Nikhil Kotecha

In most deception experiments, the situation presented to human subjects in unrealistic, lacking a social dimension, unreflective of the emotionally charged nature of a lie, and does not possess a valid paradigm to assess intention. By incorporating economic games informed by neuroscience modalities, the necessary context can be established to rectify the aforementioned flaws. With accurate monitoring of the subject populations in the economic game, the subjects reactions and behavior can be used in functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to provide the needed realistic element to deception research. It would […]

Dana Rosen

Imagine two hot air balloons that leave the ground at the same time. As they rise, one of them moves faster than the other and the distance between them grows as they get higher. Proportionality is everywhere in our world, as are many other mathematical concepts that we dont consider day-to-day, which teachers often refer to real-world situations in the math classroom. However, educational reformers debate whether students should begin learning concepts from abstract producers or concrete situations. The embodied cognition approach reconciles these two approaches, suggesting that we should […]

Tua-Lisa Runsten

Multiple memberships are increasingly common in the universe of citizenship. American Samoans are American non-citizen nationals of the United States; that is, they are nationals but without birthright citizenship. My proposed SURF projects examines the inherent conflicts and contradictions of these overlapping memberships in light of a lawsuit, Tuaua v. United States, filed by a group of five American Samoans in 2012 who sought to obtain the full rights and privileges of U.S. citizenship. The proposed research will analyze the implications of this landmark case, as well as for the […]

Crystal Lee

American Cockroaches exhibit a large versatility of movement; they are able to transverse over varying substrates in different orientations. Over the last decade, scientists have studied the tarsus, or foot of the cockroach, looking specifically for certain features that allow the cockroach to make such transitions. So far, three distinct structures; the claw, the euplantulae, or a set of overlapping friction pads, and the arolium, which is an adhesive protrusion; have been found to act in tandem during movement. My research for the summer will investigate the capabilities of the […]

Jeni Stiso

One of the most intriguing, yet controversial recent findings in neuroscience is the discovery of the mirror neuron system (MNS). These visuo-motor neurons discharge both when a monkey does a particular goal-directed action and when it observes another individual doing a similar action. The result of this mechanism is thought to be the capacity to recognize that an individual is performing an action, to differentiate this action from others analogous to it, and to use this information in order to act appropriately. This mechanism has been proposed as the basis […]

Bradley Hughes

Implicit bias refers to a prejudiced attitude or stereotype activated outside of conscious awareness. While there has been a great deal of research examining factors that affect implicit attitudes, there is a dearth of research on the effects of emotional statesparticularly positive emotionson implicit bias. I seek to address this gap by examining the influence of awe on implicit bias. Awe is an emotional response to vast stimuli that transcend current frames of reference and stimulate a need for the formation of a new cognitive framework to accommodate the experience. […]

Queenie Kwan Yee Lo

People revere food as if it were Heaven. This Chinese idiom highlights the essential role that food has always played in Chinese culture and history. It is commonplace to see cuisine and wine appear in Chinese classical and modern literature. When food appears in literature, we experience it with all our senses and gain a deeper understanding of its significance. In consideration of the lack of studies on Hong Kong food literature, I will investigate the interaction between literature and food in colonial and postcolonial Hong Kong by carrying out […]

John Towey

Research on the decline of organized labor has tended to focus on the decreasing rates of union membership in the national or international context, while ignoring public support for organized labor. Those social scientists who have focused on union support, on the other hand, have not included union membership in their analyses. I will synthesize these two perspectives on de-unionization by analyzing 42 years of data from the General Social Survey that include measurements of both union membership status and support for organized labor. The 29 General Social Surveys conducted […]

Alex Mabanta

Indian Muslims, a recent UC Berkeley study discovers, are more likely to elect politicians who use Islamic symbols in campaign materials. This stands in contrast to Indian Hindus, who have no preference for candidates who appeal to their vote through Hindu symbols. Asymmetric outcomes, therefore, permeates how religious identities are politicized between India’s two largest religious populations: Hindus and Muslims. India, however, is a nation of enormous religious diversity. In consideration of religious politicization among Indias numerous religious minorities there is little to no research in the field of political […]

Leah Tyus

The mermaid has been symbolic of desire and danger, beauty and monstrosity, and the human and non-human. Residing in the constant flux of paradoxes, the mermaid remains a beautiful enigma to all that encounter her. She is perceived at a distance, yet remains within close proximity because she is our reflection. As a reflection of the self, the mermaid is a product of the human imagination, reconfigured and transformed to articulate our personal reality. There is more to the mermaid that promises truth, and I hypothesize the truth is in […]