MC faculty, students attend psychology research conference

by Tom Perry

Marietta, Ohio (04/13/2023) — Marietta College was well represented at the 69th annual Research Conference of the Southeastern Psychological Association (SEPA) as four Psychology professors and eight undergraduate and graduate students attended and presented at the conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, from April 5-8.

Founded in 1955, SEPA is the largest psychological organization in the southeast and one of the largest in the United States. The purpose of SEPA is to advance psychology as a science, as a profession, and as a means of promoting human welfare. Its mission is to stimulate the exchange of scientific and professional ideas across the diverse areas of psychological inquiry and application.

Making presentations from Marietta College were:

Alan Grove '23 (Gahanna, Ohio), a Psychology graduate student, delivered a research talk on "Essentialist Beliefs of Intimate Partner Violence." Dr. Mary Barnas, McCoy Professor of Psychology, is Grove's thesis advisor, and worked with him on this project. Grove will be collecting more data for this project and plans to defend his master's thesis in August 2023.
Tia Jarvis '23 (Marietta, Ohio), a senior BA/MA student, with Dr. Mark Sibicky, McCoy and Plankey Research Professor of Psychology, as faculty advisor and MAP graduate Alexis Elliott '22 as lead author, presented a poster titled "Predicting task persistence: Free will beliefs and other dispositional factors." The data presented were part of Elliott's master's research thesis project. The study is part of Sibicky's research program examining factors that influence free will beliefs and in turn, how free will beliefs affect behavior.
Madeline Kuhl '23 (Marietta, Ohio), a senior BA/MA student, presented a poster based on her Summer Investigative Studies Fellowship research study, and she was mentored by Dr. Alicia Doerflinger, Professor and Chair of Psychology. Kuhl's project examined whether anxiety and depression differentially affect attention to emotional face stimuli.
Olivia Dunlap '23 (Byesville, Ohio) and Dr. Charles Doan, Assistant Professor of Psychology, presented a poster titled "Comparing Unsupervised Learning and Eye-Tracking Metrics Between Adolescents and Adults." Dunlap is a senior BA/MA student and was a Summer Investigative Studies Fellow in 2022. She worked with Doan on her Fellowship project, and some of the data presented came from that work.
Makenzie Vandenbark '24 (Zanesville, Ohio), a junior Psychology student, Dunlap, and Doan also collaborated on a project called "Stimulus Factors Affecting Multidimensional Unsupervised Learning and Eye-Tracking Behavior." Doan delivered his research talk in one of the last sessions of the conference week.

The Kuhl/Doerflinger study and the Doan, Dunlap, and Vandenbark projects featured data obtained using the new eye-tracking equipment the Psychology Department purchased in the Spring of 2022. The eye tracker provides excellent research opportunities for Psychology and Neuroscience students to conduct independent research, Honors, and thesis projects.

Devin Baxter '24 (St. Marys, West Virginia), a MAP student and conference attendee, found a lot of value in the experience. He was able to develop a thesis project idea, secured a scale to use in his project, and explored research in his area of interest, Sport Psychology.

Cordell Stover '24 (Dover, Ohio), a MAP student and attendee, was able to network with Ph.D. programs so that when he finishes his master's degree at Marietta College, he can continue his studies. MAP student Betsy Wriston '24 (Marietta, Ohio) also attended the conference to gain professional experience and secure ideas for a future thesis project.

Wriston, Stover, Jarvis, and Baxter also helped Dr. Barnas in recruiting efforts for Marietta College's Master of Arts in Psychology.

Located in Marietta, Ohio, at the confluence of the Muskingum and Ohio rivers, Marietta College is a four-year liberal arts college. Tracing its roots to the Muskingum Academy back in 1797, the College was officially chartered in 1835. Today Marietta College serves a body of 1,200 full-time students. The College offers more than 50 majors and is consistently ranked as one of the top regional comprehensive colleges by U.S. News & World Report and The Princeton Review. Marietta was selected seventh in the nation according to the Brookings Institution's rankings of colleges by their highest value added, regardless of major.

###