Frank Bright and Dr. Jeffrey Reber, Department of Psychology The purpose of my study was to see if there was any connection between a professor’s openness about his or her faith and the view formed of that professor by his or her students. One recent study (Reber & Slife, In Press) has shown that new […]
Plasticity in Glutamate Neurotransmission to Midbrain GABA Neurons by Ethanol
Jennifer Mabey and Dr. Scott Steffensen, Department of Psychology The aim of my ORCA grant was to better under the addictive pathway of ethanol (EtOH) in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) of the brain. The VTA contains several neuron types that release different neurotransmitters, but the type I experimented with was γ-Aminobutyric acid (GABA), which […]
Emotion-Related Conflict Adaptation in Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Daniel Bjornn and Dr. Michael Larson, Department of Psychology Conflict adaptation is a neurological process that reflects the adjustment of performance on tasks when conflict is detected on previous trials. Conflict in this instance refers to the simultaneous activation of multiple response options. When conflict is detected, such as on an incongruent trial on Stroop […]
Authoritarianism and Immigration Attitudes
Jessica Biggs and Dr. Christopher Karpowitz, Department of Political Science The purpose of this project was to study whether exposing survey participants to information about immigration change will affect participants with high levels of authoritarianism. This project focused on whether individuals with high levels of authoritarianism will have higher levels of cognitive dissonance when presented […]
Welfare to Votes: Does TANF Depress Political Participation?
Taylor (Bambas) Rosecrans and Dr. Christopher Karpowitz, Department of Political Science The purpose of my study is to find a link between government welfare programs and the political participation of recipients. This kind of study is called a policy feedback analysis. It examines a public policy to see what effect it had on human behavior. […]
Gender and the Hindsight Bias: An Economic Experiment
Jacqueline Andros and Dr. Joseph Price, Department of Economics Hindsight bias, or the psychological tendency to think that we “knew it all along,” has been studied for over fifty years but no study has yet thoroughly documented the specific role that gender plays in an individual’s susceptibility to this effect. This is somewhat surprising, since […]
The Relationship Between Urban Leaf Area and Summertime Household Energy Usage in Provo
Jacob Adams and Dr. Ryan Jensen, Department of Geography The purpose of our study is to investigate the relationship between urban leaf area, estimated through remote sensing, and household energy usage in the city of Provo, Utah. Anecdotal evidence indicates that trees provide cooling in the summer by shading homes, which reduces the need for […]
The Cognitive Neuroscience of Long-Term Memory
Dr. Brock Kirwan, Department of Psychology Memory is an essential cognitive ability. It allows us to use past events to guide future actions. Research in my laboratory focuses on determining the mechanics of how the brain remembers what it does. We are interested in determining what will be remembered and what will be forgotten. Specifically, […]
All Donors Great and Small: Putting the 2008 Surge in Individual Political Contributions in Perspective
Dr. Jay Goodliffe, Department of Political Science Evaluation of how well the academic objectives of the proposal were met Using funding from the Mentoring Environment Grant, we produced a full book manuscript that is currently under review at different university presses (“Message, Messenger, and Medium: Understanding the 2008 Presidential Donor Surge”). The book consists of […]
Screening for Emotional and Behavioral Problems in Secondary Schools
Dr. Ellie Young, Department of Psychology Evaluation of how well the academic objectives of the proposal were met The academic objectives were achieved for this grant. Students were mentored in reviewing a large body of research that focused on understanding the needs, behaviors, and outcomes for adolescent students with behavioral and emotional concerns. This provided […]