Psychology and Human Factors News

Stewardship for Lake Linden Students

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Chadde with Lake Linden StudentsScience outside
LL-H students turn disc course into a classroom

Lake Linden Elementary School fifth-graders got to learn more about their local environment and apply classroom knowledge in a real-world scenario at the Lake Linden disc golf course Friday afternoon.

“People are going to come here to the disc golf course, so let’s teach them what they’re going to find when they’re here, and how they can be stewards,” said Joan Chadde, Lake Superior Stewardship Initiative co-stewardship project advisor and education program coordinator for the Center for Science and Environmental Outreach at Michigan Technological University.

Read more at the Mining Gazette, by Garrett Neese.

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Jeon Part of New Faculty Hires in Future Transportation Systems

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Myounghoon Philart JeonTen New Faculty Members Hired in SFHI: Water Systems and Future Transportation Systems

Michigan Tech has hired ten new faculty members as part of the University’s most recent Strategic Faculty Hiring Initiatives (SFHI), which were conducted in parallel over the last two years. The research done by six of the new hires focuses on the cross-disciplinary theme of water systems. The other four new faculty members conduct research in future transportation systems.

Myounghoon “Philart” Jeon earned his PhD in Engineering Psychology from Georgia Tech in 2012 and joined the Department of Cognitive and Learning Sciences as assistant professor. His research areas encompass auditory displays, affective computing, assistive technologies and automotive interface design. His research has yielded more than 70 publications across various journals and conference proceedings. Previously, Jeon worked at LG Electronics and was responsible for all of their automotive user interface and sound designs. In addition, Jeon has led many other industry projects in collaboration with Toyota, Hyundai-Kia Motors, General Electric, Samsung Electronics and Panasonic Automotive, etc. His works have been recognized by awards such as the IF Communication Design Award and the Korean Ergonomic Design Award.

Read more at Tech Today, by the Office of the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs.

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10th Biennial Lake Superior Youth Symposium

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AgassizStudents, Teachers Gather at Tech to Learn about Lake Superior

More than 200 teachers and students from Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Ontario are coming to Michigan Technological University this week for the 10th Biennial Lake Superior Youth Symposium. Students and teachers from 26 schools in three Great Lakes states and Canada will spend four days at the symposium, Thursday to Sunday, May 16-19.

The Lake Superior Youth Symposium is sponsored by Michigan Tech’s School of Forest Resources & Environmental Science and Tech’s Great Lakes Research Center, the Lake Superior Stewardship Initiative and the Western UP Center for Science, Math and Environmental Education. Funding comes from NOAA, Earth Force, the Keweenaw Community Foundation, Upper Peninsula Environmental Council, Superior Watershed Partnership, Friends of the Land of Keweenaw, Copper Country Trout Unlimited, Copper Country Audubon Club and Dale Nichols.

For a schedule of activities and other information, contact Joan Chadde, jchadde@mtu.edu or 906-487-3341, or access the schedule and program booklet online: http://lakesuperioryouth.org/.

Read more at Michigan Tech News, by Jennifer Donovan.

Youth symposium highlights Great Lakes stewardship, research

Attendees participate in hands-on workshops, challenge courses and art and music programs that highlight careers aimed at protecting the Great Lakes. Participants visit streams, lakes and forests. They kayak, hike, rock climb and tour mines.

The symposium is for grades 8-12 students and teachers in Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin and Ontario.

Read more at Great Lakes Echo, by James Dau.

Students get hands-on experience with nature

Samantha Reynolds traveled all the way from Harper Middle School near Detroit to Michigan Tech to learn more about nature.

It’s all part of the Lake Superior Youth Symposium: a gathering of more than 200 students from Michigan, Wisconsin, and Canada, learning about wildlife.

Read more and watch the video at Upper Michigans Source, by Sarah Blakely.

Tech hosts symposium designed to get kids thinking about Superior

“Nobody says you must have a Lake Superior Youth Symposium. We just do it because we love it,” said Joan Chadde, education/outreach program coordinator for Tech’s Center for Science & Environmental Outreach, during Thursday’s opening ceremony in Fisher Hall. “We love Lake Superior, we love the Great Lakes and we want you to love it, too. We know by creating an experience like this we’re hoping you’ll remember it for the rest of your life.”

Read more at the Mining Gazette, by Stephen Anderson.

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Highlights of Psych 3001 Research

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Time GraphThe psychology undergraduates at Michigan Tech have published their research as Volume 1 of the Journal of Midwest Undergraduate Behavioral Research (JMUBR).

The research is the outcome of a two-semester series of upper-level courses (PSY 3000/3001 Experimental Methods and Statistics I and II) required for the Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology. The courses in 2012-13 were taught by Assistant Professor of Psychology Shane Mueller.

Research topics were selected by students during Fall 2012, which they saw through from initial concept, two rounds of experimentation (including IRB approval, data collection, and analysis), and final documentation. The educational goal it serves is to motivate the students to think beyond “school” projects, to gain experience doing research, and to write for an audience beyond their classroom.  Also, it allows their hard work to get broader exposure, potentially having an impact on the field and yielding concrete material on their vitae/resume for graduate schools and employers to view.

Some highlights from Volume 1 of JMUBR, which is edited by Shane Mueller.

* Two different projects examined the cognitive and personality factors of marijuana users, surveying hundreds of self-identified users, and finding little impact of frequency of use on impulsivity, short-term memory, reaction time, or executive function.

* Two research projects examined how real or perceived task difficulty interacted with personality factors. A third project examined whether physical stressors impacted the perceived or actual difficulty of cognitive tasks.

* Several groups examined very applied problems:

  • the utility of infographics over text (they don’t always make a difference)
  • whether eating before a test helps performance (no difference between healthy and unhealthy snacks, so go for the cookies);
  • why students skip classes (hint: they do it when attendance is not counted for their grade)
  • whether listening to music helps or hurts comprehension in comparison to environmental noise (it helps)
  • Priming effects on different interaction devices (turns out that touch screens are slower)

Take a look and see what they have accomplished.

The Use of Infographics to Increase Awareness of Student Debt
James N. Greydanus
Michigan Technological University
Department of Cognitive and Learning Sciences
Kristyna J. MacKinnon
Michigan Technological University
Department of Cognitive and Learning Sciences

The Influence of Positive and Negative Verbal Feedback on Task Productivity and Self-Evaluation
Rachel Franchock
Robert Damico
Michigan Technological University
Department of Cognitive and Learning Sciences
Houghton, MI 49931 USA

Assessing Reasons for College Students’ Attendance and Participation in Class
Victoria Hanus
Madeline Peabody
Department of Cognitive and Learning Sciences
Houghton, MI 49931 USA

Marijuana’s Effect on Reaction Time and Response Accuracy
Nick Gravlin
Department of Cognitive and Learning Sciences
Houghton, MI 49931 USA

Assessing the Effects of Physical Demands on Mental Performance
Rachael Huff
Elizabeth Nigro
Department of Cognitive and Learning Sciences
Houghton, MI 49931 USA

The Effects of Music and Environmental Noise on Reading Comprehension
Thomas Gemignani
Department of Cognitive and Learning Sciences
Houghton, MI 49931 USA

Failure Events and their Effect on the Stability of Personality Self-Assessments
William Lehman
Abbey Westphal
Department of Cognitive and Learning Sciences
Houghton, MI 49931 USA

The Effects of Eating Healthy and Unhealthy Food on Recognition Skills
Macy McDonnell
Michael Way
Department of Cognitive and Learning Sciences
Houghton, MI 49931 USA

Assessing Impulsive Personality traits and Short-term Memory Among Self-reported Marijuana Users
Alysa Cherubini
Department of Cognitive and Learning Sciences
Houghton, MI 49931 USA

The Effects of Attentional Cuing and Input Methods on Reaction Time in Human Computer Interaction
Brad Nelson
Michigan Technological University

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