Details on Psychology Research with Allison Lenz

Allison Lenz, 19, is one of three students working to conduct undergraduate research this semester with Dr. Lindsey Lilienthal of Penn State Altoona’s Psychology Department since 2015. They hope to discover a correlation between the rate of forgetfulness of individuals and the cognitive abilities those individuals possess. The study utilizes cognitive tests which determine the rate of forgetfulness and subsequent analysis of the data.

The students meet up to three times a week to conduct the study with sessions usually lasting an hour in order to get the most accurate results from participants. Lenz explained that each participant must complete various tasks so that the student researchers can measure their rate of forgetfulness. These include multitasking, clicking a mouse a designated amount of times, and memorizing specific colors, shapes, and numbers.

“I think this research study will help anyone – not just psychology majors. It’s fun to kind of see the memory loss range and you think to yourself, like, ‘Wow, could I even do that?’ I mean I would have never usually tried or even thought about this but it was a great and interesting opportunity,” said Lenz.

This is the second semester that this psychology study has been conducted here at our Altoona campus. Previously, the study was done on multiple students and the results were for the group as a whole, rather than an individual person’s results. This semester, the research was shifted to focus on the results of each unique participant to obtain data which could be studied in comparison to each other individual, producing clearer correlations, or the absence thereof.

The student researchers were selected from submitted applications and hired after an in-person interview with Dr. Lilienthal. The Professor sent an email about the positions within the study to all PSYCH100 students, and Lenz was one of the fortunate students to have applied and been accepted.

“I am majoring in biology, so it was tough for me to get chosen, but I told them that it was something I really wanted to do and… I got in!” said Lenz.

The three students will be presenting their findings at the Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities Fair on Saturday April 14 in the Misciagna Family Center. The presentations will be judged in four categories: knowledge of subject, content, presentation, and organization.

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