School of Psychology Undergraduate Research Option Theses
The Research Option offers students majoring in psychology the opportunity for a substantial, in-depth research experience. Students are strongly encouraged at the end of their experience to work with their faculty mentor to develop a journal publication or conference presentation on the research in addition to the actual thesis.
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Recent Submissions
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Relating Neural Mechanisms for Learning to Instructional Techniques in Online Learning Environments
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2022-05)The virtual learning experience is fundamentally different from the traditional classroom because of the challenges of maintaining learners’ attention amid distractions in their environment. This study aims to study how ... -
The Effect of GABAergic Neuron Ablation on Seizure Frequency and Sleep Cycle Disruption in Mice
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021-05)Epilepsy is a common neurological condition, prevalent in about 3.8% of people in the U.S. and increasing exponentially, making it a key area of research (England et al, 2012). The primary goal of this research study is ... -
Clinical Indicators that Predict Motor Recovery Post-Stroke
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021-05)One of the leading causes of long-term disability in adults is stroke. Stroke occurs due to disruptions in the blood supply in the brain resulting from a blockage or bleed. These disruptions can lead to impaired upper ... -
Effects of Natural Interaction on Burnout and Well-being in Working Students
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021-05)Burnout research supports a negative impact on working people’s psychological and physiological health, and it typically manifests from prolonged work strain. There is growing research supporting interacting with natural ... -
The Role of Sleep Spindles and Theta Rhythms in Associative Memory Consolidation of Healthy Young Adults
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021-12)The purpose of this study was to examine sleep EEG in healthy young adults ages 18-25 years old. The Dreem2 wearable device was used to collect data. -
A Study Exploring the Relationship Between Racial Discrimination, Depression, Anxiety, and Stress on Sleep Quality
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021-12)Prior studies have shown that discrimination experiences have a positive association on adults' symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress as well as on their sleep patterns. Symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress ... -
The Role Gender Plays in Spatial Navigation and Recall Ability
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021-05)Memory recall in order to complete certain tasks such as spatial navigation, and, in turn prospective planning, is largely necessary for day-to-day activities which require travel. Due to various factors, females and males, ... -
Minority Stress, Sleep Quality, and Episodic Memory Performance in LGBTQ+ Adults
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021-05)The main goal of this study was to investigate the impact of minority stress on the sleep quality and episodic memory performance of LGBTQ+ adults. This was done by collecting data from 70 participants (n = 39 LGBTQ+; n = ... -
The neurological effects of subgoal-based learning
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021-05)The inclusion of subgoals in instructional materials has been shown to help learners be more successful solving novel problems. However, there are no studies on the neurological effects of this learning methodology. Cognition ... -
Gamma-frequency entrainment using audiovisual 40 Hz flicker
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021-05)Neural oscillations, or brain waves, are endogenous rhythms of synchronized electrical activity that are the result of communication between large groups of cortical and/or subcortical neurons. Using entrainment methodologies, ... -
The role of attention control in mediating the relationship between Hick reaction time slopes and intelligence
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021-05)In 1993, psychologists found that the Hick Task, a commonly used task to explore the relationship between speed of information processing (SOIP) and reaction times, may have results due to attentional breadth confounds ... -
Sex-related Differences in Aging and Metamemory
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021-05)Metamemory, knowledge of one’s memory capabilities, is an important measure for learning and cognitive functioning in addition to having clinical relevance, such as being used as a diagnostic tool in cognitive diseases. ... -
Sex-related differences in resolving proactive interference during associative memory tasks
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021-05)Prior studies have shown that males and females perform differently on a variety of memory tasks. It is suggested that certain biological factors can lead to sex-related differences in cognitive decline, memory, and learning. ... -
Investigating the experimental contexts in which people with high confidence have high accuracy
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021-05)Metacognitive ability describes one’s ability to discern the accuracy of one’s previous decisions by attributing high confidence values to correct decisions and low values for incorrect decisions. This study aimed to ... -
AN ERP STUDY OF THE NEURAL CORRELATES UNDERLYING HYPOTHESIS GENERATION AND WORKING MEMORY
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020-05)Hypothesis generation is the process by which individuals formulate explanations for data found in their environment and evaluating the accuracy of each hypothesis generated is known as a probability judgement. Previous ... -
Characteristic Neural Firing Profiles in Different Hippocampal Subfields for Successful and Unsuccessful Memory
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020-05)Memory is our ability to encode, store, retrain, and subsequently recall information and past experiences. Different areas of the brain are responsible for different aspects of memory, including the hippocampus which enables ... -
Broad Effects of Arousal on Quasi-Periodic Patterns of Brain Activity
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020-12)Quasi Periodic Patterns (QPPs) are recurring patterns of brain activity found in brain imaging data that last approximately 20 seconds and occur at no regular interval. In this experiment, researchers aim to establish a ... -
Representing the Effect of Multiple Alternatives and Information Strength on Confidence in Perceptual Decision Tasks
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020-12)Confidence in perceptual decisions is a baseline for quantitatively measuring metacognitive processes in psychology. Most researchers limit the stimulus to two choices, assuming that the mental process summarizes the likely ... -
Influence of Social Intention on Switch Cost in Task-Switching Paradigms
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020-12)Humans have built a society based upon elaborate social interactions. We have processes that enable us to interact with each other and switch between tasks. Humans often multitask especially in a social context, such as ... -
Brain mechanisms for the cognitive effects of dual task interference
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020-08)Our ability to multitask has been found to have critical limitations primarily due to the restricted available attentional resources. Although many studies have explored the phenomena of processing bottleneck using serial ...
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