MTU Junior, Kayla Conn, was selected by CLS as the 2020 Department Scholar. Kayla is a Psychology major, minoring in Global Community Development. Academically, Kayla strives to excel in her coursework, has strong teamwork skills, and demonstrates a curiosity and depth of understanding that we strive for our students to obtain.
Kayla has participated in two internships thus far. She served as an intern at the Barbara Kettle Gundlach Domestic Violence Shelter in Calumet, where she was trained in answering the domestic violence crisis line, lead child care and group therapy sessions, and ensured clients’ needs were met while residing at the shelter. She is currently an intern at Counseling Services, assisting with event planning and implementation. In addition, Kayla has been offered a paid internship this summer with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
Kayla is also a member of the Women’s Leadership Council (Executive Board member 2019-2020), a Student Ambassador for the College of Sciences and Arts, and a Young Women Leaders Program Mentor.
Congratulations Kayla!
To see the full virtual awards ceremony, click here.
Congratulations to Michigan Tech’s psychology students who presented their original research posters today to CLS faculty and graduate students…over Zoom! (That’s a first!)
The research, which students worked on all semester, covered a range of topics from personality to human factors, decision making to well-being.
Great job Huskies!
“The Effect of Mindfulness within Pre-Game Rituals on Self-Reported Confidence and the Acute Effects of Mindfulness on Present State of Well-Being” by Emilie Jacques and Tyrell Buckley.
“The Effects of Priming with Informative Videos on Likelihood to Report Symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder“ by Ashley Van Handel, Erin Casey, and Emily Wisz.
“The Effects of Gamer Status and Gender on Impulsivity in Decisions and Thoughts” by Mariah Clement.
“The Effect of Word List Length on False Memory Generation Using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott Paradigm” by Alex Pippenger
“Impact of Self-Esteem on Levels of Regret in Action-Inaction Decision Scenarios” by Brooke C. Poyhonen.
The Cognitive and Learning Sciences Department in the Harold Meese Center will have adjusted hours over the holiday break:
Monday, December 23: 10:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M.
Tuesday, December 24 – Wednesday, January 1: CLOSED
Normal hours (8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M.) will resume on Thursday, January 2, 2020.
Russell Shilling, PhD, guest host for Speaking of Psychology and chief scientific officer for the American Psychological Association, sat down at APA2019 to talk with Shawn Doherty, PhD, and Kaitlyn Roose, MS, to discuss the psychology of esports, the benefits of gaming on higher level cognition and the culture of video games.
If you would like to listen to the full podcast, click here. The link also provides a full transcript and video of the interview.
Dr. Kevin Trewartha, Director of the Aging, Cognition, and Action Lab, accompanied by two of his current PhD candidates, Bridget Durocher and Isaac Flint, attended the Society for Neuroscience convention to present their research. This year represented the 50th annual convention, and it was held in Chicago, IL. This convention is one of the largest international conventions for the study of neuroscience with speakers and exhibitors from all around the world. Opportunities to meet Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine in 2000 Eric Kandel for his work on signal transduction in the nervous system, global industry leaders in neuroscience technology, and leaders on the forefront of brain research were all part of this year’s experience.
Bridget Durocher presented preliminary findings of her research investigating whether acquisition, and short- and long-term retention measures of motor learning can distinguish between amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI), Alzehimer’s disease (AD), and healthy aging. The ultimate goal of this work is to potentially supplement existing neuropsychological measures for diagnosing AD. The need for additional or new techniques to diagnose AD in its earliest stages is essential in extending the quality of life for our future generations. The current standard testing procedures often miss the early onset phase of the disease process, leading many years of missed opportunities to manage the disease effectively. In the current project we are investigating whether the early stages of motor learning are affected by MCI and early AD, and whether those patients exhibit additional impairments in short-term (i.e., within session) and long-term (after a 24-hour delay) retention of a newly acquired motor skill. Initial results are encouraging, and support our hypothesis, but it should be stressed that these data are very preliminary.
Isaac Flint presented findings from work investigating whether younger and older adults differ in the ability to make optimal corrective actions for collision avoidance during reaching movements. This work showed that when making motor corrections in response to visual feedback perturbations, both older and younger adults are equally able to make optimal decisions when correcting their movements to avoid collisions with obstacles. However, older adults make less efficient movements indicated by longer movement times, exhibit increased rates of collision, and delayed electrophysiological responses to the visual feedback perturbations. The efficiency with which older adults made corrective actions was also correlated with cognitive measures of executive control, and processing speed.
In addition to attending the conference Bridget and Isaac took some time to explore the city, learning to navigate Chicago’s public transportation, and visiting various spots including the Harold Washington Library Center of the Chicago Public Library, Little Italy, Millennium Park, downtown shops, and the lakefront. Having a diverse population to network with along with the unique cultural opportunities Chicago has to offer made this convention an excellent opportunity to explore both cognitive neuroscience and human factors.
At the end of each academic year, each department nominates one student to represent them as their Departmental Scholar. The Provost’s Award for Scholarship is given to a senior who best represents 
student scholarship at Michigan Tech. This outstanding student is considered excellent not only by academic standards, but also for participation in research scholarship activity, levels of intellectual curiosity, creativity, and communication skills.
This year, the Departmental Scholar award was given to psychology undergraduate student Hannah Kariniemi. Hannah may only be finishing her second year but has already accomplished a lot. She has achieved Junior status with an impressive GPA of 3.64 overall and 3.7 in the Major. Dr. Veinott who has Hannah in the Research Methods II course says “Hannah is motivated and diligent to chase down problems and figure them out”. She is also interning at the 97th Regional Treatment court and doing research with Dr. Amato-Henderson. Dr. Amato-Henderson says she hopes to guide Hannah through writing a manuscript to be submitted for publication. Hannah has also recently been inducted into Psi Chi (the International Honor Society in Psychology) and is also active in the Association for Psychology Students (APS). It is amazing how quickly Hannah is advancing here and she plans to continue in graduate school where she will continue working toward clinical psychology with an emphasis on judicial corrections and community health. Congratulations Hannah!
As the semester is winding down, stress is ramping up. The Association for Psychology Students (APS) and the Department of Cognitive and Learning Sciences hosted an “art therapy” session in the Makerspace on Monday, April 22. Everyone had a great time getting to know each other, creating art, and making a mess. It was the perfect way to de-stress before finals.
The Department of the Cognitive and Learning Sciences inducted five new members into Psi Chi, the international Honor Society in Psychology: Hannah Kariniemi, Lavanya Rajesh Kumar, Rose Hildebrandt, Shurti Amre, and Via Ouellette Ballas. The Induction ceremony took place at the Harold Meese Center on Tuesday, April 16. The Michigan Tech Chapter of Psi Chi is led by Abby Kuehne (President) and Caden Sumner (Treasurer) and advised by Dr. Kelly Steelman. For more information on Psi Chi, visit: https://www.psichi.org/default.aspx