This is a photo of me at MPA with my poster that I presented at the conference.
Author: Brynn Schuetter | Majors: Psychology, Criminology, and Sociology | Semester: Spring 2022
My name is Brynn Schuetter, and I am currently finishing up Bachelor of Arts degrees in Psychology, Criminology, and Sociology. I also just sent in my final thesis over how fillers in identification procedures influence identification procedures. It has been shown that lineups produce more accurate and reliable identifications than showups do, so two theories have been proposed as to why this might be the case. My study was interested in replicating and extending a past study to test two different theories, diagnostic feature detection theory and filler siphoning theory.
After completing my thesis, I was given the opportunity to present my findings at the Midwestern Psychological Association (MPA) conference. I flew to Chicago, Illinois to present a poster over my project to other psychological researchers. I was in Chicago for four days. During this time, I presented my poster and attended other poster presentations and talks on many different topics.
This opportunity was extremely beneficial to me because it was the first time that I was able to present research in person. Because of COVID precautions, throughout my undergraduate career, I was only able to present research online either through recordings or zoom. While it was nerve wracking being in a space full of experts in the field, it was really cool to be able to talk about my research with people who know about the background of the research. In the past, I have always gotten nervous about public speaking, but being in an environment where everyone in attendance was an undergraduate researcher like me at some point made me less nervous. It was interesting to know that all of the professors there were in my shoes at some point, and it opened my eyes to all of the possibilities for my future. Being in person also made the experience feel like a more one on one event than it has seemed in past online conferences. Even though there were hundreds of people there, I was able to talk to people one at a time and really hear about their thoughts and their research as well. This was something that I haven’t been able to do.
Because this conference was in person, I was able to get more out of the experience than I have in the past. People of all different research levels were interested in hearing about my research. I was able to talk to other undergraduate researchers about their experiences, and professors from other universities who gave me insight into where my project could go in the future. Not only was I able to talk to multiple different researchers and get their perspectives and feedback on my research, but I was also able to attend talks and poster sessions given by researchers outside of my interests. Because psychological research is so broad, I was able to hear about so many different types of research including research on the mental health of student-athletes and the spread of false information on COVID. I learned a lot about topics that I didn’t know research was being done on, so it was interesting to see all the different possibilities that people can research.
Overall, the experience was something that I will definitely remember for the rest of my life, and I highly encourage others to do something similar if they are given the opportunity. As I am finishing up my degree, I am hoping to graduate in a few weeks. After graduation, I will be attending graduate school working towards getting a master’s in sociology with a concentration in criminology.