Life Sciences Commons^™

Crossmodal Perception Of Object Shape: A Study On The Effect Of Modal Order On Successful Shape Recognition, Ashlyn Vale

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Visual and haptic (tactile) modes of perception, while occasionally exercised independently, most often occur concurrently. The degree to which the ordering of the two modes of perception affects successful recognition of three-dimensional shapes varies. Some have found that the cross-modal orders (vision followed by haptics or vice versa) produce equal performance (Caviness, 1964; Lacey, Peters, & Sathian, 2007; Norman et al., 2006), while other researchers found visual-haptic (VH) performance to be superior to haptic-visual (HV) performance (Davidson, Abbott, & Gershenfeld, 1974; Norman, Clayton, Norman, & Crabtree, 2008). The current experiment used an old-new recognition task (with cookie cutter stimuli). In …

Informing Sustainable Urban Forestry Policy With Carbon Sequestration Analysis, Ellen Danford

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Urban forestry is an environmental solution for an increasingly city-centered world. The ecosystem services that trees provide in natural settings, including carbon sequestration, oxygen production and aesthetic beauty, also apply in urban settings. Every tree in the Western Kentucky University (WKU) urban forest provides these services and each tree was measured to determine how much carbon they sequestered a year on average between 2015 and 2020. With an interactive map of the forest and its carbon sequestration, the condition of the forest and change over the five year period was analyzed. Comparing the welfare of the forest with the plans …

Enhancing Wku Sustainable Food Systems Through Education And Local Agriculture Development, Chloe Cooper

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

In an effort to increase the amount of locally sourced food utilized by dining services at WKU, the Office of Sustainability, WKU Restaurant Group, and the WKU Agriculture & Research Education Center have partnered to establish garden spaces on campus properties. This project developed a detailed plan for implementation of this effort. In addition, this project established a plan to educate students and the local community alike on the benefits of sustainable farming and locally-sourced food, while also creating profiles on local farmers from whom the university could buy crops in order to further supplement items for dining services. Using …

Bridging The Food Gap: Founding And Sustaining A Food Recovery Network Chapter At Wku, Elaine Losekamp

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Food waste is a pervasive global issue with many environmental and social repercussions. While about one-third of all food produced for human consumption goes to waste, many people in the United States and the world are affected by food insecurity. Food recovery, the process of rescuing edible food that would otherwise go to waste and delivering to hungry people, is an effective solution for both food waste and food insecurity. The author of this capstone created a food recovery program at Western Kentucky University (WKU) in January 2019 and has grown the program’s scope and impact since that time. This …

Using Unmanned Aircraft Systems To Identify Invasive Species, Tithe Ahmed

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Invasive species serve as a threat to native biodiversity and ecosystem sustainability. Combatting the spread of invasive species requires long-term physical and monetary commitments. In Balule Nature Reserve of Greater Kruger National Park, South Africa, Opuntia ficus-inidica (the common prickly pear) has been a relentless invader, displacing the local flora and fauna. The goal of this project is to battle invasive species such as prickly pear using efficient and inexpensive technology: unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones) and multispectral sensors.

Using a 4-bandwidth Parrot Sequoia multispectral sensor in tandem with the DJI Phantom Pro 3^TM UAV, images of land …

Impact Of Remembering Vs. Knowing On Strength Of Belief In Neuromyths, Kailee Jackola

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

As technology advances, misinformation can be spread easier than ever before. Many things the general public believe to be true are either completely false or contradict research findings. However, many people are not willing to give up their belief in false information, even if there is evidence to refute it. Neuromyths are a particular type of widespread misinformation involving incorrect beliefs about brain function (e.g., people can be either left-or right brained). Understanding the origins of neuromyths is important, because it may relate to the strength of individuals’ belief in these myths. Therefore, it is important to determine whether remembering …

Public Relations Campaign Guide: The Importance Of Affordable Housing, James Blake Soper

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

As a way to encourage participation in a movement against a long-held issue with broad impact yet little reform, this compilation describes the processes of research, planning, organizing, implementing, and evaluating an effective public relations campaign on homelessness and/or homeownership by breaking down each step in detail. These details include: my experience as a public relations professional for Home Matters doing a similar campaign, professional advice from individuals considered to be experts in their various careers, and applicable samples of work. This compilation’s purpose is to provide individuals and organizations with the knowledge and skills to conduct an effective campaign …

Prescribed Fire Effects On The Summer And Fall Herbs Of Mesic Deciduous Forests, Margaret Wilder

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

After years of fire suppression, high intensity forest fires were destructive to surrounding areas. Historically, fire was common in the eastern United States, but was suppressed over the past century, and recently has become a major tool in forest management. But to date, there have been no studies on the influence of fire on mesic sites in the eastern United States. Because fire is being reintroduced as a management practice, it is critical to know the influence of fire in this region. This study seeks to understand the influences of fire on summer and fall herbs in the western mesophytic …

The Transition From 3-D To 2-D Visual Stimuli And Its Effect On Paired-Associate Learning, Amanda Beers

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

A single experiment investigated the influence of varying dimensions of visual stimuli on the ability of academically gifted adolescents to recall paired-associations. Fifty-two participants were randomly assigned to one of four groups. Each group was asked to memorize the same set of 15 paired-word associations. The first group was presented with words only. The second group was presented with words and 2- dimensional (2-D) representations of each word. The third group was presented with words along with 3-dimensional (3-D) representations of the words. The fourth group was also presented words along with 3-D objects; however, this group was instructed to …