Program and Schedule
The 2022 Northern Lights Psychology Conference will take place Friday, November 4, 2022.
All events will be held in several conference spaces of the Grand Ballroom (Room 214 C&D) on the 2nd floor of the Memorial Union.
Schedule
Registration and Networking Breakfast
9 - 10 a.m. | Mezzanine (Outside Ballroom 214D)
Paper Session 1
10-11 a.m. | Ballroom 214D
Religion-Justified Childhood Maltreatment and Adult Psychological Maladjustment
Hannah Doctor, Alan King
University of North Dakota
Religion justified child abuse is when a perpetrator of abuse uses religion (religious text, context, or authority) to justify their abuse. Previous research has shown those who are more religious tend to have less severe maladjustment outcomes after traumatic events than those who are less religious. We hypothesized that those who have experienced religious justified abuse would have more negative maladjustment outcomes than those who had experienced abuse without religious justification. 839 participants completed questionnaires on abuse, religious justifications for the abuse, and maladjustment outcomes such as internal maladjustment such as depression, anxiety and PTSD, and external maladjustment such as aggression. Religion justified abuse was associated with higher levels of internal and external maladjustment than the normative and abuse alone category. This suggests the religion justified abuse is a unique form of abuse which may be associated with more negative maladjustment outcomes and may need attention in treatment of maladjustment.
Whose Right to Choose?: Pregnancy Termination Experiences, Legal Restrictions, and Reactions to a Post-Roe World
Jenna N. Laurin, Kelly Cuccolo, Tyler Rapke, Heather Terrell
University of North Dakota
In a time of ever-changing abortion laws, it is crucial to understand the effects these laws have on those seeking abortion services. In an exploratory study, the authors surveyed individuals who received, attempted to receive, or seriously considered receiving an abortion to understand why individuals seek abortions. It was also critical to assess their knowledge of the legal restrictions on abortion in their state and how these laws impacted their abortion decision, if at all. Exploratory data was also collected about why individuals may decide not to have an abortion after consideration. Participants were also asked their reactions to the Supreme Court Dobbs vs. Jackson decision. Quantitative data about abortion history was collected as well as qualitative data about personal experiences and feelings post-abortion.
Vigilance Task Dependent Stress States and Cognitive Fatigue
Jessica Van Bree, Ryan Krebs, Kyle Bernhardt MA, Dmitri Poltavski PhD, & Thomas Petros
PhD
University of North Dakota.
Vigilance is the ability to sustain attention for an extended period of time and is a crucial component of several occupations. Over extended vigils, humans tend to exhibit the vigilance decrement, which presents as more missed critical signals and increased reaction times. With modern automated systems shifting the human operator from an active controller role to system monitoring, human-automation interaction research utilizes basic vigilance concepts to improve operational environments. The purpose of this study was to determine if automated system tasks result in similar stress states to standard vigilance tasks. It was hypothesized that automated tasks would result in similar stress states compared to laboratory vigilance tasks. Two experimental tasks were utilized in this study; a successive vigilance task and a generalized flight simulation task. Results indicated that automation and standard successive vigilance resulted in similar stress states; both resulting in increased fatigue and distress in addition to decreased engagement.
An Examination of Individual Characteristics that Predict Memories for Real and Fictitious Mass Shootings
John-Paul Legerski and Richard Belz
University of North Dakota
To better understand flashbulb memories (FBM), we conducted two studies examining
participants' recollections of real and factitious mass shootings. In the first study,
500 participants in the United States were given a list of 28 mass shootings in an
online survey. Six of the 28 shootings on this list were fictional shooting created
for the study. When asked to identify which mass shootings they recalled, 65.6% reported
recalling one of more real shootings. However, 34% of the participants reported recalling
one or more shootings that never occurred.
In a second follow-up study, we surveyed 607 participants in the United States about
their recollections of 30 mass shootings (10 of which were factious). For each shooting
participants recalled, we asked detailed follow up questions commonly used in memory
research to identify FBMs. Using these criteria, more than 40% of participants had
one or more FBMs for real mass shootings. Of note, more than 20% of participants had
one or more FBMs for shootings that never occurred. Several variables (e.g., gun ownership,
being Hispanic, Spanish, or Latino, increased homosexuality, greater conservative
political views) made participants less likely to be accurate in their memories of
mass shootings. The findings may have important implications for FBM research, particularly
in addressing inaccuracies in FBM reporting, as well as contribute to the literature
on the public’s perception of mass shootings.
Poster Session
11 a.m. - 12 p.m. | Ballroom 214D
Click the link below to download the poster program.
Lunch on Your Own
12- 1 p.m.
Paper Session II
1-2 p.m. | Ballroom 214D
Precarious Gender Roles: Perceptions of Masculinity and Femininity
Adelyn Emter, Jaxon Erie, Elise Ramberg, and Dr. Heather Terrell
University of North Dakota
Vandello and colleagues (2008) described manhood as both elusive and tenuous, unlike
womanhood. Inspired by these authors, we conceptually replicated the study and took
a modernistic approach compared to the previous study, focusing on earned masculinity
and femininity rather than manhood and womanhood. We hypothesized that overall participants
would view masculinity as more difficult to achieve than femininity. Additionally,
we predicted
that men would view masculinity as harder to earn and women would view femininity
as harder to earn. A mixed 2 x 2 design with a between-groups variable of participant
gender and a within-groups variable of the gender statements was used. A sample size
of 140 participants (N = 140) was used. Participants stated their agreement with all
the statements, using a Likert scale. From there, data was divided between participant
gender. Our hypotheses were partially supported. The results provided a significant
main effect for the gender of statements as well as aninteraction. Further, demonstrating
that the level of agreement that masculinity needs to be earned depends on the gender.
Our results can imply that masculinity is idealized in society unlike femininity,
which is less valued.
The Impact of Total Experience and Recent Experience on Instrument Flight Performance
Tom Petros and James A. Higgins
University of North Dakota
A number of researchers investigating skill degradation from nonuse of the skill have reported that for pilots’ retention of “hand-eye” skills used to manipulate flight controls and scan instruments were minimally effected after nonuse (Medngelkoch et al., 1971). However, after 4 months of inactivity, pilots’ cognitive skills required to recall, monitor and execute procedural steps; visualize the position of the aircraft, perform mental calculations and recognize abnormal situations, had significantly deteriorated (Boet et al., 2011). Casner et al., (2014) reported that the instrument scanning and manual control skills of airline pilots show minimal decline when they flew using automation but when asked to fly manually the required cognitive skills for manual flying declined. The present study examined individual differences in skill degradation using an instrument flight task. The participants included 39 pilots who were between 18 and 35 years of age. All subjects were instrument rated or had successfully completed FAA approved instrument flight training. Skill degradation was influenced by individual cognitive differences in the pilots and the type of task examined. The implications of these results for aviation and non-aviation fields will be discussed.
Predicting Student Pilot Performance
Jessica Van Bree, Bradley Hoffmann, Hamed Taheri Gorji, Kouhyar Tavakolian, Nicholas
Wilson, & Thomas Petros
University of North Dakota
One promising avenue of research involves developing the capability to continuously monitor an individual’s level of fatigue, stress, attention, task engagement, and mental workload in operational environments using physiological parameters (Berka, et al., 2007). These physio-cognitive monitoring systems have a wide range of potential applications that could significantly enhance performance, productivity, and safety in military, industrial, and educational settings (Berka, et al., 2007). Blanco, Johnson, Jaquess et al., (2018) demonstrated that electroencephalography (EEG) measures can differentiate various levels of workload during flight and that said workload measures were related to cognitive performance. The purpose of this investigation was to determine if measures of intelligence, spatial visualization, physiological cognitive state measures, and student flight hours could predict deviations from heading, altitude, and airspeed during an assigned flight pattern. Aircraft data was derived from the Garmin G1000 Avionics System and cognitive state measures were recorded using the Advanced Brain Monitoring (ABM) X-24 system (ABM, 2020).
Which Comes First in Sports Vision Training: the Software or the Hardware Update? Utility of Electrophysiological Measures in Monitoring Specialized Visual Training in Youth Athletes.
Dmitri Poltavski, David Biberdorf, and Carolina Praus Poltavski
University of North Dakota
In the present study we combined popular methods of sports vision training (SVT) with traditional oculomotor protocols of Optometric Vision Therapy (OVT) and electrophysiological indexes of EEG and VEP activity to monitor training progress and changes in performance of youth ice hockey players without the history of concussion. We hypothesized that administration of OVT protocols before SVT training may result in larger performance improvements compared to the reverse order due to the initial strengthening of visual hardware capable of handling greater demands during training of visuomotor integration and information processing skills (visual software). In a cross-over design 53 youth ice -hockey players (ages 13-18) were randomly assigned to one of the two training groups. Group one (hardware-software group) completed 5 weeks of oculomotor training first followed by 5 weeks of software training. For group 2 (software-hardware) the order of procedures was reversed. After 10 weeks of training both groups significantly improved their performance on all but one measure of the Nike / Senaptec Sensory station measures. Additionally, the software-hardware training order resulted in significantly lower frontal theta-to-gamma amplitude ratios on the Nike/Senaptec test of Near-Far Quickness as well as in faster P100 latencies. Both training orders also resulted in significant decreases in post-treatment P100 amplitude to transient VEP stimuli as well as decreased theta-gamma ratios for perception span, Go/No-Go and Hand Reaction time. The observed changes in the electrophysiological indexes in the present study are thought to reflect greater efficiency in visual information processing and cognitive resource allocation following 10 weeks of visual training. There is also some evidence of the greater effectiveness of the software-hardware training order possibly due to the improved preparedness of the oculomotor system in the youth athletes for administration of targeted protocols of the Optometric Vision Therapy.
Networking Break
2- 2:15 p.m. | Mezzanine
Student Awards
2:15 - 2:30 p.m. | Ballrom 214D
2022 Keynote Address
2:30 - 4 p.m. | Ballroom 214D
Neurocognitive mechanisms and mental health disparities in American Indian populations: Toward clinical-cultural neuroscience.
Dr. Evan White
Laureate Institute for Brain Research
American Indians (AI) have faced many historical and societal challenges and risk related social determinates of health (SDH; e.g., historical trauma, discrimination, cultural disenfranchisement) that contribute to disproportionately higher rates of substance use and a variety of mental health conditions (anxiety, depression, PTSD, suicide). Addressing these disparities necessitates a scientifically rigorous understanding of brain mechanisms of traditional culture and its potential role in mental health treatment. Importantly, AI communities have suffered from a history of inappropriate, exploitative, and harmful research practices; additionally, research harms in AI populations extend beyond individual participants to communities they represent. In advancing mental health disparity research it is critical to employ methods that center input and well-being of communities. Conceptualizing traditional cultural engagement as protective social determinants of health will support a community centered approach to informing precision medicine interventions and clinical cultural neuroscience research for AIs. This presentation will 1) review a series of empirical investigations examining the utility of neurocognitive mechanisms in understanding mental health and substance use difficulties among a heterogenous sample of urban AI adults 2) offer a framework for clinical-cultural neuroscience as a way forward in addressing mental health disparities 3) implications and recommendations for the intersection of large-scale open access datasets and appropriate research conduct in AI populations.