THE 18TH ANNUAL
PSYCHOLOGY
UNDERGRADUATE
RESEARCH
CONFERENCE
APRIL 1ST& 2ND, 2016
The Psychology Students’ Association of UBC
2015-2016
Table of Contents
Greeting-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2
Program Schedule------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3
Day 1 (Friday, April 1st)
Oral Presentation Descriptions---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4
Poster Presentation Descriptions-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------5
Day 2 (Saturday, April 2nd)
Oral Presentation Descriptions--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------10
Poster Presentation Descriptions------------------------------------------------------------------------------------13
Acknowledgements---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------19
1
Dear Presenters, Faculty, Alumni, Students, and Guests:
Welcome to the 18th Annual UBC Psychology Undergraduate Research Conference. This conference is
an important event for the psychological science community of UBC as it provides a professional environment
for undergraduate researchers to showcase their work, gain experience in presenting at conferences, and contribute
to the scientific community. The work that you will see in this conference is the culmination of the hard work and
dedication of these students in furthering our knowledge of the many areas of psychology.
This event would be impossible without the generous support of the UBC Psychology Department and
Graduate Students Council. We would like to thank Dr. Larry Walker and the department for their continued
support and partnership in hosting this conference. We would also like to thank Dr. Michael Souza, the faculty
advisor of the Psychology Students’ Association of UBC for offering us his time, energy and support in organizing
today’s event.
It has been a pleasure planning this enriching and interactive event. We hope that this conference will
contribute to the academic experience of those involved, and will inspire and enlighten everyone here today. We
wish you all the best in your future endeavors.
Sincerely,
Cindy Choi, Bowen Li, Mohit Sodhi, and Stephanie Yeh
PSA Academic Committee 2016
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Program Schedule
Day 1 (Friday, April 1st)
4:30-5:00: Registration in Earth Science Building (ESB) Atrium
5:00-5:30: Opening Keynote - Dr. Stanley Floresco (ESB 1012)
5:30-6:45: Oral Presentations (ESB 1013)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5:30-5:45: Tashya De Silva
5:50-6:05: Patricia Jiang
6:10-6:25: Michael Kuk, George Kachkovski, and Daniil Vasilyev
6:30-6:45: Cindy Choi
6:45-8:45: Poster Presentations & Dinner in ESB Atrium
Day 2 (Saturday, April 2nd)
9:30-10:00: Registration & Breakfast (ESB Atrium)
10:00-11:00: Poster Presentations (ESB 1012)
11:00-11:30: “How to Present Research” Workshop: Ben Cheung (ESB 1012)
11:30-1:30: Oral Presentations (ESB 1012)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
11:30-11:45: Rachel Tan
11:50-12:05: Brittany Hathaway
12:10-12:25: Austin Lee
12:30-12:45: Robin Richardson
12:50-1:05: Elizabeth Leong
1:10-1:25: Jason Proulx
1:30-2:00: Lunch (ESB Atrium)
2:00-4:30: Oral Presentations (ESB 1012)
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
2:00-2:15: Austin Rothwell
2:20-2:35: Suzanne Xu
2:40-2:55: Yuan Zhou
3:00-3:15: Yimiao Gong
3:20-3:35: Mahruz Parvand
3:40-3:55: Quentin Raffaelli
4:00-4:15: Ryan Villamin
4:20-4:35: Anita Schmalor
4:40-4:55: Andre Beukers
4:30-5:30: Poster Presentations (ESB Atrium)
5:30-6:00: Awards Ceremony for Best Presentations (ESB 1012)
6:00~: Mix and Mingle & Social (ESB Atrium)
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Day 1 (Friday, April 1st)
Oral Presentation Descriptions
In Order of Presentation
Presenter: Tashya De Silva (Clinical)
Supervisor: Lori Brotto
The relationship between sexual concordance and interoception in women with low sexual desire
One type of interoception, or the awareness of physiological states, is sexual concordance, defined by the association
between genital response and self-reported sexual arousal. The aim of the present study was to test this association between
interoception and sexual concordance in a clinical sample of women with Sexual Interest/Arousal Disorder (SIAD).
Presenter: Patricia Jiang (Clinical)
Supervisor: Kirstie Kellman-McFarlane
Investigating the Relationship between Hoarding and Self-Motivation
The current study seeks to investigate the relationship between difficulty discarding possessions and self-regulation
tendencies in hoarders. Specifically, we will investigate self-regulation by the extent to which hoarding behaviour is related
to an affinity towards the action-orientation approach, or a state-orientation approach when intending to execute a goal.
Presenter: Michael Kuk, Co-presenters: George Kachkovski, Daniil Vasilyev (Cognitive)
Supervisor: Alan Kingstone
Breaking Rules in Film Editing: Violating the 180 Rule Does Not Cause Confusion
The present study assess the 180 rule, a widespread and important rule of thumb within the filmmaking community.
Violations of the rule allegedly leads to cuts that cause disorientation and confusion in viewers. To date, the rule has not
been thoroughly assessed.
Presenter: Cindy Choi (Clinical)
Supervisor: Lynn Alden
Investigating factors leading to natural remission for Social Anxiety and Depression
Current literature suggests that up to 80% of the individuals suffering from Social Anxiety and or Depression naturally remit
within 2 year period without receiving any form of treatment. The study investigates various cognitive and behavioural
factors that people may use to reduce their symptoms.
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Poster Presentation Descriptions
In Alphabetical Order (Grouped by Subdisciplines of Psychology)
Presenter: George Kachkovski (Behavioural neuroscience)
Supervisor: Kiran Soma
Transgenerational Effects of a Maternal High-Sucrose Diet
The study looks out how the eating habits of a mother during pregnancy can impact the metabolic health of her offspring.
Specifically, we are interested in exploring how the mother’s diet can influence the offspring’s dietary preferences, and how
that may be related to the brain’s reward circuit.
Presenter: Katie Cullen (Clinical)
Supervisor: Paul Hewitt
Endorsement of rape myths is predicted by attachment style, perfectionism, and hostile sexism
This study investigates whether male and female university student’s endorsement of victim-blaming and perpetratorexcusing rape myths is related to their underlying interpersonal beliefs. The support or negativity of peers can predict
outcomes for sexual assault survivors, and as such it is important to understand how these attitudes may be influenced.
Presenter: Chris De Groot (Clinical)
Supervisor: Paul Hewitt
Perfectionistic self-promotion predicts worse outcome in group therapy
Our study investigated the influence of perfectionism on group therapy and therapeutic outcomes. Many aspects of
perfectionism have been linked with various psychopathologies. Our study researched how perfectionism predicts worse
therapeutic outcomes and other important variables of interest in the context of group psychotherapy.
Presenter: Alun Grunderson (Clinical)
Supervisor: David Klonsky
Emotional Reactivity in Non-Suicidal Self-Injury and the Effect of Emotional Writing
I will be presenting on my findings on the relationship between emotional reactivity and lifetime history of non-suicidal
self-injury (NSSI). My research also investigates the effect of emotional writing on individuals with lifetime history of NSSI
as compared with those without lifetime history of NSSI.
Presenter: Mikayla Pachkowski (Clinical)
Supervisor: Amori Mikami
Emotion Regulation in Children with ADHD
My poster investigates the contributions of emotion regulation abilities on social functioning in school-aged children both
with and without ADHD.
Presenter: Joseph Rootman (Clinical)
Supervisor: Boris Gorzalka
Implicit and explicit attitudes towards interracial romantic relationships
The Implicit Association Test was used to examine implicit attitudes towards interracial couples. Implicit attitudes and
explicit attitudes towards interracial couples correlated for some racial groups. Additionally, implicit attitudes towards
interracial couples were more or less positive than implicit attitudes towards solo members of the group, depending on race.
Presenter: Arash Ghanbarzehie (Cognitive)
Supervisor: Todd Handy
Examining the Impact of Physical Activity and Sleep on Sustained Attention
The present study investigates the relationship between physical activity intensity and performance on a sustained attention
task. Cognitive performance was measured using the Sustained Attention to Response (SART) task and self-reported
physical activity/exercise, over the past seven days, was assessed using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire
(IPAQ). Results show that moderate intensity physical activity is predictive of sustained attention and is most noticeable
after poor sleep. High intensity physical activity, with high quality of sleep, shows benefits to sustained attention over poor
sleep.
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Presenter: Kyle Gooderham (Cognitive)
Supervisor: Todd Handy
Lifestyle and cognition: The relationship between sleep, exercise, and exam performance
In the present study we examined the effects of lifestyle changes on acute cognitive functioning. Specifically, we
investigated the impact of lifestyle factors on a real world cognitive task. Our findings suggest that lifestyle factors have
important determining effects on cognitive performance.
Presenter: Patricia Herrera (Cognitive)
Supervisor: Rebecca Todd
What’s on First: The Effect of Self Relevance on Temporal Order Judgement
We investigated whether self-owned objects (relative to other-owned objects) engage an attentional set, similar to how
emotionally relevant stimuli (e.g., angry faces) do. We predicted participants would perceive a self-owned object as
appearing first when presented simultaneously with an other-owned object in a temporal order judgment task.
Presenter: Fouziah Khairati (Cognitive)
Supervisor: Sophie Lanthier
A point to remember: Effects of Referential Cues on Memory
Participants tested in pairs remember words best when they are spoken by an experimenter who points at them. Word
recognition is also worse than baseline when the experimenter points at the other participant. Our findings demonstrate that
pointing generates memory effects similar to those elicited by eye gaze in previous work.
Presenter: Emilie Ptak (Cognitive)
Supervisor: Rebecca Todd
Political polarization in attention to information about climate change
Attentional Blink (AB) is a phenomenon in which a second target cannot be perceived because it appears rapidly after the
first target. This study asked whether individuals concerned about climate change would attend more to climate-related
information, using an AB task.
Presenter: Natalie Wong (Cognitive)
Supervisor: Alan Kingstone
Primed cooperative or competitive relationships in influencing peripersonal space perception and navigation
This poster will outline the effects being in a cooperative or competitive social relationship will have on one’s peripersonal
space (PPS) representation and subsequently planned actions. Preliminary findings show that there is no significant effect
of relationship context on PPS navigation in shared space.
Presenters: Marisa Chan; Jee Eun Kim; Zhao Kang Catherine Li; Chris Pryde; Donald Qiu; Ashley Raposo-Hadley
(Cognitive)
Supervisor: Catherine Rawn [PSYC217]
The Influence of Time on Moral Decision-making
The dual-process moral decision model proposed by Greene et al. (2004) describes how people choose utilitarian or
deontological decisions in morally ambiguous situations. We fill a gap in the literature by manipulating the time as the
independent variable to see if it influences the type of moral decision participants made.
Presenters: Maira Brondizio; Jing Cai Fang Tan; Young Eun Um; Xian Yang (Cognitive)
Supervisor: Catherine Rawn [PSYC217]
The Stereotypes About Mental Illness and Its Perceived Competence
Our study found that there was no significant difference between the perceived competence of those with a mental illness
versus those with a physical illness, suggesting that we should rethink the ways in which mental illness stigma manifests.
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Presenter: Kyle Dadgar (Developmental)
Supervisor: Geoffrey Hall
Judging the Persistence of Individual Animals and Artifacts
My research and poster explores the topic of how children and adults track individual identities throughout change (i.e.,
transformations). For example, do children and adults think that a caterpillar named “Annie” is the same individual, if she
metamorphoses into a caterpillar?
Presenter: Farris Kassam Co-presenter: Hadi Rezaei (Health)
Supervisor: Tricia Tang
The Burden of Coping with Diabetes and Depression in the South Asian Community
My poster presentation will provide an analysis on the results of my study that looks at diabetes and depression. In addition,
I will provide an explanation on the various support mechanisms available to patients with diabetes.
Presenter: Hanne Collins (Social)
Supervisor: Frances Chen
The Scent of Social Support
I will present research investigating the role of scent in the stress buffering effect of social support. More specifically, this
research investigates whether or not the scent of a loved one can communicate social support and reduce an individual's
stress response even when they are not physically present.
Presenter: Catherine Coopersmith (Social)
Supervisor: Frances Chen
Social Anxiety Reframing Strategies
This study will test the hypothesis that participants instructed to reframe their physiological social anxiety symptoms as
excitement will perform better and feel less anxious during a lab-based social interaction with a stranger. We also
hypothesize that the effectiveness of this intervention will be correlated with reduced perceived visibility of these
participants’ own physiological anxiety symptoms.
Presenter: David Goosenburg (Social)
Supervisor: Ashley Whillans
Partners In Time - Time Perception, Punctuality, and Relationship Satisfaction
The main purpose of this study was to assess the association between partner discrepancies of objective time perception and
relationship satisfaction. We also examined the associations between partner discrepancies of perceived importance of
punctuality and relationship satisfaction. This was an exploratory study conducted using correlational methods.
Presenter: Kiki Jang (Social)
Supervisor: Ashley Whillans
Is Outsourcing Related to Happiness, and for Whom Is the Relationship the Strongest?
This study proposes that outsourcing is related to greater happiness, and that the correlation between outsourcing and
happiness is the most positive in middle-aged adults.
Presenter: Garricia Lee (Social)
Supervisor: Steven Heine
Positive Effects of Making People Feel Meaningless: Meaning Threats & Temporarily Increased Working Memory
The Meaning Maintenance Model posits that people have a need for meaning and that any violation of schemas (termed
‘meaning threats’) leads to a state of meaninglessness—a subconscious, unpleasant experience that prompts cognitive
compensatory strategies to re-establish a sense of meaning. The present study represents a departure from previous research
by investigating positive cognitive effects following meaning threats. This study examines the effects of meaning threats on
working memory capacity measured via a backwards digit span task. Preliminary results comparing working memory
capacity between all conditions suggest that following a meaning threat, participants did not show evidence of a significant
increase in working memory capacity.
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Presenter: Iris Lok (Social)
Supervisor: Frances Chen
The Role of Social Self-Efficacy in Belonging
My poster will examine whether social self-efficacy is related to one’s sense of belonging and the number of interactions
individuals engage in with familiar and unfamiliar peers. Findings will be discussed in terms of their implications on
designing interventions that promote social integration.
Presenter: Giping Tomczyk (Social)
Supervisor: Frances Chen
The Effect of an Oppositional Mindset on Negotiation Outcomes
The poster will present the results and effects of an oppositional mindset on negotiation outcomes. Specifically, we looked
at the objective numerical outcomes of negotiation, and how an oppositional mindset helps or hinders value claiming and
value creation.
Presenter: Emma Ward-Griffin (Social)
Supervisor: Frances Chen
Subjective Outcomes of Negotiations
The Negotiation Study involves the manipulation of mindsets to see how they influence the subjective outcomes
(satisfaction, fairness, etc.) of negotiations. Specifically, this involves the impact of the 'oppositional' mindset and how that
impacts SVI (Subjective Value Inventory) scores.
Presenter: Spencer Williams (Social)
Supervisor: Steven Heine
Status Perceptions of Men in Contexts of Physical Strength
The present study examined whether contexts that favor physical strength give men a social advantage, testing the hypothesis
that men in a mixed-gender group will be perceived as having higher status than the women in the group in situations that
emphasize physical strength.
Presenter: Brandon Woo (Social)
Supervisor: Mark Schaller
The Effect of the Eyes on Eliciting Caring Responses
I investigated how the eyes of infantile beings facilitate caring responses. I manipulated whether puppy and baby stimuli
had visible eyes; participants answered questionnaires about these stimuli. I found that participants rated baby stimuli as
being cuter if the eyes were visible than if they were occluded.
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Day 2 (Saturday, April 2nd)
Oral Presentation Descriptions
In Order of Presentation
11:30-1:30
Presenter: Rachel Tan (Cognitive)
Supervisor: Rob Whitwell
The Henslin effect in action
Gambling related cognitive distortions play a key role in developing, promoting and maintaining problem gambling
behaviors in susceptible individuals. According to Henslin, a sociologist, crap players tend to roll 'harder' for a larger number
and 'softer' for a smaller number. In this study, we will examine players hand movements during a dice rolling activity to
directly measure the Henslin Effect.
Presenter: Brittany Hathaway (Behavioural neuroscience)
Supervisor: Rebecca Todd
The Effects of the ADRA2B Gene Deletion Variant and Physiological Arousal on Emotional Learning
Previous research has indicated that a deletion variant of the ADRA2B gene is associated with enhanced perception of
emotional stimuli. However, it is currently unknown whether the ADRA2B gene plays a role in emotional learning. This
talk will present research on differences in emotional learning between deletion carriers and noncarriers.
Presenter: Austin Lee (Social)
Supervisor: Danielle van Jaarsveld & Michael Daniels
Free to Fight and Feeling Fine: Interactions of Job Autonomy and Customer Mistreatment in Parking Officers
Increasing employee autonomy has long been known to buffer against the harmful effects of job demands on employee
health. But can workers have too much freedom? Austin Lee discusses how high job autonomy in mistreated parking
enforcement officers can lead to both productive and counterproductive work outcomes.
Presenter: Robin Richardson (Behavioural neuroscience)
Supervisor: Liisa Galea
Using a Rodent Model of Postpartum Depression to Examine Paroxetine Efficacy
This study examined the efficacy of the SSRI paroxetine using a rodent model of postpartum depression. Animals were
assigned to receive daily postpartum injections of corticosterone or vehicle (to induce a depressive phenotype), and
concurrent paroxetine or vehicle. Behavioural tests were used to assess depressive-like and anxiety-like behaviour.
Presenter: Elizabeth Leong (Clinical)
Supervisor: Charlotte Johnston
Associations between Anxiety and Social Maladjustment: Testing the Mediating Role of Hostile Attribution Bias
This presentation will discuss predictors of poor social functioning in childhood. Specifically, it will discuss anxiety and
the hostile attribution bias as predictors of poor social functioning and the implications of these associations.
Presenter: Jason Proulx (Social)
Supervisor: Elizabeth Dunn
Waiting to Connect: Accessing Smartphones During Casual Social Interactions Compromises Well-being
In this talk I will present preliminary experimental evidence demonstrating that accessing our smartphones during in-person
casual social interactions can have negative consequences on our emotional well-being: compromising our sense of
relatedness and lowering our mood.
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2:00-4:30
Presenter: Austin Rothwell (Cognitive)
Supervisor: James Enns
Gaze-contingent Versus Traditional Versions of the Implicit Association Test
The Implicit Association Test (Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998) measures the strength of association between
concepts, utilizing response-time instead of introspection. Despite its prevalence, a gaze-contingent implementation of the
Implicit Association Test has yet to be investigated. Though similar across psychometric properties, the gaze-contingent
version produces irregular implicit bias estimates.
Presenter: Suzanne Xu (Social)
Supervisor: Elizabeth Dunn
Well-Being Benefits of Buying Time
We examine whether adults across the United States derive more happiness from using money to buy extra time for
themselves, rather than material goods. This study explores whether, when, and how outsourcing tedious tasks benefits
individuals – by allowing people to spend their time in ways that more closely align with their values.
Presenter: Yuan Zhou (Clinical)
Supervisor: Paul Hewitt
Perfectionism and its influence on therapist’s ratings of the patients
This study provides empirical evidence of the components of patents’ perfectionism that negatively influence therapists’
judgments. It has implication for development of therapeutic alliance which can influence psychotherapy outcomes.
Presenter: Yimiao Gong (Cognitive)
Supervisor: Jiaying Zhao
Attention Capture under Financial Scarcity
We studied how individual's attention will be affected by poverty under financial scarcity.
Presenter: Mahruz Parvand (Behavioural neuroscience)
Supervisor: Catharine Rankin
Behavioral Analysis of Chemosensory Dysfunction in Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) with Mutations in
Presenilin 1, an Alzheimer's Disease Related Gene
Cases of familial Alzheimer’s disease (FAD) are linked to mutations of the presenilin (PS) genes. These genes are
homologous with sel-12 genes in Caenorhabditis elegans (C.elegans), a transparent roundworm. Many AD patients have
olfactory deficits. We conducted chemotaxis experiments on worms with a mutation in sel-12.
Presenter: Quentin Raffaelli (Cognitive)
Supervisor: Rebecca Todd
“ : + ” = “ : )”: Arbitrarily assigned emotions are processed just like any other emotions
We hypothesized there would be no deficit in emotional processing for cartoon faces with arbitrarily assigned meaning
compared to cartoon faces with real-world resemblance. Under EEG, participants categorized both types of stimuli before
and after they learned to associate an arbitrarily assigned emotion to meaning free faces.
Presenter: Ryan Villamin (Social)
Supervisor: Toni Schmader
Changing Gender Norms: Male Nurses
Previous research on social norms suggests that changing men’s behaviours may change norms about male nurses. Male
undergraduates were randomly assigned to read a graph that portrayed men entering nursing either rapidly or slowly. Results
showed that participants believed the graphs portrayed the actual norm of men entering nursing.
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Presenter: Anita Schmalor (Social)
Supervisor: Steven Heine
Does Genetic Essentialism Increase Prejudice?
My talk is on genetic essentialism. Genetic essentialism is a bias towards understanding human traits as determined by
genes. My research is aimed at investigating whether manipulating how genetically similar or different people perceive
others from different ethnic backgrounds to be, influences their stereotypic thinking and prejudice toward them.
Presenter: Andre Beukers (Behavioural neuroscience)
Supervisor: Kurt Haas
Neurodebugging
I present an exploratory study that uses artificial neural networks to models single cell dendritic calcium flux during a visual
learning paradigm.
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Poster Presentation Descriptions
In Alphabetical Order (Grouped by Subdisciplines of Psychology)
Presenter: Joey Manaligod (Behavioural neuroscience)
Supervisor: Rebecca Todd
Influence of Genetics on Affectively Biased Attention
The deletion variant of gene ADRA2b is associated with increased norepinephrine, which modulates attention to
emotionally salient stimuli. Using genotyping and electrophysiology (EEG), the present study investigated the influence of
norepinephrine on cortical activation underlying affectively biased attention.
Presenter: Mathew Wilkins (Behavioural neuroscience)
Supervisor: Stanley Floresco
Role of Nucleus Accumbens in Approach/Avoidance-Based Conflict
A presentation that outlines the role of the nucleus accumbens in approach and avoidance behaviour. The experiment
involved rats that were given infusions that inactivated the core and shell regions of the accumbens. Their behaviour was
observed during a modified conflict task consisting of reward, conflict, and time-out components.
Presenter: Michelle Zhang (Behavioural neuroscience)
Supervisor: Rebecca Todd
The effect of stress on emotional learning: the role of appositive conditioning
Pavlovian conditioning is essential for habit formation, including maladaptive behaviors such as addictions. Past research
has focused on aversive conditioning, but little is known about appetitive conditioning. Combining physiological measures
(heart rate, blood pressure, cortisol samples), we examined the effect of acute stress on appetitive conditioning using a
between-subject design.
Presenter: Ariel Ko (Clinical)
Supervisor: Paul Hewitt
Impression Formation and Interpersonal Judgments of Perfectionists
By using a semi-structured social interaction, we examined the effects of perfectionism on impression formation and social
connectedness. This study has important implications in identifying the interpersonal mechanisms that might prevent
perfectionistic individuals from initiating and establishing healthy, emotionally fulfilling relationships.
Presenter: Ashley Clark (Clinical)
Supervisor: Shaila Misri
Mindfulness-Based Interventions for Postpartum Anxiety and Depressive Disorders
This research investigates the efficacy of an eight-week Mindfulness-Based Intervention as adjunctive therapy for
postpartum depression and anxiety in women who have not achieved symptom remission with pharmacotherapy.
Preliminary results indicate that women report a reduction in depression and anxiety symptoms; however only the decline
in depression reached statistical significance.
Presenter: Elnaz Bondar (Cognitive)
Supervisor: Peter Graf
The valence of pictures is influenced by the context valence in which they occur
Participants rated the valence of pictures displayed either in the context of positively or negatively valence pictures. The
results showed that negative target pictures, for example, were rated as more negative when presented in the context of
negative compared to neutral or positive pictures.
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Presenter: Kyla Brophy (Cognitive)
Supervisor: Grace Truong
Assessing the role of self-relevance in triggering implicit attention
This ERP study investigates whether objects trigger greater implicit attention when they are self-relevant. EEG data was
collected while participants completed an object detection task, and was analyzed to compare brainwaves associated with
objects in self-relevant and non-self-relevant categories. Results indicate that self-relevance plays a role in triggering
attention.
Presenter: Maryam Osman, Co-presenter: Ayeesha Bhatara (Cognitive)
Supervisor: Peter Graf
Do Surprise Quizzes Impair Memory?
Our poster aims to determine the external validity of existing research pertaining to retrieval induced forgetting. Previous
research has determined that the phenomenon exists in the laboratory setting but there is little research on how plausible
this phenomenon is outside of a laboratory setting, such as the university classroom.
Presenter: Tzu-Han Cheng (Cognitive)
Supervisor: Rebecca Todd
Cortical oscillations underlying working memory for ordered groups
The goal of the study is to test a much-cited theory of phase-coupling in visual short-term memory. In this EEG study, we
analyzed the difference in peak frequencies between two conditions, including different sizes of sub-group, to clarify how
the brain organizes items into ordered groups.
Presenter: Zhaitian Lu (Cognitive)
Supervisor: Peter Graf
Affect Infection: The Bland and the Beautiful
We want to find out how people respond to valence stimuli (attractive, negative or neutral) depending on whether they
appear in the same context or in a different context. We expected to find increased valence ratings for positive and negative
pictures as compared to neutral pictures, particularly if pictures were presented in a different context.
Presenter: Ryosuke Takamatsu (Cognitive)
Supervisor: Rebecca Todd
Effect of affective salience on temporal resolution judgement
The affective salience of a stimulus influences our temporal duration and resolution judgement. This study replicated
previous findings which showed that participants rated animated negative stimuli as least smooth and positive stimuli as
smoothest. Our EEG results demonstrated that these behavioural results are unlikely to be due to demand characteristics.
Presenter: Oren Princz-Lebel (Cognitive)
Supervisor: Sophie Lanthier
A better way to make your point: Pointing, not eye gaze, benefits verbal memory in men
Eye gaze benefits verbal memory for females, but not males. We manipulated a different social cue (i.e., pointing) to learn
whether any referential cue could elicit memory effects, or only gaze. Recognition was better for words previously spoken
while the experimenter pointed at male participants than when they did not.
Presenter: Mahtab Borhani, Co-presenter: Andrew McDonald (Cognitive)
Supervisor: Ronald Rensink
Uncovering the Unconscious with Ouija Boards: a Platform for Understanding Semantic Implicit Memory
Traditionally, implicit and explicit memory are correlated with familiarity versus recollection, respectively. This research
aims to study the recollection of semantic long-term implicit memories as they are expressed via ideomotor actions-which
are actions that arise as an expression of a nonconscious thought-using the Ouija board as a platform.
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Presenter: James Wong (Cognitive)
Supervisor: Grace Truong
Subjective Judgments and Perceptions
Given a list of objects, participants rated on how much they (or a friend/acquaintance) liked each object, and then estimated
the time elapsed. We predict that people who think about themselves will give a different time estimate than people who
think about their friends/acquaintances, possibly due to differential ease.
Presenter: Clement Choi (Developmental)
Supervisor: Andrew Baron
Changing Implicit Math-Gender Stereotypes in Children
Previous studies have indicated that children have implicit math-gender stereotypes, associating boys with math more than
girls. Based on a previously shown link between stereotypes and self-concept, the current research investigates change in
implicit math-gender stereotype in children and its effect on their implicit math self-concept.
Presenter: Jessica Lai (Developmental)
Supervisor: Andrew Baron
Understanding of social dominance relationships and selective learning in young children
This study investigates whether 3-4 year olds take into account cues of social dominance when deciding who to learn from.
More specifically, we are interested in whether children are more likely to endorse a label for a novel object provided a
dominant individual, compared to a subordinate individual.
Presenter: Julie Oh (Developmental)
Supervisor: Andrew Baron
Early Emergence of Gender Stereotypes about School and Math in Childhood
The present study sought to investigate how academic gender stereotypes influence children’s academic pursuits in early
elementary school. We found that girls who associated their own gender less with math performed worse on a math task,
suggesting that implicit math-gender stereotypes impact girls’ math performance as early as age 5.
Presenter: Dominique Salh (Developmental)
Supervisor: Amori Mikami
Adult Relationship Quality with Children with ADHD and Their Self Perceptions
My poster will explore the positive illusory bias, which subtracts children's self-perceptions about their social and
behavioural competency, from the parent's or teacher's perceptions of the child. It will use correlative data to elaborate on
relationships between the expressions of positive illusory bias in children, with adult-child relationship quality.
Presenter: Pik Yee (Emily) Siu (Developmental)
Supervisor: Christiane A. Hoppmann
How Does Technology Affect Older Adults’ Psychological Wellbeing?
In the present research, we investigated the relationship between technology use and older adults’ psychological wellbeing.
We hypothesized that hours of portable electronic device (iPad mini) use, and proportion of social (as opposed to non-social)
application use, would be positively associated with increases in older adults’ psychological wellbeing over a 6-month
period. We found that perceived helpfulness of social applications was associated with increases in autonomy and
environmental mastery, but surprisingly, it was associated with decreases in self-acceptance. We explore older adults’
physical health conditions and activity levels, which might help explain these associations.
Presenter: Lal Koyuncu (Developmental)
Supervisor: Janet Werker
Infants' Use of Non-Linguistic Cultural Cues on Language Processing
Can bilingual infants use non-linguistic cues, like culture and faces, to help them discriminate speech sounds in their two
languages? We examined whether or not bilingual infants are more sensitive to the influence of culture on their language
acquisition, compared to monolingual infants, using a looking time paradigm.
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Presenter: Marisa Gagne (Developmental)
Supervisor: Susan Birch
Novelty as a Marker for Creative Expertise
My poster presents an experimental study investigating selective social learning in children aged 3-6. Specifically, whether
and how children use uniqueness as a cue to preferentially endorse information presented by one of two figures, when they
present factual information (facts) or creative information (stories).
Presenter: Haiyun Liang (Health)
Supervisor: Ashley Whillans
Does volunteering buffer against sleep-related stress?
My poster will talk about whether volunteering may serve as a buffer against the stress associated with poor sleep quality.
We think that volunteering would buffer the sleep-related physiological stress by minimizing the level of increase in salivary
cortisol that could be caused by poor sleep.
Presenter: Ava Tabatabaian (Health)
Supervisor: Aaron Weidman
Implications of shame and guilt for alcohol use
What is the role of shame and guilt in alcoholism? Recovering alcoholics (N=105) reported more shame and guilt after a
prior drink than at baseline; however, this reactivity predicted lower likelihood of relapse 3-6 months later (N=46),
suggesting that shame and guilt may not always lead to detrimental alcohol use.
Presenter: Hui Xiang Chia (Social)
Supervisor: Catherine Rawn
What sort of climate change photographs are compelling to social media users?
This study compares climate change photographs on Instagram to see what kinds of photos get more likes. Posts are
categorized into 5 categories: nature, human, animal, human + animal, text/infographic. This sheds light on what kinds of
climate change stories are more compelling to us.
Presenter: Sally Hope (Social)
Supervisor: Michael Souza
Assessing Student Engagement: A Comparative Study between International and Domestic Students
This is a comparative study examining differences in the level of engagement between international and domestic students.
Engagement was assessed in a wide range of areas of student life. Lower levels of engagement in international students
would indicate a greater need for and potential benefit from the Student Engagement Program.
Presenter: Hayami Lou (Social)
Supervisor: Mark Schaller
The effects of the parental care mindset on moral judgements
The parental care motivational state is a risk averse mindset that in previous research has been shown to be activated when
parents think about their own children. Since social norms provide protection against various types of harm, a parental care
mindset may lead to exaggerated negative reactions toward people who violate social norms. The research reported here
examines how the parental care motivation influences moral judgments of social norm violations. Results indicate that that
the parental care mindset influences the way in which we form moral judgements of others, and that this parental care system
can be activated in non-parents, as well as parents.
Presenter: Lauren Wylie (Social)
Supervisor: Michael Souza
Comparing Engagement Profiles of True Freshman and Transfer Students
The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between transfer student status and student engagement among a cohort
of 162 psychology majors at UBC. Differences in feelings of engagement, community, and belonging were examined
through survey responses utilizing validated measures from the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE).
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Acknowledgements
Thank You!
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