Former DSP Scholars
Want to learn more about the sort of projects DSP supports? Check out some of our recent scholars for inspiration!
Marko Hernandez
Marko seeks to better understand the prioritized attentional processing that the human visual system affords to stimuli that are threatening (e.g., snakes, guns). He is also exploring the “low prevalence effect,” which is the finding that ... (during visual search) items that are rare are missed disproportionately often relative to items that are more common. This project began with the question “Does the prioritization of threatening items afford protection against prevalence effects?” To explore this question, he had people conduct visual search looking for threatening items (snakes) or nonthreatening items (rabbits). After finding unexpected results (i.e., threats were actually found less often and more slowly), he replicated those findings and added two conditions: search targets that look similar to snakes but are nonthreatening (caterpillars) and search targets that elicit emotion (disgust) but not fear (roaches).
Janelle Hernandez
Medical image analysis requires detection of ill-specified deformities, a skill that requires considerable training. After medical school/residency, radiologists must retain their skills and transfer them across screenings. Participants ... in this semi-longitudinal study used one of four perceptual learning methods to train anomaly detection during weeks 1-3. Following a 2-week break, participants completed a skill retention test and then a transfer task. Training was assessed via performance on simple search arrays and complex scenes. Performance enhancements were near-universally retained over time, and few performance decrements were observed on altered stimuli, indicating that anomaly detection skills can be retained over time.
Emily Stutesman
Detecting anomalies within medical images is critical to routine/emergency medicine. Here, we used a semi-longitudinal approach to investigate four perceptual learning methods for training a laboratory analogue of medical image analysis. In ... weeks 1-3, participants developed skills using one of the learning methods. Weeks 4-5 were “off weeks,” followed by a skill retention test in week 6 and a skills transfer task in week 7. Training was assessed via performance on simple search arrays and complex scenes. Performance increased steadily over time, for both target detection and exhaustive searches, indicating that anomaly detection can effectively be trained via practice.
María Belem Mendoza
María Belem Mendoza is a 4th year undergraduate student at NMSU, double majoring in English and Gender & Sexuality Studies. Originally from Chihuahua, Mexico, she moved to the U.S. to continue her studies in ... literature. Her interests and research mostly focus on the intersection between literature, gender, and activism around the U.S.-Mexico border region. Her research paper “Femicides: Gender Violence in Mexico” was published in NMSU’s interdisciplinary undergraduate journal, The Agora. Her paper discusses femicides and gender violence in Mexico as a systematic problem by borrowing from her activism and lived experiences in Mexico. For her DSP project, María will be participating in the Fuerza Feminista: Intimate Recovery and Memory Archive (FFIRMA), a project that documents, contextualizes, and makes digitally accessible the activism and participation of the first feminist and anti-feminicide local movements in Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua from the late 1990s to the early 2010s. María will conduct archival research on the topic of disappearances and feminicides.
Mayte Alonso
The possible distinction between vigilance and sustained attention has yet to be fully identified. Mayte’s project uses pupillometry to explore the difference in pupil dilation between these two types of attention. To test ... this, the Active (A-MOT) and Passive Multiple Object Tracking (P-MOT) paradigms are utilized. The A-MOT task is a traditional multiple-object tracking task where participants are told to track specific target objects, identified at the start of the trial, requiring sustained cognitive engagement. In the P-MOT task, participants must remain alert to all the objects, as the targets are revealed only at the end of the trail, requiring continuous vigilance, but involving lower cognitive demand overall. By measuring pupil dilation as a proxy for cognitive effort, this study aims to compare dilation across different time points and conditions to provide new insights into the categorization of various forms of sustained attention.
Gwendolyn Pickett
Ginnie's project looks at the stink bug Moromorpha tetra and what each stage of its life looks like. Currently there is not much information on the species, so she will be collecting them ... to take pictures of and compare the different instars. After NMSU, she hopes to get a graduate's degree in behavioral entomology.
Angelica Mann
My name is Angelica "Gel" Mann and I am a senior majoring in Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Ecology. I am originally from San Antonio, TX but have not been back since 2004 when I enlisted in the Air Force. ... Now that I am retired, I have the opportunity to really dive deep into my studies while working with the amazing staff, faculty, and fellow students at NMSU. I am a member of the Behavioral Ecology and Bat Organismal Physiology (BEBOP) lab in the biology department under the guidance of Dr. Teri Orr. My project is focused on the milk composition of Mexican free-tailed bats at Radium Springs, NM. These bats occupy a critical role in our ecosystem as an insectivorous hunter. Lactation is a demanding physiological process for these flying mammals and analyzing milk composition may reflect maternal health, environmental stressors, and dietary resources. This analysis will provide vital information on the development of pups, contributing to the knowledge of bat reproductive physiology, and the health of these bat populations.
Noah Clausen
My project examines deformation mechanisms in oceanic lithosphere using samples from IODP Expeditions 173 (Iberian Margin) and 305 (Atlantis Massif). I will be analyzing microstructures, magnetic properties, and geochemical data ... to identify evidence of seismic deformation and quantify strain rates. Notably, we will reexamine a possible pseudotachylyte in the Iberian Margin—potentially the only one reported outside subduction zones in over 55 years of ocean drilling.
Cade Borner
My name is Cade Borner, I am an undergraduate sociology major from Roswell, New Mexico. I am spearheading a project that focuses on using sociological theories of cultural taste, classification, and gender performativity ... to understand how and the extent to which metal music communicates patriarchal themes in lyrical content and how these themes and their prevalence varies across time and subgenre. I am using web scraping techniques to put together a novel longitudinal dataset of metal music lyrics and discographic information which I will analyze using word embedding methods and other data analytics methods.
Lacey Yates
Hello my name is Lacey Yates. I am Majoring in Human development and family sciences and minoring in Agriculture business, Counseling, and psychology. I am a first-generation student ... I am from Aztec, New Mexico. I love animals and reading and hope to become a school psychologist and run an equine therapy practice.
Jon Art
I am currently in the process of earning my bachelor's degree in psychology with minors in biochemistry and human biology. Upon completion, I plan to pursue a PhD in neuroscience and a research focused career. ... Under the guidance of Dr Hout, my project will investigate how the timing of visual stimuli - as well as the consistency of that timing from trial to trial - influences performance in attentional tasks. By comparing participant performance between consistent and inconsistent timing conditions, we will investigate how timing affects attentional processing. Outside of my academics, I enjoy playing video games, golfing, and watching movies.
Sarrah Trujillo
My name's Sarrah and I am currently double majoring in anthropology and sociology with a minor in archaeology. My project is about informing and implementing CEA (controlled environment agriculture) systems onto the tribal reservations. ... The tribe I am working with is the Navajo in and around Farmington NM which is great because that is where I grew up. I love learning about different cultures and playing music both in marching and concert band. I also love nature and seeing the beauty in everything.
Marian Galaviz
I am a first-generation college student from Albuquerque, New Mexico, pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Social Work with a minor in Psychology. My Mexican family background inspires my commitment to advancing mental health equity ... for Hispanic/Latinx communities. My current project explores how cultural and familial stigma influence Hispanic/Latinx college students' willingness to seek mental health support, with a focus on colorism and generational status.