Digital Commons Network^™

From Program To Practice: Purpose, Empowerment, And Persistence In Doctoral Education, Laura Beasley, Heather Biedermann, Davidson L. Blanchard, Danilo Lj. Bojic, Erin Carter, Matthew J. Flugum, Sadie Gunnink, Megan L. Hansen, Martha G. Haugerud, Elizabeth Herzog, Matthew G. Howard, James E. Hu Gammon, Yanmei Jiang, Jenna K. Ladd, Patrick W. Leeport, Katey R. Leverson, Regina Mustafa, Lindsey M. Reishus, Kelli Snyder, Ixchell L. Tolentino, Kari Vollrath, Stephanie Walker, A. Brooke Boulton, Joel J. Traver, Steven M. Baule

Education Doctorate Books

The book From Program to Practice: Purpose, Empowerment, and Persistence in Doctoral Education is a collection of graduate student writings from the 2022 summer Education Doctorate Residency at Winona State University.

"As practitioners in education and adjacent fields embark upon their journeys toward earning a doctorate, they soon realize the importance of this collection’s theme: the intersection of purpose, empowerment, and persistence (PEP). These concepts prove critical to a student’s success at all stages of the doctoral process, from program admission, to topic exploration, to graduation. The essays in this collection explore how students define, identify, and leverage “PEP” as …

Bridging The Gap In Health Literacy: A Quality Improvement Project, Sunny Rana

DNP Projects

Background: Health literacy is an important factor for healthcare outcomes. Measuring healthcare outcomes continues to be traditionally performed after implementation of interventions, however, the aspect of healthcare literacy pertaining to these outcomes is not always measured or evaluated. Understanding the patient’s health literacy can assist the provider to create and include individualized education at the patient’s knowledge level to increase comprehension, compliance, medication adherence and ultimately increase positive health outcomes.

Project Goals

1. Assess baseline literacy for the patients who appear in the practice for a visit over a three-month period.

2. Implementing the measurable METER tool which can provide …

Analyzing The Use Of Plain Language In Brief Summaries On Clinicaltrials.Gov, Megan J. Eddington

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

ClinicalTrials.gov is a database designed to help clinical researchers make their research publicly available. The clinical trials registered on the database each include a brief summary, which is meant to be a short description that the public can easily understand. In September 2022, ClinicalTrials.gov published a "Plain Language Checklist for Lay Brief Summaries" on their website, which identifies plain language best practices intended to help investigators craft summaries that can be readily understood by the public. This thesis assesses the impact of the checklist on the language use in the brief summaries in the year following the checklist's publication. The …

Human Performance In Context: Exploring The Effect Of Social Support On Vigilance, Allison E. Garibaldi

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Over many decades, vigilance research has consistently found that performance on vigilance tasks decline over time (i.e., the vigilance decrement; Davies & Parasuraman, 1982), and that performing a vigilance task is both mentally demanding and stressful (Warm et al., 2008). Researchers have subsequently implemented a wide range of interventions to both understand and attempt to attenuate the vigilance decrement and its associated affective effects. Among these efforts, little attention has been devoted to understanding the effects of the social environment on vigilance. Nonetheless, a handful of studies have indeed suggested that the presence of others can affect performance, workload, and …

Ua94/6/18 Stephen Flora Student / Alumni Papers, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records created by and about Stephen Flora during his years as a student at Western Kentucky University.

The Pacifican January 2024, University Of The Pacific

All Issues - Student Newspaper, The Pacifican, Pacific Weekly

No abstract provided.

The Cost Of Doing Homework: Online Homework Systems With Access Codes From A Social Justice Perspective, Virginia Clinton-Lisell, Alison E. Kelly

Education, Health & Behavior Studies Faculty Publications

The use of online homework systems that require the purchase of an access code has become widespread. The purpose of this study is to examine student experiences with and perceptions of online homework systems with access codes. Postsecondary students (N = 966) completed a survey about the financial costs, perceptions of quality, engagement with, and learning with online homework systems. Most students (79.5%) indicated that they had been required to purchase an access code for an online homework system. Of those who had been required to purchase an access code, 29.4% reported their grade was hurt because they could …

Enhancing Intimate Partner Violence Assessments: Creating Equitable Tools For Spanish-Speaking Communities, Alberto D. Torres-Aragón, Quinn Hendershot, Matthew D. Johnson

Research Days Posters 2024

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is abuse or aggression within a romantic relationship. To prevent severe consequences, assessment is needed to understand IPV in its entirety prior to putting an intervention into place. English speakers in the United States have numerous instruments available, but there is a much more limited selection for Spanish speakers (Hendershot et al. under review). Herein, this research aims to discuss the best practices and importance for assessment in IPV while highlighting our ongoing efforts in IPV assessment through creating a measure. This initiative is crucial as it broadens the scope of IPV research and intervention strategies, …

Who Cares?: Exploring Empathy With Sofia Sinta, Sofia Sinta

Research Days Posters 2024

Why do some of us show higher levels of empathy than others? One theory involves childhood experiences: research on the relationship between an individual’s childhood trauma and their adult empathy capacities has generally found that trauma is associated with a decrease in empathy. Recently, however, some studies have suggested that childhood adversities may in fact elevate empathy later in life. Though this ongoing debate is of general interest, the complex findings are usually discussed solely among academic psychologists. A more accessible platform for gathering information on interpersonal relationships and emotions is podcasts. This podcast therefore interviews researchers in the field …

Digital Amnesia: The Aftermath Of A Screenshot, Adden Hartl, Sophia Fabrizio, Tara Holihan, Sameena Rao

Research Days Posters 2024

The photo impairment effect is the finding that memory for photographed information is worse than for viewed information. Recent research has extended this finding to stimuli that are screenshot on a phone or computer (Lurie et al., submitted). One potential explanation for the impairment is cognitive offloading, which is a reliance on an external memory store for information (Henkel, 2014; Lurie & Westerman, 2021; Lurie et al., submitted). Four experiments were conducted to examine the feasibility of the offloading account by investigating potential benefits of taking screenshots as compared with viewing pieces of art, as suggested by previous research. The …

Structuralism And The Left/Right-Handedness Binary, Arielle Zeitchick

Research Days Posters 2024

Throughout time, misconceptions have been made about both what determines and the subsequent characteristics of laterality, specifically when it comes to left handedness. This paper will be analyzing the concept of structuralism as it pertains to common assumptions about societal binaries, specifically through the lens of the left/right dichotomy. It will also be tracing back these assumptions about left-handedness or leftness as a whole, through societal and etymological means, and investigating whether this dichotomy has any connections with the masculine/feminine binary. Furthermore, this research will discuss the effects of these judgements and separations made between left and right handedness, including …

Effects Of Diet And Alcohol Consumption On Mindfulness, Angelina Chiu, Dan Silverman, Alex Melnichuk, Emily Li

Research Days Posters 2024

College students engage in binge drinking which may result in negative mindfulness, especially when accompanied by an unhealthy diet. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the effect of diet and alcohol consumption on the mindfulness of college students. Our group conducted an anonymous online survey administered through Google Forms. The survey assessed the demographics of participants, frequency of alcohol consumption, dietary habits, and the overall mindfulness of college students. Pearsons’s Correlation Analysis was utilized using SPSS version 28.0. Our results indicated that there is a relationship between drinking alcohol, diet quality and mindfulness. Our results suggest that …

Chatgpt Or Reddit? Probing People's Trust In Advice For Important Life Decisions, Joelle Sacks, Elaine Yu, Nadiah Layne, Michael Kim, Trevor Rosenthal, William M. Hayes

Research Days Posters 2024

With the recent release of accessible artificial intelligence (AI) models such as ChatGPT, AI chatbots have become potential sources of advice that people can use to assist in decision making. This study will examine trust in advice given by AI chatbots compared with advice from online message boards (e.g., Reddit) in a sample of Binghamton University students. Participants will answer questions about past life decisions and rate their trust in advice from chatbots and message boards for each decision type. This research hypothesizes that participants will value advice from online message boards over advice given by AI chatbots due to …

The Effects Of Moderate Prenatal Alcohol Exposure On Kappa Opioid Receptor Expression Across Development In Rats, Margaret Agajanov, Kelcie Schatz

Research Days Posters 2024

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder is an umbrella term that describes the host of symptoms that may result from prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE). The incidence of anxiety disorders in children exposed to moderate PAE (mPAE) is twice that seen in children exposed to low amounts. mPAE animal models demonstrate anxiety-like behaviors reflective of those seen in humans exposed to mPAE. Gestational day 12 (G12) in rats is a period during which the amygdala is undergoing significant development. Past studies suggest that mPAE during G12 is implicated in the anxiety-like behavior observed in rats. The basolateral amygdala is part of the anxiety …

Impact Of The Western Diet On Mood, Shania Walters, Aleyna Cakirca, Maya Davis, Kelson Mcbridge, Mia Hargest

Research Days Posters 2024

Recent evidence points toward the effect of diet quality on mood. The purpose of this study was to contextualize the effects of individual dietary habits and their association with mental health. Specifically, we focused on the connection between Western dietary practices and symptoms of depression and anxiety. An anonymous online survey was administered through social media and in-person outreach. The survey included basic demographic questions and questions focused on dietary habits and typical states of emotion. Pearson’s Correlation Analysis was utilized using SPSS version 28.0. There is a positive correlation between the Western diet and depressive symptoms, such as feelings …

Spooky Psychology: The Therapeutics And Ethics Of Horror, Shaelyn Mcgowan

Research Days Posters 2024

Research suggests that horror media psychologically affects viewers in starkly different ways. Some fans use the genre to manage their anxiety: fictional stories can create safe environments in which to experience panic and dread, making it easier to develop functional coping mechanisms for use in stressful real-world situations. Other viewers, however, find horror so anxiety-inducing or even traumatic that it becomes unhelpful as a tool for emotional learning. Moreover, stereotypes in the horror genre can hurt marginalized groups more than stereotypes in other genres, as associating fear with a certain group is a powerful way of promoting bigotry. This research …

The Evolving Concept Of Neurodivergence And Challenges In Operationalizing Diversity, Brooklynn Burchett, Mia Grosso, Raymond Romanczyk, Jennifer Gillis Mattson

Research Days Posters 2024

Neurodivergence is a social-cultural identity not exclusively tied to any condition but often used by individuals with neurodevelopmental conditions. In scientific literature, neurodivergent is widely operationalized as autism, ADHD, and learning conditions (Clouder et al., 2020). The present study investigated the proportion of college students who identify as neurodivergent and which diagnostic labels they use to describe themselves in a sample of 215 Binghamton undergraduate students (M age = 18.93 years, SD = 1.20). Among those who identify as neurodivergent (n = 28), 75% reported a clinical and/or self-diagnosis of a neurodevelopmental condition, and 25% reported having non-neurodevelopmental conditions such …

The Relationship Between College Students And Eyewitness Identification, Emma Blanton, Brittany Race, Sienna Lee, Abigail Blumofe, Joseph Bica

Research Days Posters 2024

Forensic psychology research has predominantly focused on analyzing eyewitness identification reliability and the factors associated with it. This study is further adding to this research topic by examining the relationships between academic concentrations and classifications on eyewitness identification. A Qualtrics survey was created to collect data from a large number and variety of participants. The 252 students who answered the survey watched a simulated theft, completed three distractor tasks, and then were presented with a target-present or target-absent simultaneous lineup. They subsequently made an identification or rejected the lineup, gave a confidence rating, and provided their demographic information. While there …

The Limits Of Empathy Beyond Political Comfort Zones: An Investigation Of The Absence Of Empathy For Victims Of October 7th, Eiden Weinberg

Research Days Posters 2024

Recent scholarship in social psychology and political science highlights how people can struggle to empathize with those who hold opposing political ideologies. As a case study, this research turns to the current climate of anti-Jewish and anti-Israel sentiment amid the Israel-Hamas War. It explores the double standard demonstrated by prominent feminist organizations such as UN Women and the #MeToo Movement––and prestigious universities such as Harvard and Penn––which had strikingly muted or belated responses to the sexual violence perpetrated against Jewish and Israeli women on October 7th, and to the rise of antisemitism globally. The goal of this research is to …

Effects Of Reduction In Social Enrichment On A Novel Rat Model Of Approach And Avoidance Orientation, Emily Feldman

Research Days Posters 2024

The goal of the present study was to evaluate the effects of a reduction in social enrichment by measuring behavioral changes in the Elevated Plus Maze (EPM) in male and female rats of High Approach (HAO) and Low Approach Orientation (LAO). The results indicated that at baseline, both total arm entries and open arm entries were affected by HAO vs LAO and sex. The percent change in closed arm entries in LAO females was sensitive to the social environment, whereas those in the HAO were behaviorally unaffected. The experimental LAO female group had an increase in percent change of closed …

Sinful Femininity: How The Villainization Of Desire And Curiosity In Pandora’S Box Led To Gendered Biases In Psychology, Hannah Pitkofsky

Research Days Posters 2024

Mythology has a strong influence on societal views surrounding certain topics, including femininity, curiosity, and desire. However, the images presented in these stories are often artificially crafted with implicit biases that allegorize subjectivities of femininity in modern science. This paper examines the relationship between science and culture and the ways that they influence each other. More specifically, it compares the original myth of Pandora’s Box and the corresponding psychological Pandora effect by analyzing written language patterns and examining their scientific implications. This research argues that the current usage of the Pandora myth furthers patriarchal traditionalism by institutionalizing gender stereotypes. It …

Effect Of Mindfulness On Dietary And Drinking Habits, Emma Duca, Kassandra Mcdonald, Allison Kramer, Annamarie Chironis

Research Days Posters 2024

There is increasing interest in studying the relationship between mindfulness, dietary habits, and drinking habits. The purpose of this study is to assess the effects mindfulness has on dietary and drinking habits. An anonymous online survey was administered through Instagram, Yik Yak, GroupMe and iMessage. The survey included basic demographic questions and questions on self-reported mindfulness status and consumption frequency of alcohol and proper nutrition. Pearsons’s Correlation Analysis was utilized using SPSS version 28.0. The results suggest that mindfulness is closely related to diet quality and alcohol consumption. Further research is needed to analyze if state versus trait mindfulness has …

Would Basic Income Reduce Worker Motivation? A Review Of The Evidence, Evan Gleason

Research Days Posters 2024

Advocates of basic income tout the policy as a solution to poverty. Yet debates exist over whether it might backfire and sap the motivation of low-wage workers, leading to an exodus of labor from low-pay jobs. Studies have shown that financial incentives often reduce the motivation of individuals to work, and this is a possibility with basic income. Drawing on work in economics, psychology, and public policy, this research seeks to determine the likelihood of this outcome. It analyzes the possible effects on labor force participation rates, exploring arguments from both sides as to whether this concern about basic income …

Auditory Learning Of Seventh Chords, Riya Bolander, Sung-Joo Lim

Research Days Posters 2024

Being able to identify different types of musical chords is an essential skill for students pursuing a music degree. Unfortunately, it can be challenging to learn even after extensive traditional ear training. Based on prior studies demonstrating the effectiveness of implicit videogame training for learning difficult sound categories, this study investigated whether such a novel form of videogame training can serve as an alternative method to facilitate the learning of musical chords. 30 participants underwent either traditional or videogame training for 60 minutes across two days. Both training conditions resulted in significant, comparable improvements in accuracy and speed in identifying …

College Students’ Perception Of Autistic Adults Using Word Association Frequency Analyses, Olivia Cino, Diego Aragon-Guevara

Research Days Posters 2024

Autistic college students may be negatively impacted by peer stigma due to a lack of knowledge and limited understanding of Autism (Kuzminski et al., 2019). Research on autism stigma has revealed that non-autistic peers of all ages make ‘thin-slice judgments’ about autistic individuals resulting in reduced intentions to pursue social interaction (Sasson et al., 2017). Improving understanding of how non-autistic students perceive their autistic peers may be useful to inform future efforts to educate non-autistic students and reduce stigma. The aim of this study was to assess non-autistic students’ perception of their autistic peers by using NVivo software to analyze …

Therapy Talk On Therapytok: Psychotherapeutic Discourse On Social Media, Catherine Marin

Research Days Posters 2024

Therapy-talk is a discursive framework which subtends modern conceptions of mental healthcare. Normatively, this takes place within the spatiotemporal moment of the therapy session, a clinical environment in which the therapist occupies an authority role and administers treatment to their patient. However, the Unites States faces an ongoing mental health crisis which is magnified by racialized and class-based disparities in access to treatment. This has led to the proliferation of non-normative and often digital approaches to treatment. One such approach involves the development of mental health communities on various social media platforms. On TikTok, this community is sometimes called TherapyTok, …

Exploring Relative Value Bias: Learned Outcomes Or Choice Repetition?, Trevor Rosenthal, Joelle Sacks, Madeline Duran, Michael Kim

Research Days Posters 2024

People sometimes choose options yielding relatively better outcomes in past contexts, even when those options have lower absolute values. This study tested whether this effect is due to participants learning relative outcomes or simply repeating previous choices. Participants (n = 151) were randomly assigned to two conditions and completed a two-phase choice task. In the learning phase, participants either actively chose from (choice condition) or passively viewed (sampling condition) pairs of symbols and received reward feedback. In the subsequent transfer phase, participants were shown different combinations of the same symbols and were asked to choose the symbol with the higher …

How Sympathy Lost Its Luster: A Linguistic And Cultural Review, Zona Huang

Research Days Posters 2024

Since the mid-20th century, the term, “empathy” has gained widespread usage and applause as a cultural virtue. In recent decades, its usage has even surpassed sympathy, which has been in English for centuries longer. While sympathy was once praised as a source of social harmony, it is increasingly associated with attitudes of pity and condensation. Whereas sympathy currently involves feeling for the sufferer, empathy requires putting yourself in the shoes of another. It is clear sympathy has undergone a semantic shift, the linguistic term for when a word takes on additional meanings over time. But how and when did this …

On Grooming: Fostering Selective Empathy Through Language In American Conservative Media, Alexander Jordan

Research Days Posters 2024

The contemporary landscape of American conservative politics is one largely marred by visceral appeals to emotion. Phrases such as “grooming” have become a staple of modern conservative media, capable of evoking strong negative emotions and falsely portraying groups such as non-LGBT individuals, white individuals, Christians, and especially children as under threat. This research seeks to explore the evolution of how this language has been utilized to create a sense of “selective empathy” in American conservatives, with particular emphasis on the cultural shift surrounding the 2016 presidential election. Through analysis of the works of multiple conservative figures, think tanks, and media …

Food Insecurity Associated With Increased Perceived Stress & Decreased Participation In Health Promoting Activities, Katelyn Wasilenko, Katerina Nagorny, Sarah Livshits, Alexis Valerius, Elliott Ifraimov, Gabrielle Castillo, Ushima Chowdhury, Sabrina Bubis, Lina Begdache

Research Days Posters 2024

Food insecurity (FI) affects nearly 800 million globally. This study investigated the underexplored relationships between FI, health-promoting activities (HPAs), and perceived stress. An anonymous online survey was administered and results were analyzed using Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient in SPSS Version 28.0. FI was negatively correlated with completing health care tasks (r= -0.136, p < 0.01), engaging in social activities both active (r=-0.213, p < 0.01) and not (r=-0.146, p < 0.01), and confidence coping with problems (r=-0.233, p < 0.01). FI was positively correlated with perceived stress (r=0.155, p < 0.01). These findings align with prior research and discuss possible mediation through stress mindset interventions and education of nutrition beyond Westernized diets. This study gives insights into the dynamics between FI, HPAs, and perceived stress, laying the groundwork for more robust longitudinal research to create a comprehensive understanding of FI relationships.