WCSU presents awards for student research projects
WestConn Research Day prizes honor studies in psychology, sciences and nursing
DANBURY, CONN. — Western Connecticut State University juniors Alexis Carrera, of Norwalk, and Jeanne Mello, of Danbury, have been named winners of the 2008 WestConn Research Day (WRD) Provost’s Grand Prize, recognizing exemplary achievement in student research and effective presentation of research findings.
The award was presented to Carrera and Mello at the closing WRD awards ceremony on May 8 in the Science Building on the university’s Midtown campus in Danbury. The Provost’s Prize, established in 2007 by WCSU Provost Dr. Linda Rinker, affords the opportunity for continuing students to make a research presentation at a professional meeting in their field.
The prize-winning project, titled “The Ability to Remember Irrelevant Words While Performing a Highly Involved Task,” was one of 44 student research presentations during the WRD seminar and poster sessions. The study offered conclusions from testing of two groups of students asked to remember a random series of words introduced while they performed tasks requiring different levels of mental engagement. The more highly involved task asked students to recall words while playing the video game “Guitar Hero II,” and results of this study group were compared against the recall rate of a second group that received words while watching the movie “The Matrix.”
In presenting the study’s conclusions during the WRD luncheon seminar session, Carrera noted that students playing the video game while hearing the recitation of 12 random words recalled fewer of these words than the group watching the film. In practical terms, he added, “when you see someone who is very involved in a task, don’t bother talking to them because they won’t remember what you say.” WestConn Associate Professor of Psychology Dr. Robin Flanagan served as research mentor for the project.
The WRD awards ceremony also featured presentation of prizes recognizing poster exhibitions of eight research studies in the fields of biology, chemistry, nursing and psychology, honoring a total of 11 WCSU students who planned and conducted these projects. WRD poster prize recipients included:
- Benjamin Woodhouse, of Plainville, and Arjumond Khan, of Stamford, for “Mouse Cell Behavior on Artificial Extracellular Matrices” (Professor of Biology and Environmental Sciences Dr. Frank Dye, research mentor).
- Chelsea Higgins, of Ridgefield, for “Engineering Cytochrome C Peroxidase into Dehaloperoxidase: Production, Purification and Analysis of the R88A CCP Mutant” (Assistant Professor of Chemistry Dr. Alycen Nigro, research mentor).
- Monica Perry, of Danbury, for “Relationship of Nurse-to-Patient Ratio, Length of Stay, and Nursing Burnout on Two Units” (Professor of Nursing Dr. Carol Avery, research mentor).
- Nancy Jacob, of Brewster, N.Y., for “Gender Differences in Presenting Symptoms and the Diagnosis and Treatment for Acute Cornary Syndrome” (Professor of Nursing Dr. Laurel Halloran, research mentor).
- Nuno Costa, of Danbury, for “Development of a New Synthetic Route for Heterocyclic Ring Systems Expected to Exhibt Anti-histaminic and Anti-fibrillatory Medicinal Properties” (Professor of Chemistry Dr. Paul Hines, research mentor).
- Anita Jayavikraman, of Danbury, for “Pyrazine Coordination Polymers of Group 12 Thiocyanates (Associate Professor of Chemistry Dr. Paula Secondo, research mentor).
- Heather Walsh, of New Milford, and Samantha Fennell, of New Fairfield, for “The Influence of Contextual Support on Definition of Homographs” (Associate Professor of Chemistry Dr. Robin Flanagan, research mentor).
- Adrienne Ostrove, of Danbury, and Sarah Decker, of Canaan, for “Effects of Context on Judgmentalism” (Flanagan, research mentor)
For more information, call Professor of Biology and Environmental Sciences Dr. Susan Maskel, co-chairperson of the WRD 2008 faculty organizing committee, at (203) 837-8799, or the Office of University Relations at (203) 837-8486.
