Destigmatizing Care In Pregnant People with Substance Use Disorder

Nicky Edwards, School of Applied Health Undergraduate Student

College of Professional Studies

Pregnant people and families with substance use disorder who receive care at local rural clinics and hospitals need more recovery resources. Community nurses can assist by educating parents and families about proper Narcan use and first aid. Public health departments can assist by utilizing a collaborative referral system for additional resources. Physicians can be educated about compassionate care practices in communicating with patients. These interventions will lead to goals of pregnant people feeling safe seeking support from their providers, fewer newborns experiencing withdrawal symptoms, and less children being placed with child protective services thus keeping families together.

DETERMINE THE EFFECTS OF HIGH-INCLINE WALKING ON BIOMECHANICAL VARIABLES AND EMG PATTERNS ON DIFFERENT TREADMILL DECK SYSTEMS

ROHIT KUNDU, School of Applied Health Graduate Student

College of Professional Studies

While walking on the ground and using a treadmill are the standard mode of exercise, treadmill walking has gained popularity recently. Treadmills are more efficient and reliable because of the better control of speed, and grade, and can be used in all weather conditions. Even though multiple studies looked over the impact of surfaces at different inclines at biomechanics (gait, impact forces, tibial acceleration, and muscle activation), still the impact of surfaces has not been examined using different treadmill manufacturers while comparing high-incline (20%) with low-incline (1%).

Diversity Among University Students in the U.S.: An Analysis of Student Ethnic Group Preferences and its Impact on Campus Diversity

Joseph Pang, Psychology Graduate Student

College of Professional Studies

The current study explores students' ethnic identity, ethnocentrism, and friendship diversity and how they these variables relate to with whom students interact. The study uses research from intergroup relations, friendship diversity, and ethnic identification. Specifically, the study will examine how ethnic identification, ethnocentrism, and student cultural group involvement relate to intergroup anxiety which, in turn, relates to intergroup bias. Through this work, we seek to understand how intergroup relations stands amongst People of Color (POC) in the United States.

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 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 the Thatcher Effect Extend to Infant Faces?

Adnan Alyna, Psychology Undergraduate Student

College of Professional Studies

You will spend more time looking at faces than any other type of object in your lifetime. Because faces are such an important social signal, humans have developed a perceptual expertise for faces. Decades of research on the mechanisms of face processing have demonstrated we more heavily on configural processing strategies when viewing faces due to this expertise. However, this work has been done using almost exclusively adult facial stimuli. The current study uses a well-established configural disruption known as the Thatcher Effect to investigate the use of configural processing for infant faces. We find evidence that infant face processing may be less reliant on configural information.

Effects of cleft lip and palate on visual scanning and neural processing of infant faces

Juergen Riedelsheimer, Psychology Graduate Student

College of Professional Studies

The current study used a combination of eye tracking and EEG to investigate early visual processing of infant faces with cleft lip/palate as well as the impact cleft palate has on perceived cuteness. The results demonstrate a significant decrease in early visual attention to the eye region and increased visual attention to the mouth for infants with cleft lip. Differences in neural processing are evident at both early and late stage processing (N170, P2, LPP).

Effects of Competitor Species on Black-Crowned Night Heron Activity at Different Times of Day

Korinn Trinies, Wildlife Undergraduate Student

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

Black-crowned night herons (Nycticorax nycticorax) share the same niche with various competitor species, influencing and effecting their behavior accordingly. Recent studies show that black-crowned night herons are mainly active during dusk and dawn due to the decreased presence of competitor species at these times, suggesting there nocturnal behavior is an adaption. During my study, I observed the proportion of high and low activity of black crowned night herons in relationship to presence of competitor species and the time of day. My data suggest greater numbers of black-crowned night herons with high presence of competitors, and higher activity level with less competiton.

Effects of Environmental Pressures and Physical Characteristics of Tide Pools on Marine Invertebrate Community Ecology

Jessica Hoone, Wildlife Undergraduate Student

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

Intertidal invertebrates are an integral part of tide pool ecosystems, so what is the intertidal invertebrate’s ideal habitat? Which tide pools foster the greatest abundance and species diversity? This study was conducted to determine whether five major players in the northern California invertebrate community fair better in the rocky tide pools of a sheltered bay or the sandy tide pools of a beach exposed to the full force of the waves.