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Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Northeast Conference for Teachers of Psychology

NECTOP

William James College

Newton, Massachusetts Friday, October 20, 2017

www.NEPsychological.org

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The New England Psychological Association would like to thank William James College for hosting the 2017 Annual Meeting, and recognize the following organizations, grants, and individuals:

APA Board of Educational Affairs (BEA)

Society for the Teaching of Psychology

Northeast Conference for Teachers of Psychology Steering Committee

Ted Bosack, Providence College

Kristen Begosh, University of Delaware

Barney Beins, Ithica College

Elizabeth Harwood, Rivier University

Jennifer-Stiegler-Balfour, University of New England

A special thank you to Ted Bosack and Barney Beins for their all their hard work in making NECTOP what it is today!

Nicholas A. Covino, Psy. D., President, William James College

Stanley J. Berman, Ph. D., Vice President for Academic Affairs, William James College

Beth Rogan, Associate Director of Marketing and Outreach

William James College Facilities & IT Departments

William James College NEPA Planning Committee

William James College Student Leaders

Stephen Goldberg, Goldberg’s Deli & Grill

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William James College Floorplans

Registration

Keynote Speakers and

Concurrent Sessions

Concurrent Sessions

PIE’s

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8:30 AM - 1:00 PM First Floor Lounge

Bernard C. Beins

Teaching Poster Session Poster 1 Implementing and Evaluating a Psychology Learning Community for Undergraduate Majors Kim Buch, Professor of Psychology, University of North Carolina Charlotte

Learning communities designed to facilitate the success and satisfaction of first-year psychology majors have enjoyed growing popularity during the past decade. This poster describes a curricular-based PLC implemented in 2003 which has since served 14 cohorts of first-year psychology majors. The poster also presents findings from a 10-year longitudinal study of the impact of the PLC on 317 past PLC members. A matched-group design was used to compare PLC members to similar students who were not members of the PLC on academic success outcomes. Findings and their implications for first-year student success programming in psychology departments will be discussed.

Poster 2 Color, Letter, Number Cards Promote Peer Interaction and Active Learning In The Community

College Classroom. Lynn Liebert Marx, Ph.D., Suffolk County Community College

Poster 3 Technology and Behavior Modification: The “TASC” Assignment for a Health Psychology Class Kelly Filipkowski, Ph.D., Misericordia University Professors are often looking for higher-impact learning strategies. Students in a Health Psychology class were engaged in a semester-long project geared towards behavior change. After completing a health and lifestyles questionnaire, students analyzed their health behaviors and developed a plan of action to

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incorporate technology in modifying a specific behavior. In general, students reported that the project was beneficial in motivating them to critique their own health related behaviors, and make small changes regarding lifestyle choices.

Poster 4 Comparison of learning efficiency with and without relevant extrinsic rewards in gamified psychological statistics classrooms Evan Grandoit (MA, Psychology Department, CUNY Brooklyn College), Rose Bergdoll (BS, Psychology Department, CUNY Brooklyn College), Jenny Chan (MA, Psychology Department, CUNY Brooklyn College), Laura Rabin (PhD, Professor of Psychology, CUNY Brooklyn College), Devorah Kletenik (PhD, Professor of Computer Science, CUNY Brooklyn College), Chelsea Chung (Graduate Student, Psychology Department, CUNY Brooklyn College), Wei Zhang (PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, CUNY Queens College), Ecem Olcum (PhD Student, University of Central Florida, Human Factors Psychology), Chris Menedes (Undergraduate Student, Computer Science Department, CUNY Brooklyn College), Ali Rishty (Undergraduate Student, Computer Science Department, CUNY Brooklyn College), Beliz Hazan (PhD Candidate, CUNY Graduate Center, Cognition Subprogram) Educational gamification has been shown to improve student self-perception of competence (Hong & Masood, 2014). However, evidence of the relationship between extrinsic rewards and perceived competence in gamified classrooms is uncertain (Mekler et al., 2013). In an effort to elucidate this relationship and facilitate learning, we altered psychological statistics laboratories into gamified environments and offered varying degrees of rewards. Results showed an association between performance and perceived competence, only in students of the gamified condition with task and performance contingent rewards, indicating a possible impact on students' ability to correctly match their feelings of comprehension to their objective performance.

Poster 5 The impact of grade visualization on college students’ academic stress Sigrun Nielsen, Elizabeth Fitzgerald, Aileen Lian, & Thomas Hutcheon. Psychology Program, Bard College Feedback regarding students’ grades can be presented in a myriad of ways. However, little is known about how different types of feedback impact students’ experience in the college classroom. In the

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current study, we provided students with a visual representation of their course grade as it evolved over the course of the semester. This grade visualization included information about current course grade along with the range of grades the student could earn over the remainder of the semester. Preliminary results indicate that students’ academic stress was reduced when students were provided with this grade visualization tool.

Poster 6 Color, Letter, Number Cards Promote Peer Interaction And Active Learning In The Community College Classroom.

Lynn Liebert Marx, Ph.D., Suffolk County Community College The use of Color, Letter, Number cards has allowed me to increase student interaction both within and beyond the classroom in this non-residential community college setting. Group activities, small group projects, debates and peer mentoring have all increased to enhance student comprehension and mastery of the curriculum. The cards drive activities from an early ice-breaker through final exam preparation to

improve student performance and engagement throughout the entire term. Poster 7 Is It Time to Drop APA-Style Citations in Introductory Texts? Evidence from a reading study.

Jennifer J. Stiegler-Balfour, University of New England; Krisztina V. Jakobsen, James Madison University, Michael J. Stroud, Merrimack College; David B. Daniel, James Madison University We examined the effect of in-text APA citations on quiz performance as a function of reading skill. Participants read an expository text (APA citation or no citation) followed by a comprehension quiz as well as a test that assessed their reading skill. Less-skilled readers performed significantly lower on a quiz in the APA citation condition compared to the no citation condition and spent less time reading in the APA citation condition compared to the no citation condition. In contrast, skilled readers performed equally well on the quiz and read at the same speed regardless of the presence of APA citations.

Poster 8 Bringing the Research Process to Life in Cognitive Psychology Using the CREATE Method Megan Blossom, PhD, Castleton University

How can we effectively teach content while simultaneously teaching the research process? I use an adaptation of the C.R.E.A.T.E. method (developed by Sally Hoskins) to teach models of attention in

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Cognitive Psychology using the work Strayer et al. on distracted driving. Students are given article snippets such as the methods and a figure with axis labels redacted, and must elucidate the hypotheses. The article is revealed piecemeal while students discover the motivation for and results of the study themselves. Participants will brainstorm on using this method for other topics and using this method in a “flipped” or team-based classroom.

Poster 9 Specifications Grading in Introductory Psychology Courses

Jamie Kleinman, PhD, University of Connecticut-Avery Point Specifications grading is a system that encourages students to focus on mastery as opposed to attaining high test scores. In this PIE, I will discuss how I have applied a specifications grading frame to my introductory psychology course. Linda Nilson’s book, "Specifications Grading: Restoring Rigor, Motivating Students, and Saving Faculty Time" will serve as the jumping off point. Participants will discuss their experiences with specifications grading, discuss the pros and cons of this system, and reflect on ways in which they might utilize this system in their courses.

Poster 10 Illustrating the Barnum Effect Using a Criminal Profiling Exercise Richard Conti, Kean University

The Barnum effect is the tendency for people to find statements that apply to almost everyone to be specific to them. This exercise uses criminal profiling, which is extremely popular with students, to illustrate this phenomenon. Participants will read a serial murder case that has been solved and answer multiple-choice and open-ended questions regarding the crime using the information presented. Participant answers will then be compared to the actual facts of the case resulting in a high match rate. In addition to fostering an understanding of the Barnum effect, this exercise provides students with an overview of base rate statistics.

Poster 11 Explaining Benford’s Law Using a Mock Crime Scenario Richard Conti, Kean University

Benford’s Law, also known as the first-digit law, is used in analyzing the validity of research data and in detecting financial fraud. In this session participants will be given a mock crime scenario in which they

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will imagine they were “skimming” money from investor accounts and instructed to create a fictitious 5-digit account number using numbers from 1-9. The fabricated data will then be examined for expected versus observed outcomes supporting the use of Benford’s Law in detecting fraud.

Poster 12 Class group work and social belonging Hayley M. Skulborstad, Ph.D.

Social belonging is a fundamental need (Baumeister & Leary, 1995), and high levels of belonging in the classroom lead to increasing academic motivation (Freeman et al., 2007), improved GPA for minority students (Walton & Cohen, 2010), and lower dropout rates (Rovai, 2002; Tinto, 1993). In the current work, four studies using various methodologies explored what specific aspects of group work (group dynamics, structure of the assignments, classroom demographics and policies) in classes promote belonging. Multiple studies suggested that feeling supported, communication, time spent on the learning task, professor help, and well-structured assignments were the strongest predictors of belonging.

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9:00 AM - 10:00 AM

Opening Keynote Address Rooms 334/335/336

Career Matters for Psychology Majors and Mentors

Dana S. Dunn Moravian College

Psychology remains among the most popular majors on campus. Yet both psychology

majors and faculty members often feel at sea when it comes to planning for students’ post-graduate life when graduate school is not the goal. Ideally, career issues should be integrated throughout the psychology curriculum, so that by the time students are in their last year of

college, they have both guidance and a plan for their futures. I will discuss options for inserting career planning materials throughout the psychology curriculum, as well as some

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optimal times for doing so. Psychology majors should seek and document professional development experiences drawn from the classroom, the campus community, work, and

internship experiences. Faculty members should become more cognizant of career issues so that we can be as articulate about the work world as we are about the pursuit of graduate

degrees.

Concurrent Sessions 1 & 2: 10:10 AM - 11:10 AM

Concurrent Session 1

Rooms 332/333

The ‘How’ and ‘Why’ of a Writing-Intensive Approach to Teaching Behavioral Statistics

Deborah A. Carroll, Ph.D., Department of Psychology,

Southern Connecticut State University, New Haven, CT

I have been teaching statistics and experimental methods to undergraduate Psychology majors for more than 25 years. For many years, my students struggled to understand the logic of statistics. They were so focused on the math or the ‘how’ to conduct statistical analyses, that they missed the ‘why’ of statistical analyses. Even students who achieved good grades in statistics, failed to transfer statistical knowledge to experimental methods courses.

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After many years of trial and error and some statistical analyses of my own, I’ve developed an effective teaching recipe that has improved student engagement, understanding of the logic of analyses, and transfer of learning to future research methods courses. Also, my students ENJOY statistics! The purpose of this workshop is for me to share some of these techniques: writing-intensive assignments; on-line learning tools; and creation of individualized statistics manuals, with other instructors. Attendees will leave with copies of assignments, explicit teaching strategies, assessment tools, and a list of resources. I also hope to form a learning community among attendees, who will continue to learn from each other beyond the workshop.

Concurrent Session 2 Rooms 334/335/336

Clicker Your Way to Student Engagement and Formative Assessment!

Agnes R. Ly, Ph.D.

University of Delaware

This session will highlight the use of student response systems, or “clickers." Clickers are flexible tools by which teachers can implement a variety of pedagogical techniques to

support engagement and assessment. By the end of this interactive session, participants will have answers to two main questions. First, what kind of clicker system is best for me? We will discuss the merits and limitations of few different options. Second, what are different

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ways I can use clickers to target different student challenges? We will work “hands on” with clickers to demonstrate different examples of techniques. Also, you will work with your

peers to identify a specific class issue and create an activity where clickers can help resolve that issue.

Participant Idea Exchanges: 11:20 AM - 12:20 PM

PIE #1

Room 305

Poems, Songs, Photographs, Twitter, And Service-Learning Oh My!: Utilizing Creative Assignments To Evoke Deeper Learning

Justina M. Oliveira, PhD.

Southern New Hampshire University

PIE #2

Room 307

Teaching Sensitive Topics- Sexposure with Dr. Buller

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Allison E. Buller, Ph.D., LPC

Assistant Professor, Counseling and Psychology University of Bridgeport

PIE #3

Room 308

Instructional methods for differentiating Introductory Psychology classes and beyond.

Rebecca DesRoches, Ph. D.

Regis College

PIE #4 Room 309

Faculty Experiences of Student Mental Health Disclosures

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Benjamin Wood Ph. D. Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts

PIE #5

Room 311

Applying Psychology Concepts Beyond the Classroom

Karen Meteyer, Ph. D., Rivier University Rachelle Smith, Ph. D., Husson University

PIE #6

Room #312

Using AAC&U's VALUE Rubrics to Update Assignments

Rachel A Rogers Community College of Rhode Island

PIE #7

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Room 313

The Toughest Topics and the "Third Thing"

John A. Minahan, Ph. D. Lincoln School

PIE #8

Room 303

Transitions Into Studying Psychology At University Level: Similarities And Differences In The USA And UK

Emily G. Soltano, Worcester State University, Worcester, MA, USA Gabriela Misca, University of Worcester, Worcester, England, UK

12:30 PM - 1:30 PM

Lunch for all registered NECTOP participants will be served in the first floor atrium.

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1:30 PM - 2:30 PM

Afternoon Keynote Address

Rooms 334/335/336

Choosing SoTL Scales that will work for you

Bethany Fleck (Metropolitan State University of Denver) Heather Hussey (Northcentral University)

This presentation provides a detailed look at a STP (Division II) resource that compiles and

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organizes the most frequently used SoTL-related scales. This will be an interactive workshop where the audience works with the presenters to identify the best scales to use for their own

SoTL projects.

Concurrent Sessions 3 & 4: 2:40 PM - 3:40 PM

Concurrent Session 3 Rooms 332/333

Active learning: Using affordable tools, such as Styrofoam heads and gelatin molds,

to teach neuroanatomy

Daniel Seichepine University of New Hampshire-Manchester

Concurrent Session 4 Rooms 334/335/336

Adapting Problem Based Learning for Psychology Training

Shira Fishman & Jason Osher

William James College

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This session will explore Problem Based Learning, a student-centered pedagogical method

that focuses on students working together to understand a problem. Problem based learning has been used effectively in other disciplines and has only recently been used in the teaching

of psychology. Participants in the session will explore a problem based learning case together and discuss the limitations and benefits to this type of methodology. Finally, the

utility of this method for the teaching of psychology will be discussed.

Concurrent Sessions 5 & 6: 3:50 PM - 4:50 PM

Concurrent Session 5

Rooms 332/333

Myths of Education and Learning Jeffrey Holmes Ithaca College

Scientifically dubious beliefs about factors that influence student learning and performance are among the most entrenched and most influential myths concerning human behavior.

Students, instructors, parents, administrators, and policy makers frequently endorse assumptions about learning that are unsupported by scientific research. In this talk I will address a number of myths pertaining to learning and education. There is no shortage of

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research on any of the myths; however, there is widespread disagreement—and lack of awareness—concerning the research and its implications. Moreover, some myths have

staunch advocates both within and outside of psychology. Students often maintain unsupported assumptions about how people learn and how best to study, while falsely

believing that they can accurately and objectively judge how much they have learned. Based primarily on anecdote and intuition, teachers often believe that certain instructional strategies

are vastly superior to others and sometimes question the motives of instructors who use alternate strategies. And many advocates draw conclusions about controversial issues such as standardized testing and the implications of neuropsychology research for educational practices based on insufficient familiarity with the relevant scientific findings. Although

beliefs are always resistant to change, it is critical that all constituents—particularly students and those who teach them—be informed when widely endorsed assumptions are

inconsistent with scientific evidence.

Concurrent Session 6 Rooms 334/335/336

Mastery of Oral and Written Communication Skills: A Developmental Psychology

Curriculum Sequencing Example

Colleen J. Sullivan, Bonnie G. Kanner, Nicole M. Rosa, & Kathryn E Frazier Worcester State University

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For this concurrent session, four developmental faculty will discuss an assignment from

each of their courses which allows them to introduce, reinforce, or prompt mastery of oral and written communication skills outlined in the APA guidelines for program level

outcomes. The courses range from a 200 level basic survey course to two 300 level courses to the 400 level capstone experience. The session will demonstrate how the developmental

curriculum is organized such that students build on skills at previous levels, leading to mastery in the capstone course.

The conclusion of this session marks the end of the 2017 Annual NECTOP Meeting.

We look forward to seeing you next year at Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport, CT.

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Friday Evening 5:00pm-5:30pm

Opening NEPA Reception in Third Floor Lounge

5:45pm– 6:45pm

Friday Night Keynote Speaker Rooms 334/335/336

Opening Comments by Nicholas Covino, Ph. D.

(President William James College) &

Stanley Berman, Ph. D. (Dean of Academic Affairs William James College)

Introduced by Dov Kugelmass, Ph. D. President

New England Psychological Association

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy and the Long-term Consequences of Repetitive Brain Trauma

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Robert Stern, Ph. D. (Professor of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Anatomy and Neurobiology at Boston University

School of Medicine, Director of the Clinical Core of the BU Alzheimer's Disease Center, Director of Clinical Research for the BU Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) Center)

There has been a great deal of media coverage about former football players (e.g., Junior Seau, Mike Webster, Kevin

Turner, Dave Duerson) being diagnosed with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) after death. The feature film starring Will Smith, “Concussion,” was actually about CTE. However, the scientific study of CTE is in its early stages, with critical questions remaining to be answered about this degenerative brain disease. Dr. Stern will discuss what is

currently known about CTE and the long-term consequences of sports-related brain trauma, based on the latest research findings, and he will provide answers to commonly asked important questions, including: What is the

difference between Alzheimer’s disease and CTE? Does everyone who gets several concussions develop CTE later in life? Can CTE be diagnosed during life? Does playing youth tackle football increase the risk for cognitive

impairment and depression in adulthood? Is football the only sport that increases the risk for CTE? Can someone who never had a “big hit” or a concussion still get CTE? Is CTE an actual disease? Is CTE the same thing that “punch drunk” boxers get? Are there treatments currently available to mitigate the symptoms of CTE or slow down the

disease?

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The Northeast Conference for Teachers of Psychology invites you to attend and participate in the 2018 Annual Meeting NECTOP

Call For Submissions

Submission of a proposal implies a commitment to attend the meeting and deliver the presentation if it is accepted. All attendees, presenters, and guests are required to register for the NECTOP meeting. Proposals will be accepted or rejected on the basis of peer review.

Priority will be given to Posters and Participant Idea Exchanges submitted between February 1, 2018 and June 15, 2018. NECTOP will continue to receive and review posters submitted after June 15, 2018 through September 28, 2018. Posters provide a medium for the visual presentation of information and discussion with attendees. Participant Idea Exchanges are 30-minute roundtable discussions related to the teaching of psychology, including but not limited to research on the effectiveness of a teaching method or strategy, demonstration of a teaching technique, cooperative and/or interdisciplinary projects.

NECTOP will also consider proposals for one-hour interactive sessions/workshops dealing with instructional methods or strategies in the teaching of psychology. Examples of the sorts of sessions that will be considered may be found in the 2011-2015 NECTOP programs that are available for online review at NEPsychological.org. The deadline for proposals for one-hour interactive sessions/workshops is March 1, 2018. Decisions about including sessions in the program will be made after the submission deadline and will consider both the quality of the proposal and achievement of balance in the NECTOP program.

In order to be reviewed all proposals must be clearly related to the teaching of psychology, submitted through the NECTOP Submissions Portal at NEPsychological.org, and include:

• A title and list of authors and affiliations.

• A short abstract of 50 to 100 words summarizing the technique or project being presented.

• A long abstract with a minimum length of 750 words with sections that clearly state:

• The teaching technique or project.

• If and where appropriate, the procedures used to evaluate the technique or idea.

• Implications of the results for the teaching of psychology.

Northeast Conference for Teachers of Psychology Friday, October 26, 2018 Housatonic Community College, Bridgeport, CT

NETeachingPsychology@Gmail.com www.NEPsychological.org

The Northeast Conference for Teachers of Psychology is affiliated with the New England Psychological Association

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New England Psychological Association

Annual Meeting Saturday, October 27, 2018

Housatonic Community College NEPA

Call for Submissions

The submission of a proposal implies a commitment to attend the meeting and deliver the presentation if it is accepted. All attendees, presenters, and guests are required to register for the meeting. Proposals will be accepted or rejected on the basis of peer review.

NEPA Priority Submission Deadline: February 1 through June 15, 2018 for symposia, papers, and posters representing all areas of the psychological sciences. NEPA will continue to receive and review posters through September 28, 2018.

NEPA invites the submission of papers and posters with clear and detailed articulation of research questions, procedures, data analyses, and implications of the results. Theoretical and literature review submissions will be considered as papers provided that they present new ideas, models, or frameworks for future research. Papers and posters may be qualitative in concept and methodology provided that a sufficient description of data sources/evidence, evaluation procedures, and substantiated conclusions is provided. NEPA also seeks the submission of symposia that include authors from different institutions presenting substantive issues from different perspectives. Data collection and analysis must be concluded prior to submission. The NEPA program committee reserves the right to request that papers for which thematic sessions are not available be presented as posters.

In order to be reviewed paper and poster submissions must include the following content:

• title and list of authors and affiliations.

• short abstract of 50 to 100 words summarizing the research concept, the methods, and the main findings.

• long abstract of 1000 to 1500 words with separate sections that clearly state the:

• Research problem and hypotheses.

• Methodology.

• Results or findings with statistical tests (e.g., means and standard deviations) embedded within explanations, where appropriate.

• Implications of the results within the context of the stated problem and hypotheses.

A Symposium submission should include the following content:

• title and list of authors and affiliations.

• short abstract of up to 250 words summarizing the themes and goals of the session and the audience for which the symposium is intended.

• long abstract of 1000 to 1500 words summarizing each presenter's contribution to the submission and expertise to participate in the symposium.

All proposals must be submitted using the NEPA Submission Portal at NEPsychological.org.

NEPsychological@Gmail.com www.NEPsychological.org

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Program Notes

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Session Time Rooms 332/333 Rooms 334/335/336

8:30 AM Continental breakfast and coffee

8:30 AM to 1:00 PM Posters will be available for inspection in 1st Floor Lounge

9:00 AM to 10:00 AM Opening Keynote Address Dana Dunn

Career Matters for Psychology Majors and Mentors

10:10 AM to 11:10 AM Concurrent Presentation Session Session #1- 332/333- Deborah Carroll: The ‘How’ and ‘Why’ of a Writing-Intensive Approach to Teaching Behavioral Statistics

Session #2- 334/335/336- Agnes Ly: Clicker Your Way to Student Engagement and Assessment!

11:20 AM to 12:20 PM Participant Idea Exchanges

#1 Room 305-Poems, Songs, Photographs, Twitter, And Service-Learning Oh My!: Utilizing Creative Assignments To Evoke Deeper Learning

#2 Room 307- Teaching Sensitive Topics- Sexposure with Dr. Buller

#3 Room 308-Instructional methods for differentiating Introductory Psychology classes and beyond.

#4 Room 309- Faculty Experiences of Student Mental Health Disclosures

#5 Room 311- Applying Psychology Concepts Beyond the Classroom

#6 Room 312 - Using AAC&U's VALUE Rubrics to Update Assignments

#7 Room 313- The Toughest Topics and the "Third Thing"

#8 Room 303- Transitions Into Studying Psychology At University Level: Similarities And Differences In The USA And UK

12:30 PM to 1:30 PM Buffet Luncheon

1:30 PM to 2:30 PM Afternoon Keynote Address

Bethany Fleck Dillon & Heather Hussey

Choosing SoTL Scales that will Work for You

2:40 PM to 3:40 PM Concurrent Presentation Session Session #3-332/333-Daniel Seichepine "Active learning: Using affordable tools, such as Styrofoam heads and gelatin molds, to teach neuroanatomy." Session #4-334/335/336-Shira Fishman & Jason Osher: Adapting Problem Based Learning for Psychology Training

3:50 PM to 4:50 PM Concurrent Presentation Session Session #5-332-333-Jeffrey Holmes: Myths of Education and Learning Session # 6-334/335/336-Mastery of Oral and Written Communication Skills: A Developmental Psychology Curriculum Sequencing Example by Colleen J. Sullivan, Bonnie G. Kanner, Nicole M. Rosa, & Kathryn E Frazier of Worcester State University

5:00 PM to 5:30 PM Friday Evening Reception

5:40 PM to 6:40 PM Friday Evening Speaker will be in Rooms 334/335/336

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