Earles, Julie

Literature is an integral medium through which individuals use language to create a shared experience with an audience. Writing as an act is an intimate expression of identity. So, what does it mean that there are some voices who are not equally represented and heard in literature?
There is an interesting juxtaposition between literature and disabilities. Certain people with disabilities such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) struggle at communication, articulation, and interpretation. This paper seeks to analyze representations and portrayals of individuals with ASD in fiction, and compare differences in these representations based on whether the author has an ASD diagnosis. The authors who have received a diagnosis of ASD do portray a more nuanced understanding of ASD in day to day life; however, the authors who lack a diagnosis still represented character’s with ASD in an accurate light.

This exploratory investigation seeks to evaluate the efficacy of Neurofeedback (NFB) Training Therapy, a type of biofeedback that works with the brain’s natural capacity for plasticity, as a viable treatment for patients with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). Strengthening connections among remaining neurons despite neurogenesis may benefit patients. However, the vast array of methodologies utilizing different technologies and focusing on varying brain waves makes it challenging to determine the true efficacy of the treatment methods, especially when compounded with the number of disorders each method is claimed to treat. Therefore, this investigation aims to address 1) technology that will best target specific brain areas, and 2) the most suitable NBF protocols for patients with AD. Taken together, this analysis contributes towards assessing the feasibility of NFB as treatment for patients with dementia, leading to the determination that electroencephalography (EEG) NFB with peak alpha or theta brainwave protocols may be the best option.

Privacy as a legal concept affects every single American citizen whether they
know it or not. Justice Harlan's concurrence in Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347
defined an expectation of privacy as one that society must recognize as objectively
reasonable. The court has used this doctrine to establish different privacy tests for
different situations, yet has never empirically determined whether its decisions accurately
reflect society's view of what is 'reasonable.' To that end, this paper will examine the
philosophical and historical origins of the right to privacy, and well as its development by
the Supreme Court to its current status. I'll compare the Supreme Court's interpretation of
society's expectations with empirical data from psychological studies and conduct a
normative analysis to determine if the Supreme Court has accurately interpreted society's
expectations and correctly crafted the right to privacy to ideally protect the citizens and
limit state invasions of privacy.

In 2015, 11.6% of all recorded deaths in the world were caused by dementia (“Dementia Now Leading Cause of Death,” 2016). However, the progression of dementia can potentially be slowed down by providing mental stimulation through music enrichment programs. Two distinct forms of memory have been studied in dementia patients, semantic memory and episodic memory. Semantic memory of music was found to be largely preserved, while episodic memories underwent a significant decline (Tulving, 1972). At the cellular level, symptoms of dementia include altered levels of gray and white matter, decrease in overall volume of structures within the brain, formation of neurofibrillary tangles and senile plaques, and a reduction in dopamine levels (Yang et al., 2010; Raz, 2005; Guo et al., 2016; Chui et al., 1984; Anderton, 1997; Cross et al., 1981). It was found that participation in music sessions lessened the severity of several of these processes. Thus, this research will explore how exposure to music can potentially increase memory retention, slow down neural atrophy, and as a result, have a likely effect on the progression of dementia.

This study examined how the use of EnChroma glasses affects the color perception of individuals with color blindness. Differences in color vision were measured with the Farnsworth-Munsell 100 Hue Color Vision Test and the Ishihara test. The participants were individuals of varying ages with color blindness and individuals with normal color vision (matched by their age). I tested how the EnChroma glasses changed a colorblind individual’s viewing experience of color within images such as paintings and photographs. Fourteen images were selected, and for each image, the participant answered questions about the image focusing on the dynamics of color, aesthetics, and the overall engagement with the image. The EnChroma glasses improved the color discrimination in only of two out of the eight color blind participants.

Previous research on face perception has been used to investigate implicit biases and understand how social categorization by race may shape behavior. However, prior studies have yet to compare adults’ and children’s event-related potentials (ERPs) and implicit racial biases. In the present study, we recruited Caucasian 18- to 25-year-old young adults and 5- to 10-year-old children. Participants completed a child friendly implicit association test and then a categorization task of Asian and Caucasian faces while their electroencephalographic waveforms were recorded. We found greater implicit own-race biases were associated with larger bilateral P100 responses to other- than ownrace faces in children and adults, and larger bilateral N250 responses to own- than otherrace faces in adults. We speculate the P100 indicates attentional modulation by race in adults and children and the larger N250 for own-race faces in adults may be related to their greater perceptual expertise for Caucasian faces. These findings suggest that implicit biases are related to early ERP responses when categorizing faces by race.

While testing the effects of the Enchroma glasses on individuals with and without
color blindness, a black and white image search task was given. This task was to test how
quickly a participant could locate a hidden image within a black and white photo. A 30
second time limit was set for each image to test the speed of each participant, and find out
whether participants with or without color blindness could find the hidden animal faster.
Art surveys were also given in order to find out the changes in art perception when using
the Enchroma glasses.

The purpose of this study is to determine which
United States license plate(s) are best designed for
recall. Based on what we know of human memory
in terms of numbers, letters, and their combinations,
this study aims to identify the “ideal” license plate
for citizens to remember. This study’s results will be
applicable in criminal cases, as well as in identifying
vehicles involved in AMBER Alerts and Silver Alerts.
There are many studies that have examined eyewitness
memory for crimes in younger adults and older
adults. In this study, we will examine the effects of
age on memory for license plates. We want to determine
which license plates are better remembered by
younger and older adults. We hypothesize that the
organization of letters and numbers on the license plate will have a larger effect on older adults than
on younger adults because older adults need more
memory support.

In order to remember an event, one must remember
the participants in the event, the actions that are
performed, and which people performed which actions.
Often people make binding errors in memory in
which they remember the people and the actions, but
they incorrectly remember one person as the person
who performed an action that was actually performed
by someone else. Half of the participants in our study
saw a series of actions with each action performed by
one of two actors. The other half of the participants
saw each action performed by a different actor. We
found that older adults were more likely to make binding
errors than were younger adults. Younger adults
were equally likely to make binding errors in the two
conditions. Older adults, however, made many fewer
binding errors when they saw only two actors during
encoding than when they saw many actors during encoding.

FAU's Office of Undergraduate Research and Inquiry hosts an annual symposium where students engaged in undergraduate research may present their findings either through a poster presentation or an oral presentation.