62021 research outputs found
Sort by
Consumers Exhibit Disposal Bias in Product Sustainability Judgments
Full text linkRecent research suggests that when it comes to managing solid waste, consumers believe that recycling is a more effective approach than reducing consumption. Building on this work, the present studies explore the underlying perceptions that contribute to this phenomenon: the disposal bias. In five studies (total N=1,875) I investigate whether consumers: 1) consider production or disposal impacts more in everyday purchasing decisions; 2) feel more responsible for environmental impacts when choosing vs. disposing of products; and 3) rate a product’s sustainability differently based on its production vs. disposal attributes. Studies 1-3 used online surveys to measure participants’ cognitive accessibility of water use, land use, energy use, and greenhouse gas emissions impacts caused by disposal vs. production. Study 4, an in-person lab experiment, measured participants’ ascribed responsibility for the environmental impacts of a product at disposal vs. product choice. Study 5, an online survey, measured participants’ ratings of the overall sustainability of products with differing sustainability attributes at the production and disposal stage. I find that disposal impacts are significantly more cognitively accessible compared to production impacts. Also, ascribed responsibility is significantly higher for disposal impacts compared to production impacts. Additionally, people rate products as significantly more sustainable if disposed of sustainability and produced unsustainably, compared to the opposite scenario. These findings provide insight into the possible mechanisms underlying the “disposal bias” as well as the influence of the disposal bias on product perceptions. Based on my results, I advocate for interventions to encourage consumers to consider the entire life cycle of a product, not just the disposal, when assessing its sustainability.No embargoAcademic Major: Environmental Policy and Decision Makin
Urban Eco-Explorers: 6th Grade Soil Science Curriculum
No full textCourse Code: ENR 4900.01In partnership with Columbus City Schools (CCS) and OSU's Urban Eco-Explorers Initiative, we designed a hands-on soil science curriculum for the 6th grade students at Starling, Yorktown, and Arts Impact Middle Schools. Our curriculum targets soil formation, texture, color, and pH, while connecting them to food justice and environmental equity in urban settings.
Urban middle schools often face significant barriers to implementing field-based environmental education, including limited green space, safety concerns, and a lack of accessible teaching resources. Our capstone team sought to bridge this gap by designing a hands-on, place-based soil science curriculum tailored for 6th-grade students at these three urban middle schools.Academic Major: Natural Resource ManagementAcademic Major: Environmental Scienc
The Effect of Generalized and Driving Anxiety on Driving Skill and Situation Awareness
No full textRates of generalized anxiety have increased dramatically in recent years, particularly in young adults. A substantial percentage of adults of all ages report anxiety while driving, even if they do not experience generalized anxiety. Anxiety can impair a person while driving and could potentially lead to unsafe driving behaviors. When combined with generalized anxiety, the effect of driving anxiety on driving performance may be exacerbated. In addition, previous work indicates that anxiety can impact an individual’s awareness of objects in the environment due to increased cognitive load. Because of this, it is important to study the effects that generalized anxiety and driving anxiety have on driving skills and situation awareness. We hypothesized that those with both driving anxiety and generalized anxiety would show lower situation awareness skills, as well as lower scores in driving behavior measures, such as lanekeeping and speed variability, when compared to individuals with either generalized or driving anxiety (but not both) or to individuals with neither generalized nor driving anxiety. In the present study, 29 young adult students from The Ohio State University were given four questionnaires (the Driving Cognitions Questionnaire (Ehlers et al., 2007), the Driving Behavior Survey (Clapp et al., 2011), the Driving Situations Questionnaire (Taylor & Deane, 2000), and the GAD-7 (Spitzer et al., 2006), to assess levels of generalized or driving anxiety. Participants then drove a scenario in a highly immersive motion-base driving simulator, during which they performed a situation awareness task and responded to “critical” events in the scenario. Overall, the results suggested that the presence of general anxiety, driving anxiety, or a combination of the two does impact driving performance and lower situation awareness. Results are discussed in terms of potential mitigations to reduce driver anxiety, such as creating simulated driving training courses in which anxious drivers could practice real-world situations before encountering them on the road.No embargoAcademic Major: Psycholog
How does Effort Avoidance Relate to the Strategic Use of Attentional Control?
Full text linkAs humans, we frequently use visual search, but the strategies people use to engage in search tend to be inefficient. Why would people choose suboptimal strategies? Previous research has suggested that people avoid effort related to specific cognitive processes required to implement the optimal strategy. However, evidence for such effort avoidance has only been demonstrated across groups of participants, and we have yet to find a task that is sensitive enough to link individuals’ effort avoidance to their strategy choices (see Zhang & Leber, 2024). To better quantify individuals’ effort avoidance, we designed a new paradigm, the Voluntary Engagement Task, which provides participants the option of completing a trial of a task or doing nothing at all. We expected this new paradigm could reveal subtle individual differences across varying demand conditions by measuring the number of trials completed in a fixed period. In this study, we used the Adaptive Choice Visual Search task (ACVS; Irons & Leber, 2016) to measure individuals’ search strategies. In addition, we created two modified conditions. The first required a numerosity judgment, the assumed key component required by the optimal strategy in ACVS, to find the target. The second, a control condition, did not include a numerosity judgment. We calculated the difference in voluntarily completed trials between the numerosity and control conditions to assess the degree to which participants selectively avoided performing the numerosity judgment. Results showed that this avoidance metric was significantly correlated with optimality in the ACVS task, indicating that the more participants avoided the numerosity judgment, the less optimal their search strategies were. Overall, this study demonstrates how individuals’ effort avoidance of specific cognitive components predicts their search behaviors and furthers our understanding of the important role of cognitive effort in driving individuals’ choice of attentional strategies.No embargoAcademic Major: Psycholog
Measuring the Refractive Index of the Lens by a Laser System
Full text linkThis study presents the development of a laser-based system designed to accurately measure the refractive index of lenses under zero-stress conditions. Using pig lenses as biological analogs for human lenses, the system calculates refractive properties by analyzing the behavior of laser beams passing through the lens. The refractive index is determined through an automated system that processes the intensity profile of the laser beam, applying Snell’s law to compute angles of refraction. To replicate physiological conditions, the lenses are immersed in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS). The results demonstrate that the system effectively measures refractive properties without introducing external stress, providing valuable benchmark data for optomechanical modeling. Additionally, the study highlights the system's capability to generate precise gradient refractive index (GRIN) profiles, offering potential applications in ocular disease research and the development of therapeutic interventions.No embargoAcademic Major: Biomedical Engineerin
The Relationship between Sensory Processing and Behavior Correlates in Autistic Adults: A Systematic Review
Full text linkBackground: Autism spectrum conditions, also referred to as “autism”, is a neurodevelopmental condition that is characterized by repetitive behaviors and social-communicative differences. Functional differences in individuals with autism are likely due to how sensory stimuli are processed, presenting as hypersensitivity, hyposensitivity, or a combination of both. Differences in sensory processing can lead to behaviors that are described as sensory seeking, low registration, sensory avoiding, or sensory sensitivity. However, there is a need to consolidate existing research on the impacts of sensory differences on everyday behaviors among autistic adults.
Objectives: This systematic review analyzed the existing literature on the correlation between sensory processing and behavior in adults on the autism spectrum. The primary research question was “how does sensory processing impact everyday functional behavior among autistic adults?”.
Methods: Data analysis following the PRISMA guidelines began with a total of 3076 articles retrieved from the following databases: PubMed, Psychnfo, Embase, CINAHL Scopus, and Web of Science. The inclusion criteria were 1) peer-reviewed journal articles, 2) adult participants > 18 years old with an official autism diagnosis, 3) a measure of sensory processing as well as functional performance/ behavioral outcomes, and 4) statistical analyses highlighting the correlation strength between the sensory processing and behavior measures outlined in the articles.
Results: A total of 3,076 articles were screened, which yielded a total of 29 peer-reviewed articles that correlated sensory differences in autism with various behavioral outcomes. These outcomes were categorized into seven overarching themes: anxiety; social integration; restrictive, repetitive behaviors (RRBs); depression and self-harm; disruptive behaviors; adaptive functioning; and savant skills. A large portion of the studies focused on anxiety (n=14) and social integration (n=9). The Adolescent/Adult Sensory Profile was the most frequently used measure of sensory processing. Notably, 22 articles (73%) demonstrated an association between hypersensitive sensory profiles (i.e., sensory avoiding and sensory sensitive) and behavioral correlates. In contrast, there was a lack of evidence that focused on sensory seeking and low registration sensory profiles. Additionally, six articles (20%) highlighted sensory processing differences as a mediator in larger paradigms affecting overall behavioral functioning in adults on the spectrum.
Conclusion: Overall, the reviewed studies indicate a strong relationship between sensory processing and various behavioral outcomes in autistic adults. Longitudinal studies are needed to clarify the causal relationships between distinct sensory profiles and behavioral outcomes, with a particular focus on the sensory sensitivity profile given its prominence in the literature. Although anxiety and social integration have been well-studied, further research should target other areas, such as RRBs, depression, and aggression, to inform the development of tailored therapeutic interventions for autistic adults facing these challenges.No embargoAcademic Major: Neuroscienc
Banking on Subscriptions? Think Again With Me
Full text link1st Place in Business, Society, and International Relations at The Ohio State University Denman Undergraduate Research ForumYour money tells a story; Huntington helps you read it. That journey begins with what our research unveiled as The Iceberg of Spending—the divide between flex and fixed transactions. Flex transactions are visible, representing conscious, day-to-day spending. Below the surface, fixed payments accumulate quietly, often unnoticed yet significantly shaping financial stability.
Using a Research through Design approach that combined surveys, interviews, observations, iterative assessments, and external sources, we discovered a misalignment between consumer and business motivations—dark patterns and weaponized algorithms encourage spending while limiting control and fueling subscription fatigue. These fragmented services create financial uncertainty and make tracking payments difficult.
If... you’re drowning in unexpected subscriptions, feeling overwhelmed by daily purchases, or worried about money slipping away unnoticed... then you’ll regain control with With Me, the app that centralizes subscriptions, predicts expenses, and rewards smart financial choices—all while turning money management into an engaging experience you can compare anonymously or share with friends.
Our research shaped our design decisions from the features we included to how they are presented in the app. Customize your homepage to track flex and fixed payments in real-time. Group subscriptions with Huntington for one discounted price on a timeline you set. Predict utility peaks or grocery trips to plan ahead. Explore your personalized spending path, from environmental impact to caffeine intake, and track specific purchases to compare with peers to see how your spending patterns float in relation to others. Understand what’s visible, what’s hidden, and what it means for your financial journey.
With Me is currently envisioned as an extension of the Huntington app for its users. Using existing transactional data, the platform gives clear, personalized insights as your story unfolds, breaking your iceberg of spending into manageable pieces to sail more confidently on unsteady waters, backed with a reward system to measure the distance you’ve traveled along the way.
It's not about cutting down—it's about understanding your money journey and taking control, on your terms. No more uncertainty, just precise, actionable financial clarity. With Me, for you by Huntington.Huntington BankNo embargoAcademic Major: Industrial Desig
Motivational Interviewing Integrated with Medication Management to Improve Outcomes in Depressed Adults
Full text linkMajor Depressive disorder is a leading cause of global disability. In 2019, there were an estimated 280 million individuals suffering from depressive symptoms. The COVID-19 pandemic led to further mental health disparities, with individuals facing death, isolation, illness, and job loss compounding the disease process. Major Depressive Disorder is believed to be a chronic disease with periods of remission and relapse. Despite effective treatment modalities, patient outcomes are suboptimal. Over half of patients respond to antidepressant therapy with medication nonadherence varying from 10% to 60%. Factors influencing medication nonadherence include treatment stigma, negative provider relationships, patient beliefs, lack of social support, and forgetfulness. Motivational interviewing (MI) was identified in the literature review as a supportive therapeutic approach to improve the patient-provider relationship, reduce treatment stigma, improve medication adherence, and improve treatment outcomes for patients diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder. The DNP project integrated MI with Medication Management in patients diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder, moderate severity, who struggle with treatment adherence. Moderate severity was identified with a Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) score of 10-14 and a Medication Adherence Rating Scale (MARS-5) less than 25. The outcome was measured by completing the PHQ-9 and MAR-5 before the initial intervention and between 1-3 months at follow-up visits. Even though the sample size was small (n=6), The PHQ-9 and MARS-5 scores improved, suggesting MI as effective therapeutic intervention when integrated with medication management in depressed patients.No embarg
Emerging Adults' Perceptions of Mothers and Fathers
Full text linkEmerging adulthood, defined as a period of distinct development from ages 18 to 25, is a period of developmentally appropriate instability that allows individuals to make key transitions in their lives and prepare for adulthood. Parents can either help or hinder this process depending upon how their interactions with their children are perceived. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to investigate and compare emerging adults’ perceptions of their interactions and relationships with their mothers and fathers. The sample included 475 individuals aged 18-25 from The Ohio State University’s Psychology Department Research Experience Pool. Emerging adults completed a survey via Qualtrics software which measured their perceptions of overparenting, parental involvement, parenting behavior, digital interactions, and relationship satisfaction for each parent. A subsample of 45 participants completed a semi-structured interview and answered open-ended questions about their interactions and relationships with their mothers and fathers. Correlation analysis yielded several statistically significant results. When emerging adults reported greater maternal overparenting, they reported lower relationship satisfaction with both mothers and fathers and vice versa. However, paired t-tests indicated that overparenting, parental involvement, parenting behavior, digital interactions, and relationship satisfaction were higher for mothers than fathers. Parental involvement and relationship satisfaction were positively correlated but had a weaker correlation for mothers than fathers. A thematic analysis of the qualitative data indicated that emerging adults were more likely to seek out their mothers for emotional support whereas fathers were sought out for financial and career support. Even in half the cases where mothers were described as disciplinarians (i.e., more likely to set and apply rules), participants still described turning to their mothers for emotional support. In contrast, relationships with fathers were more frequently described as superficial with interactions centered around discussing routine topics. Furthermore, the transition to college was perceived as improving the mother-child relationship. Taken together, these findings suggest that emerging adults have differing expectations and perceptions of their relationships with mothers and fathers that align with traditional gender roles.Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program (URAP)No embargoAcademic Major: Psycholog
Completing the Coincidence Argument Against Metaethical Nonnaturalism
Full text linkBingham AwardPeople commonly express a worry that we only hold our particular moral beliefs because it is fitness-enhancing to do so. In this paper, I investigate a particular argument that has emerged from this worry, the Coincidence Argument. First, I present a neutral formulation, arguing that disagreement over this issue should be understood as disagreement over an important condition in the formulation, the Reliability Condition. Then, I evaluate existing candidates and present one of my own, ultimately concluding that none are perfect. I conclude that based on considerations in this paper, the modal condition sensitivity is the theoretically preferable candidate for the Reliability Condition.No embargoAcademic Major: Philosoph