UROP
What is UROP?
UROP stands for "Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program." It is a program through Indiana University - Indianapolis that provides funding to undergraduates wanting to conduct research. Applicants must find a faculty member to work with and create a research proposal.
My Research Project
Fall 2023 - Spring 2024
In Fall 2023, I began working with Dr. Sara Konrath, my faculty mentor, and Cyntia Sanchez Vikovich, an undergraduate colleague also participating in UROP.
We examined how emotion recognition has changed over time utilizes a cross-temporal meta-analysis (CTMA). To do so, we examined scores on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) from the late 1990s to 2001 in English-speaking countries. We found that there has been an overall decline in emotion recognition ability.
Alongside other undergraduates in Dr. Konrath's lab, we presented our research at the Midwestern Psychological Association (MPA) conference in Chicago on April 20, 2024. We presented a poster, which you can see on the right.
Summer 2024
Fortunately, my UROP funding was extended through the summer and will even continue into next school year. This summer, I primarily continued entering preliminary data. From June to July, I was able to enter data from k=237 studies, leaving k=77 first round extractions.
I will continue working on this project next school year and will complete it as my capstone project. When I finish the first round of data extraction, I will check the data and add additional (participant demographics and standard deviations). Afterwards, I will eventually clean and analyze the data. I will start working on writing my research product when my capstone class begins and hopefully submit it as an article to a peer-reviewed journal.
Reflection
Participating in UROP and this research experience has been extremely valuable. I learned and practiced many research skills such as writing, defining criteria, screening abstracts/articles, entering data, and creating/presenting a research poster. I was also able to connect to other undergraduates working with Dr. Konrath.
Due to time constraints, we were only able to present preliminary data thus far. However, I plan to continue working on this project with Dr. Konrath next year for my senior thesis, and we would like to work together and submit an article for publication eventually.
In progress. Last updated 7/24/2024.
Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA)
Poster presented at MPA conference on April 20th. To view poster as PDF, click here.
RMET Stimuli Examples– Participants are shown one image at a time and have to choose one of the four answer options that best describe the emotion shown by the actors/actresses.