is Phillip R. Zoladz of Wheeling Jesuit University (WV) for his paper entitled "Impact of the Chemical Senses on Augmenting Memory, Attention, Reaction Time, Problem Solving, and Response Variability: The Differential Role of Retronasal Versus Orthonasal Odorant Administration." The third place winner is Jennifer J. Brace of the University of Colorado, Boulder for her paper entitled "Practice Makes Perfect: Improving Children's Flexibility in a Card-Sorting Task." Psi Chi congratulates these 2003-04 winners of the Allyn & Bacon Awards and wishes them continued success in their education and careers.

Read abstracts of these award winning papers here.

Michael Goode, the first place winner, was born in Algonquin, Illinois. He attended Crystal Lake South High School, and then received his AS from McHenry County College, Phi Theta Kappa. He graduated from Earlham College in May 2004, Phi Beta Kappa.  In the autumn of 2004, he will begin work on his doctorate in cognitive psychology at Washington University St. Louis. There he will further pursue the study of memory while working with Henry L. Roediger III.

Phillip Zoladz, the second place winner, graduated from Wheeling Jesuit University (WV) in May with a BA in psychology and a minor in philosophy. He acted as the 2003-04 chapter president of Psi Chi, chapter vice-president of Phi Sigma Tau (the National Honor Society in Philosophy) at Wheeling Jesuit University, and was inducted into Alpha Sigma Nu (the National Honor Society of Jesuit Universities). 
     Mr. Zoladz graduated as a Stephen J. Laut scholar with summa cum laude honors. Active with research, he has frequently presented his finding at national conferences such as the Society for Psychophysiological Research and the Association for Chemoreception Sciences and has already been published for his work (see Raudenbush, Koon, Smith & Zoladz, 2003).
     At Wheeling Jesuit University, Mr. Zoladz served as Head Research Assistant for the Human Psychophysiological Laboratory and provided tutoring services to students across campus in areas of general psychology and statistics for the behavioral sciences. The manuscript that won this award was, in part, funded by a Psi Chi Undergraduate Research Grant, won him a $2,500 award at graduation, and is currently under review for publication.
     Mr. Zoladz currently resides in Tampa, Florida, and in August, will commence graduate studies at the University of South Florida. He was accepted into their doctoral program in the Division of Cognitive and Neural Sciences within the Department of Psychology. Mr. Zoladz was awarded the Dean's Excellence Award and a research assistantship (with a $15 K stipend) from the university. He will be delving into a research area focused primarily on the neurobiological underpinnings of memory impairment. After obtaining his PhD at the University of South Florida, he hopes to teach and conduct research at a university well known for its research endeavors.

Jennifer Brace, the third place winner, grew up in Littleton, Colorado, where her brother Fred and her parents still reside. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Colorado, Boulder in May 2004 with a BA in psychology, a minor in computer science, and a certificate in cognitive science. 
     Ms. Brace will begin a doctoral program at Carnegie Mellon University this fall, where she will be studying cognitive neuroscience and computational modeling. Ms. Brace completed her honors thesis under the supervision of Dr. Yuko Munakata, and presented a poster of the thesis at three conferences and symposia. She is also the recipient of several research grants, including two CU Summer Undergraduate Research Fund grants and the Psi Chi Summer Research Grant. She also served one semester as a teaching assistant for CU's general psychology course. She has been a member of Psi Chi and the National Society of Collegiate Scholars since 2001, and a student affiliate of the American Psychological Association, the American Psychological Society, and the Rocky Mountain Psychological Association. In addition to her research activities, she designed, drew and painted a large mural in the greeting room and hall leading to Dr. Munakata's lab. Outside of psychology, her current interests include yoga, biking, skiing, art and music.