Undergraduate Honors Program - Psychological Sciences
http://hdl.handle.net/1803/205
2024-03-29T15:58:23ZInfant Behavior During Sticky Mittens Training: What It Can Tell Us About Infant Learning
http://hdl.handle.net/1803/18082
Infant Behavior During Sticky Mittens Training: What It Can Tell Us About Infant Learning
Malley, Lauren
Infant exploratory behavior is critical for stimulating proper development and has implications on numerous developmental domains. The sticky mittens paradigm has been shown to enhance object exploration skills in infants, although the mechanism of this effect is unclear. The present study examines a short, 8-10 minute sticky mittens training session under conditions with more or less auditory feedback from the experiment conducted by Needham et al. (2017), focusing attention on interactions between the experimenter and infant. To best scaffold the infant’s learning during training, analysis of data reveals that the experimenter must closely observe the infant’s latency of toy contact and momentary looking behavior to provide the adequate number and timing of prompts. Results further illustrate that integration across multiple sensory modalities is an effective facilitator of infant object manipulation and learning during training sessions, especially when infants can see the success of actions that stem from their own hand.
This study was completed with mentorship from Dr. Amy Needham for the Honors Program for Psychological Sciences.
2023-04-01T00:00:00ZPrediction and Hypothesis Testing in Children's Novel Word Learning
http://hdl.handle.net/1803/18080
Prediction and Hypothesis Testing in Children's Novel Word Learning
Kumar, Srish
Children learn new words through a variety of methods, consciously and unconsciously making connections between novel words and new objects to expand their vocabulary. One such method may be making predictions about the meaning of a novel word presented to them and subsequently testing their prediction. Existing literature provides only suggestive evidence that prediction and hypothesis testing should support word learning. In this study, we investigated the importance of prediction and hypothesis testing in word learning. We did this by showing children novel and familiar objects and encouraging them to either make predictions and test hypotheses about new words or not. Results displayed no difference in word learning based on prediction and hypothesis testing.
PSY 3998, 3999, 4998, 4999: Honors Seminar
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Megan Saylor
2023-03-21T00:00:00ZStructural Brain Differences in Individuals with Bipolar Disorder: A Developmental Perspective
http://hdl.handle.net/1803/18078
Structural Brain Differences in Individuals with Bipolar Disorder: A Developmental Perspective
Milewski, Amy
While the existence of bipolar disorder in early adolescence is becoming more widely accepted, the degree of manifestation in childhood is still unclear. This thesis summarizes findings on neurostructural correlates of adult bipolar disorder compared to more limited research on pediatric bipolar disorder. Then we examined the relationship between mania symptoms and brain structure in a large sample of children. We analyzed data from 10,699 9-to-10-year-old children from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. We employed structural equation modeling to examine the associations between subsyndromal mania symptoms and cortical grey matter volume and thickness in 68 regions. After correction for multiple comparisons and controlling for age, sex, race/ethnicity, and scanner model, we found that mania was associated with smaller brain volumes in 54 cortical regions (pfdr-values ≤ .048). However, none of these effects survived sensitivity analyses that accounted for socioeconomic status, medication use, in-scanner motion, or total intracranial volume (pfdr-values ≥ .299). There were no significant associations between mania and cortical thickness in any region (pfdr-values ≥ .249). Prior studies have identified structural differences in individuals with bipolar disorder, which is supported by the current study’s results in children. However, these results do not survive when controlling for additional covariates, possibly due to the young age of the current sample. Future studies should associate subsyndromal mania with cortical volume and thickness longitudinally to refine our understanding of the emergence of structural changes during the prodromal stage, which could be leveraged for improved identification and intervention.
This paper was written in the PSY 4999 Honors Thesis class as part of Dr. Antonia Kaczkurkin's BRAINS Lab.
2023-03-01T00:00:00ZParent-Child Conversation Quality During Digital Application Use
http://hdl.handle.net/1803/18077
Parent-Child Conversation Quality During Digital Application Use
PSY-PC 4999: Honors Thesis, Mentor: Dr. Georgene Troseth,
Language development and play skills impact one another simultaneously and bidirectionally. Because parents and caregivers have the opportunity to guide and supplement play sessions, they have influence over their children’s early language and literacy skills. In modern society, more and more play happens digitally. Parents therefore need to be cognizant of what digital media their children engage with. By choosing technology that is evidence-based and educational, and that supports the child as well as guides the parent’s involvement, caregivers can use media to supplement play sessions, and therefore supplement language. This study investigated how a digital play-based application that is designed for joint engagement scaffolded parent-child interactions and conversation. After two weeks of playing with the app, parent language decreased. This paper discusses possible explanations for this decrease and suggests future directions for this type of research.
2023-01-01T00:00:00Z