Imagining a Controversy: The Taft-Katsura Memorandum in Korean Historical Memory

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Joseph Seeley and Dr. Kirk Larsen, Department of History One of the most important lessons I learned over the course of this project was that a finished research project is often dramatically different from what is originally planned. When I began consulting with my advisor about doing an ORCA project together, our initial idea was […]

The Picky Eater Premium?: The Effect of Product Portfolio Size on the Price Consumers Pay for Fresh Produce

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Wayne Sandholtz and Dr. Joseph Price, Department of Economics Introduction The purpose of this project was to examine whether consumers who buy a wider variety of distinct fresh fruits and vegetables pay lower average prices for fresh fruits and vegetables, by substituting away from fruits and vegetables during price shocks. In order to answer this […]

Examining the Relationship Between Graduation Rates and Minority Rates in Utah High School

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Stephen Richards and Dr. Eric Eide, Department of Economics The humorist Dave Barry has said, “The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are above-average drivers.” I think he’s right, but I presume to add […]

A Theory of Motivated Recall: Determinants of Recall of Political Information

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Robert Richards and Dr. Christopher Karpowitz, Department of Political Science Background Research, Hypotheses A great deal of political research has analyzed how people form their opinions about candidates and issues. Two models, drawing heavily from cognitive psychology have emerged: the memory-based model (Zaller and Feldman 1992; Huckfeldt et al 1999) and the on-line model (Taber, […]

Prophets, Scripts, and Nations: Hmong Religious and Ethnonational Borders in Northern Thailand

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Belinda Ramirez and Dr. Jacob Hickman, Department of Anthropology As a sociocultural anthropology major, my ORCA project entailed spending three months on an ethnographic study. I chose to conduct this study in northern Thailand among the Hmong, a small hill tribe ethnic group. During my stay in a Hmong community near Pua, Nan Province, I […]

Change and Continuity in a South Indian Fishing Village

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Andrew Pieper and Dr. Charles Nuckolls, Department of Anthropology Vasuvanipalem, a once isolated fishing village on the South Eastern coast of India has in recent years been absorbed in to the rapidly growing city of Visakhapatnam. The accompanying changes of urbanization and modernization within this community have changed dramatically the lives of fishermen within the […]

Do You Know How to Dance?: Mediating Identity Through Film and Dance in Visakhapatnam, India

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Kaitlin Patterson and Dr. Charles Nuckolls, Department of Anthropology I went to India to study gender relations in the family, but as I spent more time there I came to know a group of striking individuals and instead focused my research on a similar topic, film as a mediator of culture, but in this case […]

Religious Preferences and Inventory Decisions: Evidence from Movie Rentals

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Craig Palsson and Dr. Joseph Price, Department of Economics For a long time, there has been a significant gap between the standards of movie goers and the standards of Hollywood. Walsh and Gentile (2001) show that though parents usually agree with Hollywood when it says something is inappropriate for children, they often disagree with Hollywood […]

Effects of Nicotine on Plasticity in Glutamate Neurotransmission to Midbrain GABA Neurons

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Peter Nielson and Dr. Scott Steffensen, Department of Psychology Purpose In order to further the knowledge of physiological contributions to addiction, this project’s purpose was to elucidate the neuronal processes involved in nicotine (NIC) addiction. We studied its effects on critical neuronal substrates in the ventral tegmental area (VTA), an area of the midbrain implicated […]