2006-2007 Winners

• Jonna Kwiatkowski, PhD, Emmanuel College (MA)
  Creative Potential and Latent Inhibition Reconsidered: Variations in Domain and Saliency of Cues
• Fang Zhang, PhD, Assumption College (MA)
  What Your Best Friend Sees That I Don't See: Comparing Close Friend Dyads With Causal Acquaintance Dyads in Perception of Facial Expressions of Emotion
• Matthew Kelley, PhD, Lake Forest College (IL)
  Does Generating Censored Lyrics Enhance Memory?
• Carla J. Reyes, PhD, University of Utah
  Exploring the Risk and Resilience Factors to the Development
• Jonathan F. Bassett, PhD, Lander University (SC)
  A Terror Management Theory Analysis of Disgust Sensitivity Among University Students, Mortuary Science Students, and Older Adults
• Chris Koch, PhD, George Fox University (OR)
  Recognizing Racial Emotions: Differences Across Race and Ages
• Kimberley A. Cox, PhD, Southern Oregon University
  The Effects of Self-Control, Self-Handicapping, and Impulsivity on Academic Achievement and Deviant Behavior

2005-2006 Winners

Leslie Cameron, PhD Carthage College (WI) biography | abstract	Lorinda B. Camparo, PhD Whittier College (CA) biography | abstract	Jennifer L. Lucas Hughes, PhD Agnes Scott College (GA) biography | abstract
Debra B. Hull, PhD Wheeling Jesuit University (WV) biography | abstract	Lori E. James, PhD Univ of Colorado at Colorado Springs biography | abstract	Kathryn A. Morris, PhD Butler University (IN) biography | abstract
Carla J. Reyes, PhD University of Utah biography | abstract	Mark G. Rivardo, PhD Saint Vincent College (PA) biography | abstract	Miguel Roig, PhD Saint John’s University, Staten Island Campus (NY) biography | abstract

Biographies and Abstracts

Leslie Cameron, PhD
Carthage College (WI)

Leslie Cameron is currently an associate professor at Carthage College. She received MA and PhD degrees in psychology (Center for Visual Science) from the University of Rochester (NY). Prior to her Carthage appointment, she was a research associate and adjunct professor at New York University. She was awarded a National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Research Service Award postdoctoral fellowship at NYU.

Dr. Cameron studies the effects of attention on early visual processing and inhomogeneities in processing information across the visual field. More recently, she has begun a research program investigating the effects of pregnancy on the sense of smell. She has a paper forthcoming in the journal Chemical Senses entitled “Measures of Human Olfactory Perception During Pregnancy”. A Faculty Advisor Research Grant allowed her to continue this line of research, and she will be completing a sabbatical leave at the University of Pennsylvania’s Smell and Taste Center this fall.

The Effect of Pregnancy on Olfactory Sensitivity

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.

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Lorinda B. Camparo, PhD
Whittier College (CA)

Lorinda Camparo received her PhD in developmental psychology from UCLA and is an associate professor in the Psychology Department at Whittier College. Her research focuses on two areas: the efficacy and developmental appropriateness of various techniques for interviewing children about forensically relevant information and the development of prejudice and stereotypes. Dr. Camparo has published in a wide range of journals and has presented research nationally and internationally.

Dr. Camparo is a member of the executive committee for APA’s Division 37, Society for Child and Family Policy and Practice. She has served Division 37 as program chair and editor of its newsletter, The Advocate (three 3-year appointments). Dr. Camparo also provides seminars on child development and interviewing children for lawyers, judges, police officers, and social workers, and has served as an expert witness on cases involving children alleging sexual abuse.

Efficacy of Narrative Elaboration and Verbal Labels for Preschool and School-Aged Children

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.

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Jennifer L. Lucas Hughes, PhD
Agnes Scott College (GA)

Jennifer Hughes is an associate professor of psychology at Agnes Scott College. She received her PhD in industrial/ organizational psychology from Kansas State University and joined Agnes Scott College in 1998. Her primary research area involves investigating the psychological and physical impact of commuting to and from work. Her recent research assessed commute stress by measuring commuters’ salivary cortisol levels before and after they commuted. Some of her other current projects include examining gender differences of commuters, examining the personality of commuters as predictors of commute stress, and looking at how work conditions and job involvement affect perceptions of the commute. Dr. Hughes is the faculty advisor for Agnes Scott’s Psi Chi chapter and enjoys conducting research with her students. She encourages her students to present their research at the SEPA conventions and in the Psi Chi Undergraduate Journal of Research.

The Physiological and Psychological Stress of Automobile Commuters

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.

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Debra B. Hull, PhD
Wheeling Jesuit University (WV)

Debra B. Hull, PhD, is a professor of psychology and chair at Wheeling Jesuit University, where she has been for the past 26 years. She holds a BA from Alma College (MI), and a MA and PhD in clinical psychology from Kent State University (OH). She completed internships at Akron Child Guidance Center and Brecksville Veterans Administration Hospital.

At Wheeling Jesuit, she teaches courses in experimental design , senior seminar, abnormal, sexuality, organizational behavior, and child psychopathology, and coordinates internships for students. She especially enjoys creating class demonstrations and assignments that foster experiential learning. Her research interests center around assessing teaching methods and characteristics of good teachers, and measuring the development of empirical skills in students.

She has been faculty advisor for the local chapter of Psi Chi, founded in 1968, for six years. Recently she piloted a program pairing Psi Chi member mentors with first year students, the goal being to assist new students in their transition to college and to the major. Members of Psi Chi have also developed a special relationship with a new school for children with autism that uses ABA methods. In her free time, Dr. Hull is an EMT with the local volunteer fire department. She tries to use as a personal guide the mission of Wheeling Jesuit University —leadership, life-long learning, and service among others.

The Impact of Student Research on Attitudes Toward Science

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.

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Lori E. James, PhD
Univ of Colorado at Colorado Springs

Lori E. James earned her PhD in cognitive psychology from the Claremont Graduate School in Claremont, CA, and then held a postdoctoral position at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is currently an assistant professor in the Psychology Department at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. Her primary research interests include memory, language, and age-related changes in these abilities. Dr. James' current projects include many experiments testing young and older adults’ learning and memory for proper names, comparisons of communication abilities in young and older adulthood, and an exploration of the ability to detect and describe errors across the lifespan. Dr. James teaches undergraduate courses in cognitive psychology and research methodology, and graduate courses in cognitive psychology and aging. She has served as her department’s Psi Chi chapter faculty coadvisor for 5 years.

Proper Name Learning in Aging: A Comparison of Recall and Recognition Memory Tests

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.

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Kathryn A. Morris, PhD
Butler University (IN)

Kathryn Morris, PhD, is an associate professor of psychology at Butler University, where she has been teaching courses in social psychology, psychology of gender, prejudice and stereotyping, research methodology, and general psychology since 1996. She earned her BA in psychology at Gettysburg College and her MA and PhD in social psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Morris organized the effort to bring a Psi Chi chapter to Butler University in 1997 and has served as the faculty adviser for the past 10 years. Her research interests focus on intergroup bias. She is specifically interested in disparagement humor and gender issues in the workplace.

Non-Racism Affect Perceptions of Targets Who Make Racist Jokes or Comments

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.

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Carla J. Reyes, PhD
University of Utah

Carla J. Reyes is an assistant professor at the University of Utah in the counseling psychology doctoral program. She received her PhD in 1996 at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in counseling/clinical/school psychology with an emphasis on child clinical. In the Rocky Mountain region, she served two terms as the Vice-President of Psi Chi, was named Psi Chi Regional Faculty Advisor Award Winner in 1999, and was a founding and now current member of the Psi Chi Diversity Task Force. In 2006, she was awarded the Early Career Award from the RMPA. Her major areas of interests include resiliency, child sexual abuse/childhood trauma, multicultural counseling issues, working with ethnic minority children and families, prevention and intervention for at-risk children, play therapy, and treatment outcomes. She teaches courses in human diversity and multicultural counseling, as well as introductory counseling skills. She also provides low cost mental health services to children and families that have no other means to pay for this service. On top of her academic duties, she is a mother with two small children. She loves to spend time traveling with her family and playing outdoors.

Mentoring Persons of Color in Professional Psychology: Where Are We Now?

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.

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Mark G. Rivardo, PhD
Saint Vincent College (PA)

Mark Rivardo is an assistant professor of psychology at Saint Vincent College. He received his BS in psychology from Saint Vincent College and his MA and PhD in experimental psychology from Bowling Green State University (OH). He teaches introduction to psychology for psychology majors, introduction to psychology, research methods in psychology and laboratory, cognitive psychology, honors seminar in cognitive psychology, and learning. Dr. Rivardo routinely involves 2-4 students in his research projects. Since joining the faculty in 1999, Dr. Rivardo has served as the faculty advisor for the Psi Chi chapter and the psychology club. He has chaired the Institutional Review Board since 2000.

Dr. Rivardo’s research interests lie in applied cognitive psychology. Recent research topics have included effects of cellular telephones on driving performance, the effectiveness of a stereotype threat intervention on women’s math performance, and the effectiveness of a three-day Spanish course for law enforcement personnel.

Effects of Conversation and Passenger Exposure to Driving Conditions on Driving Performance

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.

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Miguel Roig, PhD
Saint John’s University, Staten Island Campus (NY)

Miguel Roig received his PhD in cognitive studies from Rutgers University Newark (NY) in 1989. That same year, he joined the faculty of St. John's University, Staten Island Campus, where he is currently an associate professor of psychology at the Staten Island campus. Since the early 1990s, Miguel has been carrying out research with his students in the area of academic integrity with an emphasis on the growing problem of student plagiarism. He frequently presents his work at the annual meeting of the EPA. In recent years, Miguel has expanded his research interests to include the study of plagiarism as a form of scientific misconduct, as well as the study of other authorship issues falling within the scope of the Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR).

Text Reuse in Psychology Journal Articles: A Reexamination

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.

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Past Winners

2004-05 (5)
2003-04 (12)
2002-03 (8)
2001-02 (6)
2000-01 (6)
1999-00 (5)
1998-99 (6)
1997-98 (6)