Do Dabbling Ducks Forage More in the Morning or at Night?

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

My research project looked at if dabbling ducks forage more in the morning or afternoon. My hypothesis was that they would forage more in the morning than afternoon.

Do Shorebirds Exhibit Mixed-Species Flocking Preferences?

Mason Levy, Wildlife Undergraduate Student

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

This study analyzed flocking behavior of shorebirds present at the Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary, examining if any two (or more) species significantly selected to flock with each other over other species, and what may have led to such a flocking preference (similarities in size, foraging behavior, etc.).

Do Song Sparrows Alter Song in Noisy Natural Environments?

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

This project studied the minimum song note frequencies of Song Sparrows in two different environments. Our results suggest that vocal plasticity arose as an adaptation in response to loud ocean surf, rivers, and wind.

DOC Sampling from Little River and Mad River

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC) is a fraction of organic carbon with size less than 0.2 micrometers. DOC comes from decomposed plants, bacteria, and algae. Abundant in marine and freshwater systems, it serves as the primary food source for aquatic webs. Generally, rivers have higher concentrations of DOC than the ocean does. In the estuary, a linear relationship between salinity and DOC indicates that the DOC concentration is fully due to mixing of freshwater and saltwater, and not any significant additional source or removal terms. DOC concentrations decreased from river to ocean. Scholarly articles have pointed this to be normal. Interpretation of data will continue.

Does cleft palate repair surgery restore normal neural processing for infant faces?

Rachael Kee, Psychology Graduate Student

College of Professional Studies

The current study used electroencephalography (EEG) to investigate adults’ processing of infant faces with cleft lip/palate before and after surgical repair. We found enhanced N170 responses for faces pre-repair surgery compared to post-repair surgery, suggesting that cleft lip/palate repair surgery may restore a more “normal” N170 response. Additionally, the P200 was smaller for the pre-repair surgery faces compared to post-repair surgery, which likely reflects the P200 responding to “typicality” for face stimuli as the post-repair surgery faces would appear more face-typical.

Does cleft palate repair surgery restore normal neural processing for infant faces?

Francesca Messina, Psychology Graduate Student

College of Professional Studies

Infant faces readily capture our attention and elicit enhanced neural processing, likely due to their importance in facilitating bonds with caregivers. Cues of poor health are associated with a lower degree of parental investment and facial malformations have been shown to negatively impact early infant-caregiver interactions, possibly due to altered perceptual processing of these faces compared to unaffected infant faces. The current study used eye tracking and electroencephalography (EEG) to investigate responses to infant faces before and after cleft palate repair surgery.

Does Handedness Affect Lateralization of Facial Emotion Processing

Shairy Jimenez Delgado, Psychology Graduate Student

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

Behavioral and neuroimaging work on the visual processing of facial stimuli has consistently demonstrated a right hemisphere bias in face perception generally as well as in emotion perception. Research on lateralization of other cognitive functions such as language has found differential patterns of lateralization between right-handed and left-handed individuals. Several neuroimaging studies found evidence between handedness and degree of lateralization for face processing. The current study seeks to extend previous work by investigating the relationship between degree of handedness and degree of hemispheric lateralization for the processing of faces displaying positive and negative affect.

Does Having Siblings Affect Caretaking Responses to Infants?

Joshua Worthington, Psychology Graduate Student

College of Professional Studies

Because siblings often fulfill a caregiver role in the home, this study investigated whether having siblings, and younger siblings in particular, impacts the reward value of and perceptual sensitivity to the ‘baby schema’. Participants completed a cuteness sensitivity rating task and an effort-based keypress task to measure the reward value of cuteness. They also reported whether they had siblings, and if so older vs younger siblings. Contrary to our hypotheses, having siblings did not influence the reward value of or perceptual sensitivity to ‘babyschema’.

Does Having Siblings Affect The Recognition of Children’s Emotional Displays?

Nathan Boone, Psychology Graduate Student

College of Professional Studies

The present study investigated the relationship between sibling caretaking experience and the ability to recognize emotions in children’s faces. Accuracy for recognizing emotional displays in children's faces was compared among individuals with younger siblings, older siblings, and no siblings. We did not find any evidence that having siblings impacts sensitivity to emotional displays in children's faces. We did, however, find evidence that some emotions are more easily assessed than others regardless of sibling status.

Does Having Siblings Affect The Recognition of Children's Emotional Displays?

Jasper Toledo, Psychology Undergraduate Student

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

This research study looks into whether participants with siblings are able to understand the emotional display in images of children more so than participants without siblings. We hypothesized that participants with younger siblings will have a greater likelihood to notice emotional responses in children due to alloparental caregiving behavior. Sixty images of children expressing six emotional displays were shown to participants. Overall, there was no difference in emotional recognition accuracy between participant groups. Specific emotional displays were recognized more than others for all groups, with the most recognized emotional display being happiness.