scholarships and
present findings
The Western Psychological Association awards only 15 scholarships each year. This year, four of those will go to San Diego State University students.
The SDSU Department of Psychology was informed last month that four of its students will get scholarships and have an opportunity to present their research at the WPA’s annual convention this weekend in Seattle.
This number of awards won by students at one university may be a record, Don Pannen, executive officer of the WPA, said.
“Usually we’re pleased if we can get one (scholarship) a year,” said Marilyn Borgess, an SDSU psychology professor.
It may also be a record that two of the scholarship recipients came from the same laboratory. Elizabeth Durham-Bigham and Tresa Roebuck both work under Edward Riley, another SDSU psychology professor.
Both are well-deserving of such an award, Riley said.
Julie Anderson was another scholarship recipient. She worked with Mark Bodnar, Patrick Huston, Samantha Kovacs, Carla Boone, Susan Wilson and Kandis Mutter on a presentation titled “Sex Differences in Adult Visual Recognition Memory.”
Jennifer Ritter worked with Greg Siegle and Rick E. Ingram to present “Depressive Factor Structure of Depression and Anxious Symptomatology.”
To qualify for an award, students must be the first authors and presenters of their research. They must also be registered students and members of the WPA.
Scholarship recipients are determined on the basis of a blind review of their work by the program review committee.
Durham-Bigham worked with Jennifer D. Thomas, Steve Weinert, Vincent Quinn and Riley on a project titled “One Day of Neonatal Alcohol Exposure Disrupts Behavioral and Brain Development in the Rat.”
“Elizabeth is an exuberant and enthusiastic person,” Riley said. “She has a constant barrage of ideas.”
Durham-Bigham’s experiment tested the effects of one day of alcohol exposure on a rat going through its growth spurt. Her conclusions were that its self-correcting procedure and motor control were impaired. The exposed rats also had significantly smaller brain development.
Roebuck handed out a questionnaire to parents of children who were exposed prenatally to alcohol. The questions related to social, behavioral and cognitive functions of the brain.
She concluded that the children who were exposed prenatally to alcohol had more problems than those who were not.
This is an interesting finding, Thomas said, because not all children who are exposed to alcohol show physical problems.
“That doesn’t mean they don’t have other problems,” she said. “These problems normally would go unnoticed and children wouldn’t get the same social services they should be getting. It’s more serious than people realize.”
