Undergraduate and graduate students with the top-scoring posters were invited to participate in SRCD's Student and Early Career Council's Student Poster Contest. Students submitted brief video presentations along with their posters for consideration. These undergraduate and graduate school winners received a complimentary 1-year SRCD membership and will be recognized at the SRCD Member Meeting and Awards Ceremony held at the SRCD 2021 Virtual Biennial Meeting (April 8, 2021, 6:00pm EDT):
GRADUATE STUDENTS
I-Tzu Hung, Boston University
Poster Title
Using the Flanker Task to Examine Genetic and Environmental Contributions in Inhibitory Control Across Early Childhood
Poster Session 10
Friday, April 9, 10:15am to 11:15am EDT
I am a second-year doctoral student in the Developmental Science program in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Boston University. I graduated from National Taiwan University in 2017 with a B.S. in Psychology. My research interests include the development of self-regulation, temperament, and behavior problems and their links with developmental outcomes. In the Boston University Twin Project, I use a behavioral genetic approach to study genetic and environmental contributions to early childhood development. My research presented at SRCD includes a longitudinal study of genetic and environmental influences on Flanker-assessed inhibitory control in preschoolers ages 3 to 5 years, and a study of genetic and environmental links between temperament and school readiness at age 3 years. My future work will focus on examining genetic and environmental effects on the longitudinal association between callous-unemotional traits and parenting.
Naomi Polinsky, Northwestern University
Poster Title
Constructing Spatial Memories: Families’ Spatial Language Use in Conversational Reflections on an Engineering Exhibit
Poster Session 03
Wednesday, April 7, 12:55pm to 1:55pm EDT
I am a doctoral candidate in Cognitive Psychology at Northwestern University under the mentorship of Dr. David Uttal. Prior to pursuing my Ph.D., I completed a B.A. in Psychology at Barnard College. My current research focuses on how the design of playful experiences can support children’s development of spatial skills, which are fundamental for achievement in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). I examine a wide variety of play experiences, including touchscreen game play and those that occur in children’s museums. I am interested in how the design characteristics of these play experiences can naturally engage children and families in the types of spatial practices, such as using spatial language, that are known to contribute to spatial skill development. Long term, I hope this research can inform the design of play experiences that children encounter in their everyday lives.
Michaela Quintero, Texas Tech University
Poster Title
Socioeconomic Status and Academic Achievement Trajectories: The Moderating Role of Classroom Goal Structures
Poster Session 11
Friday, April 9, 11:45am to 12:45pm EDT
I am a second-year doctoral student in Human Development and Family Sciences at Texas Tech University. Originally, I am from California and earned my B.A. and M.A. in Child Development at CSU, Stanislaus. After my M.A., I had the opportunity to teach an undergraduate course and knew this is what I wanted to do with my life, so I began looking at PhD programs. I have struggled with math anxiety my entire academic career which is why I was intrigued with the work Dr. Zhe Wang was doing at Texas Tech. After my acceptance, I began working in Dr. Wang’s lab, which further developed my research interests in math anxiety, motivation, goal orientation, academic achievement, and SES. My career goal is to become a professor at a teaching institution and use my research in an applicable manner when creating course content.
Alexis Smith-Flores, University of California, San Diego
Poster Title
Yay! Yuck! Toddlers use Incongruent Emotions to Reason about Hidden Objects
Poster Session 09
Thursday, April 8, 3:15pm to 4:15pm EDT
I am a first-year graduate student at UCSD working with Dr. Lindsey Powell. Before graduate school, I completed a two-year lab managership with Dr. Lisa Feigenson at Johns Hopkins. I study how infants and young children use social information, such as emotions and other agents’ goals and beliefs, to make sense of their world. I have been investigating the use of emotions as object labels, emotions as content for false belief tracking, understanding of social interactions and preferences, and most recently, replicability of in-lab looking time paradigms in remote format. You can learn more about my research on my website alexis-s-smith.com.
UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS
Konner Baker, Saint Martin’s University
Poster Title
Learning in a Pandemic: Quarantine Effects on Emerging Adults' Coping
Poster Session 14
Friday, April 9, 4:30pm to 5:30pm EDT
Born in Olympia but raised in San Antonio, Texas, I moved to Washington State in 2018 to reconnect with family and finish my degree. I earned my B.A. in Psychology from Saint Martin’s University in 2020 and my Associate of Science, Concentration in Engineering from San Antonio College in 2017. My goal is to earn a Ph.D. in child clinical psychology to conduct research, counseling, and psychotherapy for children and youth. I love working with children, inspiring them to accomplish more than they thought possible and to be the hero of their own story. My research interests include youth psychological development, personality, assessment, and data science. For SRCD, I am presenting research on emerging adults’ coping during a pandemic. This is a critical time for everyone and understanding the effects of this strange phenomenon could mean a great benefit for youth everywhere.
Madeline Filippi, Texas Christian University
Poster Title
Parenting Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Poster Session 04
Wednesday, April 7, 3:15pm to 4:15pm EDT
I am a junior at Texas Christian University. I grew up in Modesto, California and was drawn to research because it can help and educate people in a variety of fields. I have been an undergraduate research assistant in the TCU Families, Autism and Child Emotion Studies (FACES) Lab since Spring 2020. I am also an intern at TCU’s Institute of Behavioral Research. I am heavily influenced by my family, specifically my older brother with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). In this study, we focused on how self-reported levels of parenting responsibility, anxiety, depression, and parental stress differed between mothers and fathers at various points during the pandemic. From the research presented on my poster, I hope that other researchers are motivated to explore researching fathers of children with ASD.