MacEwan Open Journals (MacEwan University)
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The Effects of Background Music on Creative Writing
No full textAlthough many creative writers listen to music while they write (Chamorro-Premuzic et. al.,2009), it is not yet understood if background music enhances or decreases a writer’s creativity. Previous research suggests that the presence of music increases arousal, which in turn affects creativity (He et. al., 2017). Furthermore, people display higher levels of creativity when exposed to familiar music (Schellenberg et. al, 2007). However, many of these studies have examined music priming (when music is played prior to the task), as opposed to background music (when music is played during the task). There is also a lack of research on creative writing, especially short stories. In this study, experienced and novice writers will be asked to write two 300-word fictional stories with provided prompts. One will be written in silence, and the other will be written while listening to playlists the participants has created themselves. Participants will have fifteen minutes to write each story, and then they will answer a series of questionnaires that measure personality, empathy, and participants’ histories of creative activities and achievements. The stories written by these participants will then be read by two sets of raters: those who are also experienced in creative writing, and novice writers. The raters will compare each author’s stories, and judge which story is more creative. The hypothesis is that music will enhance the creativity in both groups of writers, but will have a greater effect in novices, as experienced writers are capable of being creative with or without music.
Faculty Mentor: Kathleen Corrigall
Department: Psychology (Honours
The Effects of the Pollutant Perfluorooctanesulfonic acid on Anxiety-like Behaviour in Zebrafish
No full textPerfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) is a widespread organic pollutant found in aquatic ecosystems. Zebrafish (Danio rerio) are an important animal model for the investigation of toxic compounds and have been used to study the sub-lethal impact of many toxins. To date, few studies have looked at the behavioural impacts of PFOS in zebrafish, and those that have only examined locomotion, found zebrafish exposed to PFOS have an increase in average swimming speed. In order to examine the effects of PFOS on anxiety-like behaviour in zebrafish, we administered single doses of 0.1 or 1.0mg/L and looked at the behavioural impacts either 20 or 40 days after. Anxiety-like behaviour was measured using a novel tank diving test which involves placing a fish in a tall but deep rectangular area. Time spent in the top, middle, and bottom zone were measured with a motion-tracking software. Previous studies have shown that more time spent in the top zone indicates an anxiolytic effect whereas fish that spend more time spent in the bottom zone indicates an anxiogenic effect. We found that after 40 days, zebrafish exposed to 1.0mg/L spent less time in the bottom zone of the tank and more time in the top zone compared to the control, indicating a decrease in anxiety. This study demonstrates that long exposures to PFOS can have detrimental results in zebrafish which has implications for aquatic ecosystems.
Faculty Mentor: Trevor Hamilton
Department: Psychology (Honours
The Male Glaze
No full text‘The Male Glaze’ is a blog-style, un-essay project in response to the topic of companion texts in feminism and how they create meaning for their readers via intertextual relationships. This projects identifies intertextual features in feminist texts that explore the importance of those features for our understanding of the texts and the issues they address.
Faculty Mentor: Kathryn Holland
Department: Gender Studie
Behavioural Strategies Associated with Academic Achievement
No full textThe present research examined the types of self-management strategies associated with academic achievement. Undergraduate students (N=162) completed an online survey that assessed their use of several self-management strategies for studying—including implementation intentions (specific plans for when, where and what to study), self-rewards, and having access to a dedicated, pleasant and well-organized study environment—and their association with the completion of study plans, marks, and ability to concentrate while studying. Regression analyses revealed that study environment was significantly predictive of study plan completion (p<.001), marks (p=.036), and concentration ability (marginally, p=.066), while use of implementation intentions was significantly predictive of study plan completion (p<.001) and concentration ability (p=.005). Use of self-rewards was predictive of study plan completion only (p=.023). Students also rated the extent to which they scheduled both their study activities and leisure activities. Regression analyses indicated that both types of scheduling were significantly predictive of study plan completion (study scheduling: p<.001; leisure scheduling: p=.002) and concentration ability (p=.001 and p=.036, respectively), but were not predictive of marks. These findings have implications for the types of study advice offered to students, especially concerning the possible impact of one’s study environment and the scheduling of both leisure and study activities. Limitations of these findings include the use of self-report measures only and the correlational nature of the results which prevents the determination of cause-and-effect relationships.
Faculty Mentor: Russ Powell
Department: Psychology (Honours
Rotational Back injuries in Golf
No full textGolf is often perceived as a safe, low impact sport, accessible to people of all ages and abilities. Despite this perception, golf presents many risks to its players. Golfers do not understand the risks that golf poses to the lower back. This poster will go through cause of low back injuries and how to; treat, prevent and rehab low back strain
Faculty Mentor: Dave Kato
Department: Kinesiology - Sports Performance
 
Nature Of | The Mean | Album Design
No full textThis record design uses a colour scheme and layout that reflects the way the lyrics fit seamlessly with the music. However, when you closer into it, the meaning is uncomfortable, much like the lyrics in The Mean. The dinosaur represents the idea that life is always changing and moving on. Even though we have Paleontologists dedicated to uncovering what life was like during the time of the dinosaur’s, there is not a way for them to know what life before us was really like and how it felt. That’s how it will be for us. All the moments expressed in this album become oddly poetic and valuable when you realize that in even 70 years, 20 years, or even a week’s time, the small moments will be slowly forgotten. For this reason, the dinosaur is placed upside down. It makes you stop and question the meaning behind it. The sky in the album is there as it represents so many different things to each of us. In a way it holds all of our secrets. Moving to the inside sleeve, the lyrics are placed in a way so that a person holding the record for the first time might not understand that they are reading the lyrics and become hooked. The line from the lyrics on the black and white side of the sleeve catches the viewer off guard because of the juxtaposition of an orderly, modern layout with the startling statement.
Faculty Mentor: Constanza Pacher
Department: Design Studie
Establishment of an individual identity marking protocol for American pika.
No full textThe goal of this project was to establish a trapping/individual marking protocol for American pika. As identification is essential in order to accurately identify individual animals in field conditions, we attempted to trap and mark (with ear tags and visual dye marks) twenty pika as well as map and determine each individual’s territory. Unfortunately no pika were trapped, thus in order to facilitate learning North American red squirrels were successfully trapped and marked to learn and establish an identification protocol. Although no pika were trapped and marked, mapping of territories and identity of four individual pika was established, in Kananaskis, Alberta, for future data collection and experimentation.
Faculty Mentor: Shannon Digweed
Department: Biological Science (Honours
Political Ideology and Trust in Climate Change Information Sources
No full textDiscussions about climate change are taking place more and more frequently, as awareness of its rapidly growing danger increases. Discussions about what we, as citizens, can do to counteract climate change’s effects are being shrouded by the loud voices that are denouncing the very existence of climate change. These dissenters are distracting us from valuable conversations about action and strategy, as focus is directed towards simply proving that actions must be taken in the first place. Knowing who these dissenters are is crucial in understanding how to get through to them about the existence of climate change and the importance of working slow its effects. Previous research has focused mainly on American citizens and their trust levels in various information sources about climate change information. When looking at the level of trust in news media, scientists, and the US President as sources of climate change information, we found that one’s level of education, political party affiliation, and voter history in the 2016 presidential election were predictors. With this knowledge, it is possible that we may tailor information sources that climate change deniers consume to aid in their understanding of the reality and impact of climate change.
Faculty Mentor: Shelley Boulianne
Department: Sociology
 
I see what you’re saying – self-referential memory is influenced by direct eye gaze
No full textEye contact is an integral factor of human communication and is used to express intentions, interests, and emotions (Emery, 2000). The direction of eye gaze is particularly relevant, as direct gaze indicates the intention to approach and interact, while averted gaze communicates social exclusion (Hietanen et al., 2008). Previous research has indicated that direct eye gaze heightens physiological arousal and becomes the focus of attention (Myllyneva, & Hietanen, 2015). Eye contact has also been shown to increase self-referential processing of information which advances recall ability (e.g., Hietanen, & Hietanen, 2017). The proposed study will conduct two experiments to examine the effect that direct eye contact has on attention and verbal memory by using a word recognition task, and recording arousal via galvanic skin response (GSR). Two participants will be asked to remember a list of words while the experimenter (live or video) either establishes direct or averted eye gaze, or no gaze at all. Participants will then be tested using a word recognition task. Experiment two will be the same but with the instructions to remember the words using self-referential or semantic encoding strategies. We hypothesize that direct eye gaze will improve memory more than averted gaze will, and significantly more so when using the self-referential encoding strategy.
Faculty Mentor: Michelle Jarick
Department: Psycholog
Effects on Remorse of Death Row Inmates
No full textThe purpose of this study was to find a model capable of predicting the remorse felt by a death row inmate prior to their execution. The original dataset, compiled by Nguyen, My Khe (2017) from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, consisted of 21 different variables, of which race, native county, previous crime, time spent in prison, number of victims, and percent of female victims were focussed on as predictors. The presence of apology in the final statement of the offenders (a binary measure) was used as the response variable. The chosen variables underwent several tests in SPSS including crosstabs to assess the association between the predictors and response. Several logistic regression models were fitted and compared to evaluate the influence of the predictors on the response variable; this process included both forward selection and backward elimination procedures. Finally, measures such as Cook’s Distance, Leverage and DFBetas were calculated to identify the existence of influential observations. Ultimately, the results were inconclusive. The final fitted model, which included race, time spent in prison, an interaction between race and time spent in prison, and number of victims, was questionable and could not be recommended for predictive purposes.
Faculty Mentor: Karen Buro
Department: Statistic