Author: Sydeny Clontz | Majors: Psychology | Semester: Fall 2024

Sydney Clontz, senior Psychology major

My name is Sydney Clontz, and I am a member of the Fulbright Honors College. I am a senior psychology major with a medical humanities minor who is pursuing a pre medical track. I am conducting research under Dr. Grant Shields who is a part of the psychological sciences department and specializes in neurobiological mechanisms. I began working with Dr. Shields in the spring of 2024, and I will defend my honors thesis in May of 2025.

My research explores the connections between executive functions, competition, and cooperation. Specifically, I examine how cooperative and competitive environments influence inhibitory control. Understanding the underlying processes of social behavior can provide insights into addressing deficiencies in executive functioning, with potential applications in mental health interventions.

I reached out to Dr. Shields in the spring of 2023 because of an interest in neurobiology. I had been told by students of his behavioral neuroscience class and members of his ASCAN lab that he was very knowledgeable on the topic. After interviewing with Dr. Shields, I was introduced to Emily Patterson, a graduate student that was open to mentoring an honors thesis student. After hearing about her research interests, we decided it would be a good fit to work together. Emily and I then began to brainstorm research ideas. I mentioned my interest in prosocial behavior and Dr. Shields offered the idea of inhibitory control and pro social behavior. The three of us worked together to refine the topic and shape a task that would encompass these factors.

This semester, the goal was to get the experiment up and running and begin data collection. This involved building the tasks in a program called Psychopy. I worked on building the inhibitory control task and utilized Emily to help with special code. Weekly meetings ensured steady progress, and we began data collection in late September.

Through this process and literature review, I have learned a lot about executive functioning and the various effects it has on human behaviors and abilities. While building the task, I learned about how to use programs such as Psychopy and Qualtrics while also picking up some information on coding. It was interesting to see how a study was actually built in order to collect data. This was a harder part of the process, but gave me experience I would not have expected to find elsewhere. We faced many challenges in this step because of technical difficulties and being able to narrow down exactly how to test cooperation and competition accurately. Dr. Shields was a major help when it came to these issues. His experience in research helped guide me to the finished product. Since I lacked coding skills it was very beneficial to have two people to work with that were both very experienced.

I will finish up my data collection in the first couple of weeks of the Spring semester, and then our data analysis can begin. As of right now, I am working on finishing my literature review and beginning to write other pieces of my paper.

Next semester, I aim to complete data collection within the first month, finalize my paper, and prepare for its defense. With approximately 20 participants remaining, I look forward to analyzing the data. Currently, I am focused on completing my literature review and drafting sections of my thesis.

I am grateful for this opportunity to deepen my knowledge of psychology and strengthen my abilities to conduct research. The mentorship I have received is invaluable, and I am excited for what next semester, and my future in research, has to offer.