Julia Beebee, Dr. Trish Long, & Kristin Macek (along with Savannah Vanduyn) present their research to President James Herbert and first lady, Lynn Brandsma (far right)
On Friday the 3rd of May, UNE’s College of Arts & Sciences hosted the 20th Annual Spring Research Symposium. Students from all of our majors were in the house, presenting amazing work that they have completed over the past year!
Students from the department presented 26 research posters and 16 oral presentations over the course of the day! That reflects the work of 87 students and 7 faculty members!
Mackenzie Deveau (left) and Ashley Karpowicz (right) discuss their research with Dr. Jennifer Stiegler-Balfour
A panel of faculty from across the College of Arts & Sciences had conversations with students about their work and four of the ten projects receiving Honorable Mention Awards were from the Psychology Department! Congratulations go out to Mackenzie Deveau, Kana Colarossi, Ashley Karpowicz, and Dr. Julie Peterson who presented on Sexism and Female Consumer Behavior.
Jimmy Welch and Christina Torlone presenting their work at the symposium
James Welch, Christina Torlone, Alina Mauthe, Brooke Shea, Dr. Zach Olson, and Dr. Kristin Burkholder received an award for their work on Animal Foraging and Disgust: Effects of Pathogen Cues and Pathogen Risk on Scavenging Behavior.
Makaela Rice at her poster presentation
Makaela Rice and Dr. Mike Burman were awarded for their work entitled The Influence of Neonatal Pain on Maternal Behavior.
Aubrey Sahouria and Nicole Martin with their poster on reading comprehension
Nicole Martin, Ellie Leighton, Aubrey Sahouria, and Dr. Jennifer Stiegler-Balfour were also honored for their project, Can Font Change How You Read: Exploring Font Types’ Effect on Comprehension and Reading Speed.
Here’s a selection photos showing many of our students and faculty with their work.
We are very proud of the amazing work all our students and faculty completed over the past year and showcased at the symposium! Congrats to all!!
Thanks to Drs. Linda Morrison, Jennifer Stiegler-Balfour, and Zach Olson for all the great photos.
One of the hallmarks of the psychology department here at UNE is the opportunity students have to participate in research projects led by our faculty. Working in a lab, collecting data and disseminating research at conferences and in publications not only enhance the learning experience but also help build invaluable skills students take with them when they leave UNE.
One of our recent graduates, Ellie Leighton (Psychology, Dec.’18), and faculty mentor Jennifer Stiegler-Balfour, Ph.D., associate professor and psychology program coordinator in the department of psychology, just came back from Washington, D.C. where they had a unique opportunity to present research to members of Congress as part of the Council on Undergraduate Research’s (CUR) Posters on the Hill event.
Posters on the Hill isn’t your typical research symposium. While you do get to stand in front of an over-sized poster detailing every facet of a research study, the audience consists of Senators, Representatives, legislative staff members and other Federal Government employees. And the poster session is just the conclusion to a busy day in which students and mentors get to meet with members of their state Congressional Delegation and advocate for continued support of higher education and the importance of undergraduate research programs.
Ellie Leighton, Dr. Jennifer Stiegler-Balfour, & Senator Susan Collins
Ellie and Dr. Stiegler-Balfour’s poster, “Reading for leisure v. reading to learn: E-readers and the influence of text type on reading speed and recall ability,” was one of only 60 chosen for this very selective event (there were more than 500 applications) and the only project from a college or university in Maine! Ahead of the poster session, Ellie and Dr. Stiegler-Balfour spent time with Senator Angus King (I) and Senator Susan Collins (R), and staffers for U.S. Representatives Chellie Pingree (D) and Jared Golden (D).
Ellie Leighton, Dr. Jennifer Stiegler-Balfour, and Senator Angus King
“Through this opportunity, I learned how to advocate for undergraduate research in a meaningful way. When connecting with members of Congress, I was able to share how my involvement in research projects has personally impacted my life and give them a real-life example of how beneficial their continued support of higher education is to students,” said Ellie. “One of the most influential parts of this event was having individuals from diverse backgrounds display a strong interest in our research and its future paths. I hope that many more undergraduate students will have the opportunity to represent Maine at this event in future years” (Ellie Leighton, Dec. ’18).
The
study was made possible through the support of a Summer Undergraduate Research
Experience (SURE) grant awarded through the College of Art and Sciences (CAS) to
Ellie in 2017 and examined the impact
of e-readers on reading comprehension of expository and narrative texts.
As schools increasingly push students to adopt e-textbooks, a firm understanding of the consequences that reading on digital devices has on reading and comprehension has yet to be established. Study results show that while reading narrative text on an e-reader was easy for most participants, fully comprehending expository text required significantly more time to read. And for those who did not adapt to the device by slowing down their reading pace, comprehension and memory of the text suffered significantly. Travel to the conference was made possible through the generous support of the Office of Research and Scholarship and CAS Dean’s Office.
Despite the busy agenda, Ellie and Dr. Stiegler-Balfour did find a little time to check out some of the site in D.C., including the Washington Monument, Hirshhorn Museum, and of course the Capitol. Check out some of the pictures from the event – what an amazing opportunity!
If you would like to learn more about the research
opportunities in the Reading Comprehension and Cognition lab, reach out to Dr.
Stiegler-Balfour at jstiegler@une.edu.
Ellie Leighton (left), Trish Long, Annie Rademacher (right), & Jimmy Welch (far right) have their photo taken after the students receive Outstanding Student awards for PSY, NEU, and ANB
UNE’s Biddeford Campus Awards Ceremony was held last night, April 23, 2019, and students from the Department of Psychology came away with an impressively tall stack of prizes. Congratulations to all the winners, and nominees from the department!!
Dr. Jennifer Steigler-Balfour & Courtney Parent
The Susan J. Hillman Science/Math Education Award was presented to Courtney Parent, Psychology major and Mental Health minor.
Cassie Trask (right) after received an UG Research & Scholarship Award in Natural Science, with Dr. Amy Kierstead
The Undergraduate Research and Scholarship Awards for Natural Science was presented to Cassie Trask, Neuroscience major and Mental Health minor.
Dr. Julie Peterson & Mackenzie Deveau
The Undergraduate Research and Scholarship Award for Social Sciences was presented to Mackenzie Deveau, Psychology major, Women’s and Gender Studies minor, and Political Science minor.
Dr. Jennifer Stieger-Balfour & Nicole Martin
The Sophomore
Award for Academic Excellence was presented to Nicole Martin, Psychology major, Neuroscience minor, and Special
Education minor.
Jacob Liff demonstrates his work in the Makers’ Space to President Herbert
The Outstanding Student in Biophysics Award was presented to Jacob Liff, Neuroscience major.
Jimmy Welch
The Outstanding Student in Animal Behavior Award was presented to James Welch, Animal Behavior and Environmental Science double major.
Annie Rademacher
The Outstanding Student in Neuroscience Award was presented to Anneliese Rademacher, Neuroscience major.
Dr. Trish Long presents Ellie Leighton with the Outstanding Student award for PSY
The
Outstanding Student in Psychology Award was presented to Ellie Leighton,
Psychology major, Mental Health minor, and Special Education minor.
The Outstanding Student in Women’s and Gender Studies Award was presented to Mackenzie Deveau, Psychology major, Women’s and Gender Studies minor, and Political Science minor.
Dr. Julie Peterson with Tarryn Nutt and Mackenzie Deveau
The Jessica
Cox Henderson 1886 Award for Activism in Women’s and Gender Studies was
presented to Tarryn Nutt, Animal
Behavior major and Women’s and Gender Studies minor.
A few of our Psychology Club members are here to invite you to join them at future events!
Have you ever wanted to discuss
something fascinating you learned about in your psychology class with someone
who knows what you are talking about, but in a fun, low pressure setting? Do
you like pizza and ice cream? If you answered yes to any of these questions,
you should check out the Psychology Club because all of their events check at
least one of those boxes.
The Psychology club is open to
anyone interested in psychology – you don’t have to be a psychology major to
join. The club kicked off the fall semester with a joint social event with the
other psychology clubs. This yearly event is a great opportunity to meet your
professors in a more casual setting, connect with other students, and enjoy a
full ice cream sundae bar. Look for the social to return in September 2019!
Later in the fall, the Psychology club had the opportunity to work with the Title IX office on campus on an event and installation called “What Were You Wearing?,” a student-survivor art installation focused on dispelling rape culture myths that place blame on victims for what they were wearing when they were sexually assaulted. The Psychology club sponsored clothing and a quote from a survivor for this powerful installation.
Most recently, the club participated in “The Longest
Table,” a program designed around the idea that there are only a certain
number of seats in this country at tables where important decisions are made.
The idea of the program is that instead of excluding important groups of people
and their opinions from these discussions, we build a longer table. The event
is designed to bring members of the community together to have open and honest
conversations on topics that can sometimes be challenging to talk about.
Upcoming events include a BBQ with the Women’s and Gender Studies program on April 28 (edited to correct date). In addition to the Social, the Psychology club is planning several events for the fall including a panel discussion on addiction and a psychology-themed movie night. The club is also working on a Facebook page to connect students and share news and events.
The Psychology club is always open to new members and ways to be involved in the community. If you are interested in learning more, contact Dr. Nicole McCray, faculty advisor to the psychology club at nmccray@une.edu.
The University of New England’s PSI CHI Chapter, which represents outstanding achievement in psychology, animal behavior and neuroscience, inducted 23 new undergraduate members on March 28th, 2019. The induction ceremony was conducted under the supervision of PSI CHI faculty advisor, Jennifer Stiegler-Balfour, Ph.D., associate professor and psychology program coordinator in the Department of Psychology with the assistance of PSI CHI president, Mark Stubbs, secretary, Jessica Saro, treasurer, Julia Beebe and communication editor, Amarah Emerson.
2018-2019 officers with Dr. S-B
Congratulations and welcome to all our new
inductees:
The induction ceremony is one of our department’s greatest highlights of the year with many students, families, friends and administrators in attendance. One of our new inductees wrote the following about the experience “Being inducted into PSI CHI has been such an honor, and I have been truly blessed to have the opportunity to even be considered for membership. This distinction has pushed and motivated me to continue to value my education in many aspects, to envision and plan on my future goals, and to work harder in order to attain those goals” (Courtney Parent, PSY ’19).
PSI CHI officers for 2019-2020
During the induction ceremony, we also welcomed our new officers for the 2019-2020 academic year: Nicole Martin (president), Katie Paul (vice president), Cammy Macomber (treasurer) and Jessica Olmeda (secretary). Being an officer is not only a resume builder but can also be an extremely rewarding experience. One of our new officers wrote “It was an incredible honor to be welcomed into PSI CHI both as a new member and as president for next year. Dr. Stiegler-Balfour and the PSI CHI e-board planned a wonderful ceremony making me incredibly excited to be able to know that next year I will have the opportunity pass the warm welcome they gave me on to even more students” (Nicole Martin, PSY ’21).
Founded in 1929 during the International Congress of Psychology, PSI CHI is a member of the Association of College Honor Societies and is an affiliate of both the American Psychological Association (APA) and the American Psychological Society (APS). With the stated mission of encouraging, stimulating and maintaining excellence in scholarship in the science of psychology, PSI CHI has grown to become one of the largest and most successful honor societies in the world with more than 1,000 chapters and over 735,000 members.
Graduating members of PSI CHI receive their honor cords
The University of New England’s chapter was
formed in 2010 and has a tradition of organizing numerous academic, social and
charitable events. One of the most popular PSI CHI events held each year is the
Graduate School Information Night and Alumni Panel where students can learn
about best practices for navigating the graduate school application process and
meet recent alums. The group also organizes student socials and participates in
community outreach programs like the Brain Fair. PSI CHI events are always open
to the entire UNE community so please come and join us at one of our next
events.
Interested in becoming a PSI CHI member next year? Please visit the UNE PSI CHI Chapter website (https://www.une.edu/cas/psych/psychology-club) to check out the eligibility requirements to become a member and be sure to look for an email from us next January. Your lifetime membership with PSI CHI is not only a fantastic resume builder but will also allow you to apply for special awards, grants and scholarship. PSI CHI gives out over $400,000 in financial support for students each year! Additionally, you will have opportunities for holding leadership positions within the organization as a PSI CHI Chapter officer.
One of the best things about being an instructor in the psychology department is the wonderful people we get to work with every day. Students and colleagues alike! But two of our department members share a special sort of bond. They were both once students at UNE! As a matter of fact, they were in the very same graduating class. We caught up with Professors Perazio and Moore to ask them a few questions about what UNE was like “back in the day.”
What about UNE has changed since you’ve been here? What has stayed the same?
Professor Moore: There are decidedly a few differences between today’s UNE and the UNE that Professor P and I knew. First and foremost…the buildings! When we were here as students, the Alfond Forum didn’t exist. Morgane, Pickus Biomedical Center, the Alumni Cottage, Windward cafe…these were all being built as we were leaving. Professor Perazio was in the first class of students to live in Featherman hall as a freshman, too.
The psychology department was a bit different as well. The Neuroscience and Animal Behavior majors didn’t exist in quite the same way. Instead, they were accessible under different “tracks” in a major we called “Psychobiology.” I know because this is the major I started with. Another difference? We didn’t have access to SPSS. You might not think that is important, but stat students today have NO IDEA how lucky they are to have it. The system we used was called Systat. Systat was, to put it lightly, painful.
Professor Perazio: Like Professor Moore said, when we started in “Psychobiology,” Dr. D was the only faculty member teaching Animal Cog, CAB, and Intro Tech. Many of the faculty who you know and love were here as well (I actually took Dr. Berman’s very first Animal Learning class!). Professor Rankin was teaching Art Therapy, which was one of the most relaxing and therapeutic courses I have taken in my academic career.
Professor Moore: Professor Perazio is right. While so much has changed, so much has also remained the same. Many of the faculty you all know today were indeed still here, although some of them were very new at the time! I, too, remember walking into Dr. Burman and Dr. SB’s first ever classes here at UNE. I remember taking Abnormal Psychology with Dr. Morrison, Biological Basis of Behavior with Dr. Stevenson, and so many others. But more than anything, I remember the feeling of connection that I had with my faculty mentors. How supportive they were of all of us and how their doors were always open. It is very clear to me that, in this department, not much has changed.
Professor Perazio: I second what Professor Moore just mentioned. What hasn’t changed about UNE, and specifically the psychology department, is the faculty-student relationships and mentoring that the department fosters. I remember basically living on the third floor of Decary, bouncing back and forth between Dr. D and Dr. Corsello’s offices and the fish lab (and of course 356 for the majority of my ANB classes).
Did you two know each other back in the day?
Professor Perazio: We did! But mostly through classes. For example, Professor Moore was actually my TA when I took Abnormal Psychology with Dr. Robin Buckley, and we took Art History together as well.
Professor Moore: Oh my goodness, that’s right! I forgot about Art History. What a great class. We did have a few classes together and shared a few friends as well. But we became particularly close when we started working here together. UNE just seems to be an environment where close connections are fostered and maintained
What were you both involved in when you were students here?
Professor Perazio: I helped to co-found the Animal Behavior Club with two of my classmates our senior year, so circa 2010/2011. As a Marine Bio minor, I was also involved with volunteering at MARC and took courses with Dr. Frederich, Dr. Guay, and Dr. Friar. And of course, I worked in Dr. D’s “lab of fish awesomeness.” Professor Moore and I were also members of the inaugural class of UNE’s chapter of Psi Chi.
Professor Moore: I was a tour guide on campus for each of the four years that I was here. I was known as the “tour guide in heels” and if you take any classes with me now you might just know why! I also was the treasurer of the Psychology club, and a Co-President of Psi Chi in my senior year. Finally, I was a part of the UNE Players, which was the drama club at the time. My favorite production ever was “Grease” which was held at the Biddeford City Theatre.
Is the food ACTUALLY any better?
Professor Moore: Short answer? Yes.
Professor Perazio: Seconded. There is no long answer.
So did you ever think that you’d be back? How did you end up teaching at UNE?
Professor Perazio: Haha, not. at. all. All I wanted when I graduated was to get out of the Northeast! Which I did, by spending several years in Mississippi and Florida. But at about the time I was really thinking that getting my Ph. D. and teaching were where my career goals really centered, Dr. D got in touch with me about the possibility of applying for the visiting lecturer position in ANB while she was on leave. And the rest, as they say, ‘is history’.
Professor Moore: Funny enough, I did wonder if it might happen. I have always felt so connected to this place and to these people. I had to get out and see the world a bit, just like Professor Perazio. I’ve lived in Boston and Ireland, spent some time visiting England, St. Maarten, and the Canary Islands as well. But at the end of the day, this home is where my heart has always been. As for how I ended up back here? That is a long story, but the short version is that, after moving back home from Ireland, I became curious about whether or not there were teaching positions anywhere nearby. A job search revealed that indeed there was, and to reiterate Professor P, the rest is history.
Thanks to Professors Perazio and Moore for their thoughts!
A guest post by Eryn Bardsley about the work she is completing as part of PSY 300, Internship
My internship for my Psychology major is at a Batterer’s Intervention Program (BIP) called Violence No More in Biddeford, Maine. The program provides services for men who have been charged with domestic violence and are court mandated to attend the program in order to fulfill their probation. I intern for the night classes which run from five till nine each night from Monday through Thursday. My role is that of intern but also educator. I help take attendance each night, I help do check-in in which we listen to their stories about what led to their referral into the program, and I help to facilitate discussions surrounding specific lessons.
When I first started at the site, it was a bit intimidating. I wasn’t sure how to act around the men in the program and their stories during check-in were difficult for me to hear. I was nervous about how I’d react to those stories in the moment. As I became more comfortable, I was able to communicate more with the men and I learned more about myself and how to work effectively with the men during the class. I was more often able to speak up and to help the men do the hard work they were there for.
Due to the nature of the program, the stories told by the men can be painful to hear. However, it has also been the most eye-opening experience. This internship has allowed me to grow into my style as a future clinician and educator. At first, I kept trying to project my voice and be a loud, commanding presence so that the men would listen to me. It felt awkward and unnatural since I am normally a quiet person. My supervisor, Marty, told me to allow myself to be who I truly am in the classroom. I learned then that my quiet, calm voice holds as much power as a loud, boisterous voice.
This experience has also taught me that opening up to this type of work has been powerful. At the end of the class every night, once the men have left, all the staff check in with each other and discuss how the class went. It has been great to have the support of my supervisor and the others as I’ve been in the internship.
Along with learning how to be more open and become an authentic educator, I also had to use certain concepts from class very carefully when working with this population. For instance, ethics is a very important concept for any health profession but in this case, it is doubly important due to the history of some of the men. Confidentiality has been a part of ethics that I have worked closely with these past weeks. Mainly, I’ve had to be very careful when discussing the work I’m doing with the other members of my internship class (making sure to keep my stories anonymous and not using any identifying characteristics about the clients). When I see the men in public, I also have to be certain not to engage in conversation with them unless they come up to me first and I have to keep the conversation neutral and short. Outing any of these men could result in their community finding out about their involvement in the BIP, losing their jobs, issues with friends and family, and ostracization within the community.
Not only has this internship taught me so much about myself, it has also solidified my future goals in psychology. I have always been interested in working with the incarcerated population due to the unique challenges they face while in prison along with the struggles that occur after release. I personally do not believe that caging people helps to decrease crime and it does not tackle the actual issues of poverty, violence, and mental health issues that usually precede criminal activity. After working at Violence No More, I am attracted to the idea of working in a correctional facility or a rehabilitative program in group therapy settings.
While the experience can be a difficult one, and the work at this site is no easy task, I’d encourage students to take on the challenge if this population interests them because not only do you learn more in a group therapy setting than sitting in a college classroom, you also get the amazing experience to grow into yourself, embrace all aspects of yourself, and challenge the way you think about violence and society.
Glenn Stevenson (Professor of Psychology and Program Coordinator for the Neuroscience Major) recently gave a talk at the Maine Science Festival in Bangor. The talk was part of the 5 Minute Genius event, the Maine Science Festival’s answer to the traditional Ted Talk.
The event took place on March 15th at the Bangor Arts Exchange and included six Maine scientists. Each speaker had 5 minutes to deliver their talk and 5 minutes for audience questions.
The goal of the event was to make audience members feel like geniuses!
Dr. Stevenson’s talk covered some of the drug development and drug evaluation research that he and his undergraduate students have been doing over the past several years. The title of his talk was “How to Design an Effective Yet Non-addictive Pain Reliever.”
Congrats to Dr. Stevenson for his participation in this event.
The research
and scholarship opportunities offered by UNE are practically endless, and the
Research Experience Club (REC) hopes to show our Psychology Department undergraduates
some of what’s available. REC,
founded by three undergraduate Psychology majors working in Dr. Jennifer
Stiegler-Balfour’s Reading Comprehension and Cognition lab, hosted the second
annual Fall Undergraduate Research Symposium in December 2018. This symposium
showcased the interdisciplinary research done by undergraduates across a
variety of majors on campus and served to provide a platform to extend the
opportunities offered by UNE’s research to students who may not already be
involved in a research lab.
At the fall symposium we had a great representation of students from
the Psychology Department, including four poster presentations from Drs.
Stiegler-Balfour and Peterson’s labs.
Mackenzie Deveau, in collaboration with Dr. Julie Peterson presented a
study that aimed to examine how various types of information led female
participants to formulate different evaluations and price estimates of consumer
products.
Courtney Parent and Genna Companatico, collaborating with Dr. Jennifer
Stiegler-Balfour, presented a study examining a comparison of text types on
reading comprehension in college students.
Ellie Leighton, a
December 2019 graduate of the department and a former Research Assistant with
Dr. Jennifer Stiegler-Balfour, presented research with two other collaborators
on two posters. Ellie worked with Nicole
Martin on a project examining the impact of e-reading on reading comprehension
and efficiency, and she worked with Aubrey Sahouria on a project examining the
impact of the font styles commonly used in e-readers on the market on readers’
comprehension and eyestrain.
REC’s mission is to build a community among student researchers, to promote student involvement with research, and to promote opportunities which serve to share student research and encourage collaboration. In the spirit of giving undergraduates a voice in the world of research, REC will be hosting their first Spring Research and Scholarship Social in April 2019, which aims to connect students interested in or involved with research across disciplines. There, undergraduates of all disciplines and ages will be able to learn about each other’s projects, network, and get involved in the wonderful world of research.
For those
interested in learning more information about the Research Experience Club,
please contact Courtney Parent (‘19) at cparent3@une.edu or Nicole Martin
(‘21) at nmartin5@une.edu.
I’m happy to welcome Dr. Jennifer Steigler-Balfour’s comments about the work that she and her students are doing here in the Psychology Department. Let’s see what they are up to…
Nicole and Courtney present their work at the Eastern Psychological Association conference
Our Reading Comprehension and Cognition (RCC) lab is
dedicated to gaining a deeper understanding of how people encode, store, and
retrieve information from memory. Research conducted in the lab aims to identify
ways to optimize the process of learning, especially in educational settings.
Led by Jennifer Stiegler-Balfour, Ph.D. and Associate
Professor and Psychology Program coordinator in the Department of Psychology,
the RCC lab is currently studying the impacts of technology devices such
as tablets and computers on reading speed and comprehension as it compares to
printed text. Additionally, Dr. Stiegler-Balfour and her team are exploring how
reading comprehension and speed varies with text type (e.g. a biology textbook
vs. a ‘summer’ novel) across reading
mediums (e.g. e-reader vs. paper), and how different standardized reading tests
predict reading outcomes across text types.
Undergraduate students play an important role in lab
operations, study facilitation and the presentation of research at conferences
and symposiums. For the 2018/2019 academic year, there are six undergraduate
students working with Dr. Stiegler-Balfour: Courtney Parent, Psychology ’19;
Mark Stubbs, Psychology ’19; Genna Companatico, Psychology ’20; Nicole Martin,
Psychology with a minor in Neuroscience and Special Education; Aubrey Sahouria,
Neuroscience ’22; and Ellie Leighton, Psychology ‘Dec. 18.
Two members of the RCC lab team – Courtney Parent and Nicole Martin — recently presented research conducted with Dr. Stiegler-Balfour at the 90th annual Eastern Psychological Association (EPA) meeting in New York City, NY (February 28 – March 1, 2019). EPA is the oldest regional Psychological Association in the U.S. and serves to advance the science and profession of psychology through the dissemination of professional information about the field.
Courtney presented research conducted with Dr.
Stiegler-Balfour on reading performance across text types in standardized
reading tests. The study is the first to show that there are significant
correlations among three different standardized reading comprehension
assessments and shed light onto which standardized tests are better suited for
assessing narrative versus expository text. The results also provide further
evidence that reading comprehension ability can be significantly predicted from
general working memory capacity and metacognitive skills. From Courtney’s
perspective, the experience at EPA was invaluable:
“The experiences from EPA were unforgettable! Through attendance of this conference, I learned so much from the talks and poster sessions. It was so inspiring to see so many people who were passionate about psychology and their work in the field. Not only did I have the opportunity to attend talks, I was able to present our research in the Reading Comprehension and Cognition Lab to faculty members and fellow students attending the conference, which helps to further my effective public speaking skills. The knowledge and experience I’ve gained from EPA will carry with me in the future throughout my graduate career, and for that, I am forever thankful.”
Nicole’s presentation was research conducted together with
Ellie Leighton and Dr. Stiegler-Balfour on the influence of typographical
features of e-readers on reading comprehension. The results from this study
indicate that readers of all skill levels can read and comprehend narrative
passages on digital mediums, but that reading on a Kindle may be less efficient
than reading on paper because of an increase in reading time. Their findings
also suggest that sans serif fonts may be optimal for reading on digital
devices.
Nicole’s EPA experience mirrored that of her fellow lab team
member.
“Being able to attend EPA was an
amazing opportunity. I was incredibly lucky to be able to go. At the
conference, I attended talks on neurological development, the social psychology
involved in politics, and how to get into graduate school. I was able to talk
to many different people, all of whom were so interested in our research on how
font affects reading comprehension. As a sophomore, I know I am so lucky to
have had the opportunity to present at a conference and was so glad I was able
to attend!”
Funding for students’ conference registration and travel was made possible by the Office of Research and Scholarship and UNE’s PSI CHI Chapter.
*******
Thanks to Dr. Stiegler-Balfour, Courtney, and Nicole for this information about their work!
We Are ANB, PSY, NEU, Art Therapy, & MHR at UNE 