Student Research Projects

Thesis Proposal/Defense Meetings:

The Effect of Rejection on Recognition of Emotional Faces
Aaron Shilling
Thrusday, November 18th at 11:30am in Waggoner 136
Thesis Committee: Dr. Kristine Kelly (chair), Dr. Colin Harbke, and Dr. Kimberley McClure

Social Shielding: The Predisposition to Anthropomorphize as a Buffer Against Social Rejection
Mitchell Lorenz
Thursday, November 11th at 12:00pm in Waggoner 136
Thesis Committee: Dr. Kristine Kelly (chair), Dr. David Lane, and Dr. Colin Harbke

An Examination of the Negative Mood Regulation Scale for Youth
Aaron Roome
Friday, November 5th at 10:00am in Waggoner 115
Thesis Committee: Dr. Jeff Laurent (chair), Dr. Tracy Cruise, and Dr. Julie Herbstrith

Parental Meta-Emotion Philosophy & Adult Child Outcomes
Laura Reed
Friday, October 22nd at 1:00pm in Waggoner 171
Thesis Committee: Dr. Paige Goodwin (chair), Dr. Robert Intrieri, and Dr. Kristine Kelly

The Effects of Mindset on Task Performance
Selvan Thamilavel
Friday, May 14th at 9:00am in Waggoner 170
Thesis Committee: Dr. David Lane (chair), Dr. Reginald Adkisson, and Dr. Virginia Diehl

Racecar Drivers and Repeated Exposure to Trauma
Jennifer Ford
Friday, April 16th at 1:30pm in Waggoner 171
Thesis Committee: Dr. David Lane (chair), Dr. Melanie Hetzel-Riggin, and Dr. Scott Hemenover

Workplace Engagement: The Roles of Transformational Leadership and Interactional Justice in Producing Engaged Employees
Diana Strom
Wednesday, March 10th at 3:00pm in Waggoner 137
Thesis Committee: Dr. Karen Sears (chair), Dr. Kimberely McClure, and Dr. Scott Hemenover

The Promise of Response to Intervention (RtI) with English Language Learners (ELL): A Survey of School Psychologists
Laura Skarren
Monday, February 15th at 12:30pm in Waggoner 137
Thesis Committee: Dr. Jeff Laurent (chair), Dr. Tracy Cruise, and Dr. Valerie Smead

The Effect of N,N-Diisopropyltryptamine (DiPT) on Modified Acoustic Startle Tasks
Will Hamlet
Monday, February 1st at 3:30pm in Waggoner 113
Thesis Committee: Dr. Sandy McFadden (chair), Dr. Russ Morgan, and Dr. Matt Blankenship

An ERP Investigation of the Effects of Social Rejection on Self-Control
John Lurquin
Tuesday, January 26th at 4:30pm in Waggoner 113
Thesis Committee: Dr. Colin Harbke and Dr. Sandy McFadden (co-chairs) Dr. Kris Kelly Dr. Steve Radlo (Dept. of Kinesiology)

The Malleability of Memory: Muddled Mnemonics
Andrew Sage
Thursday, December 17th at 4:30 pm in Waggoner 113
Thesis Committee: Russel Morgan (Chair), Virginia Diehl, and Steven Dworkin

Recent/Current Student Presentations and Projects

Augustine, S.A. & Hetzel-Riggin, M.D. (2010, April). Development of the Relationship Health Scale. Paper to be presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL.

Augustine, S.A. & Hetzel-Riggin, M.D. (2010, April). Why Do Psychologically Healthy College Students Stay in Unhealthy Relationships? Paper to be presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL.

Blankenship, M.R., McGarvey, J.G., Devries, J.R., Peterson, M.S., Cochran, A.L. & Hamlet, W.R. (2009, October). Ventricular Infusion of A?25-35 Causes Deficits in Spatial Memory in Long-Evans Rats. Presented at the 40th Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Chicago, Illinois.

Colon, B.M., Kutmas, B.A., Augustine, S.A., Grahl, K.L., Meads, C.L., Roby, R.P., & Wolfinsohn, J.A. (2010, April). The Effects of Obsessive Compulsive Symptoms on Partner Maltreatment. Poster to be presented at the annual meeting of Psi Chi at the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL. Faculty Advisor: Melanie Hetzel-Riggin. (winner, Psi Chi Regional Research Award)

Coombs, V. T. (2009). Attention, categorization, and the cross-race effect in face recognition: The influence of racial markers. Unpublished master's thesis, Western Illinois University.

Devries, J.R., Smelzer, S.A., Hemphill, L.F., Peterson, M.S., Love, S.I. & Crowley, Z.C. (2009, October). Reversible memory impairment due to Alzheimer’s disease-related protein. Presented at the 19th Annual Tri-State Undergraduate Psychology Research Conference, Augustana College.

Doherty, S., Gray, C, & Kryder, C. (2010, April). Does Priming for Illness Effect Health Conscious Behavior? Poster to be presented at the annual meeting of Psi Chi at the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL. Faculty Advisor: David Lane.

Ford, J.N. (2009, May). The relationship between sexual harassment and eating disorders: A study of mediating variables. Poster presented at the annual meeting of Psi Chi at the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL. Faculty advisor: Dana Lindemann (winner, Psi Chi Regional Research Award)

Fuller, S. (2010, April). The Relationship between the Need to Belong and Facial Attention. Poster to be presented at the annual meeting of Psi Chi at the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL. Faculty Advisor: Kristine Kelly.

Grahl, K. (2010, April). Health Care Utilization in Veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. Poster to be presented at the annual meeting of Psi Chi at the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL. Faculty Advisor: Melanie Hetzel-Riggin.

Hull, A. (2010, April). Attention Restoration Therapy and Ego Depletion. Poster to be presented at the annual meeting of Psi Chi at the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL. Faculty Advisor: Kristine Kelly.

Hull, A., Hrasch, N., & Bartz, J. (2010, April). Self-Regulation as a Function of Positive and Negative Perfectionism. Poster to be presented at the annual meeting of Psi Chi at the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL. Faculty Advisor: Kristine Kelly.

Korinek, D. & Hetzel-Riggin, M.D. (2010, April). Examining the Effects of Video Games on Aggression in College Students. Paper to be presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL.

Kwiatowski, M. (2010, April). Disgusting Lies: The Influence of Disgust upon Deception Detection of Social Transgressions. Poster to be presented at the annual meeting of Psi Chi at the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL. Faculty Advisor: Scott Hemenover.

McGarvey, J.G. & Blankenship, M.R. (2009, May). Intracerebroventricular Injections of Amyloid Beta (25-35) Induce Hippocampal Dependent Impairments in Spatial Memory. Presented at the 79th Annual Meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association in Chicago, Illinois.

Meads, C.L. (2010, April). Family Violence and Family Drinking as Predictors of Alcohol Use. Poster to be presented at the annual meeting of Psi Chi at the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL. Faculty Advisor: David Lane.

Meads, C.L. (2010, April). The Perceived Effectiveness of Coping in Trauma Victims. Poster to be presented at the annual meeting of Psi Chi at the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL. Faculty Advisor: Melanie Hetzel-Riggin.

Reese, D.D., Diehl, V.A., & Lurquin, J. (2009, May). Metaphor Enhanced Instructional Video Game Causes Conceptual Gains in Lunar Science Knowledge. Poster presented at the 2009 Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention, San Francisco, CA.

Roby, R. (2010, April). PTSD: A reevaluation of the symptom dynamic across trauma type. Poster to be presented at the annual meeting of Psi Chi at the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL. Faculty Advisor: Melanie Hetzel-Riggin. (winner, Psi Chi Regional Research Award)

Schramer, A., & Jelinek, A. (2010, April). Gender Differences in Social Monitoring System Activation: Gender and Relationship Status in Emotion Perception. Poster to be presented at the annual meeting of Psi Chi at the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL. Faculty Advisor: Kristine Kelly.

Watkins, J. (2010, April). Parental Acceptance-Rejection and Divorce: Sources of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms. Poster to be presented at the annual meeting of Psi Chi at the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL. Faculty Advisor: Kristine Kelly.

Weger, E., Dopheide, M., & Morgan, R. (2009, October). Enduring enhancement of spatial learning and memory in rats following adolescent fluoxetine exposure. Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, Chicago, IL.

Wolfinsohn, J.A. (2010, April). Chronic Stress and Trauma Effects on Binge Drinking Behavior. Poster to be presented at the annual meeting of Psi Chi at the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL. Faculty Advisor: Melanie Hetzel-Riggin.

Student Grants

Christina Meads
College of Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Activity Grant for her ongoing project (Fall, 2009)
Family Violence and Family Drinking as Predictors of Alcohol Use