TALKIN' - University of Wisconsin - Green Bay

More documents

Recommendations

Info

RESEARCH TO WATCH… STYLE POINTS FOR FACULTY — UW-GREEN BAY PSYCHOL- OGY STUDENTS SURVEYING CLASSMATE ATTITUDES FOUND “DRESS FOR SUCCESS” HOLDS TRUE EVEN FOR OTHERWISE RESPECTED FACULTY MEMBERS: STUDENTS TENDED TO RATE MORE CASUAL ATTIRE LESS FAVORABLY. 2 May 2011 Research for undergraduates It has long been a point of pride that undergraduate students add depth and high-value experience to their UW-Green Bay educations by working closely with faculty members on significant, sophisticated research. The subject of our cover story, the Language Learning Lab, allows psychology major Areanna Lakowske of Sparta, as a sophomore, to contribute to an ongoing study of speech development in young children. Lakowske (here with Human Development student Craig Van Pay of Green Bay) takes notes and shares toys and “conversation” with a visiting toddler. In this issue of Inside, we sample the very impressive range and noteworthy results of UW-Green Bay student research.
Accelerated learning When toddlers go to college, researchers go to head of the class The research subjects are young — children ages 2 to 4 — and the researchers are youthful, too. As early as their sophomore years at UW-Green Bay, undergraduates are contributing to high-level studies of cognitive development and language acquisition in children. “We’re pushing our students to get involved in research as early as possible,” says Prof. Jennifer Zapf. Zapf directs the University’s Language Learning Lab. Over the course of the spring semester she and four assistants worked with more than 75 young children – coordinating the short visits with parent volunteers and local childcare centers – to observe toddlers at play and performing simple tasks. The results inform various studies and also enrich a general database related to skill and language development. Zapf’s academic unit, Human Development, has revamped its curriculum to encourage new students to take a building-block research course early in their college careers. Human Development and Psychology are among the University’s most heavily enrolled majors, and Zapf draws from among these and others in recruiting research assistants. “Making a research-methods course a prerequisite has been beneficial,” Zapf says. “Our students get so much more out of their upper-level classes. In my case, when they come into my 400-level Cognitive Psychology class where it’s a very heavy research focus, they have a solid background.” Faculty members believe students will have better opportunities to develop their skills and build a portfolio. Instead of waiting until their senior year and perhaps a single project with one professor, motivated individuals can participate in several research studies and, as Zapf says, “they’ll have varied experiences with three different faculty members and subjects, and get three letters of recommendation, instead of just one.” At the Language Lab, the newest study involves the question of whether seemingly small differences in word structure or complexity can affect a toddler’s ability to remember not only the word itself but also the associated object or picture. For example, Zapf explains, the word “dogs” requires more effort to pronounce, because of its backto-back consonant sounds, than the equally short word “keys.” The study is ongoing, but early results point to a correlation between struggling to pronounce a new plural and remembering the concept, words or meaning. Student Craig Van Pay presented the preliminary findings at the annual student research fair at UW-Green Bay. His professor suggests the project could be the topic of a major academic paper within a year. “For a student to be listed as the co-author of a paper, as an undergraduate, is something special,” says Zapf, who notes that a third co-author is a highly respected professor at Northwestern University collaborating on the same project. A number of major universities have language learning labs, Zapf “I’d say we’re relatively unique for a campus this size.” –Prof. Zapf says, among them the University of Illinois and Indiana University, where she did her own undergraduate and graduate work. Some small- to midsize institutions also have speech therapy programs which tend to focus on delayed or impaired speech development. The program at UW-Green Bay, she believes, is different because of the school’s size and the lab’s emphasis on core research involving typical language formation in small children. “I’d say we’re relatively unique for a campus this size,” she says. “Also, what’s cool for our students is they’re not just feeding numbers into the computer, or doing paperwork. They’re working with children, connecting with the parents and child-care providers, and learning five different experimental procedures, all at once.” For language researchers, video was baby blockbuster It was an internet and morning news sensation: Sam and Ren babbling away, captured on Mom’s camcorder as they gestured, laughed and conversed in a secret baby language. The video of the 17-month-old twins and their irresistibly adorable exchange left most viewers smiling. At UW-Green Bay, where students assist on speechacquisition studies with toddlers roughly the same age, there were smiles of recognition, too. “The basic things we’re seeing in that video, much of it is familiar to our students,” says Human Development Prof. Jennifer Zapf. “It does show that human communication is not just about words but how we say them.” Not only were Zapf’s students excited by the clip — it demonstrated the currency and public fascination with this type of research — the larger academic world was chattering, too. On the day the video went viral, Zapf was at her field’s major annual conference, the Society for Research in Child Development. “Everybody was talking about it. Whether it could be classified as ‘language’ was the great debate.” May 2011 3
Page 1 and 2: MAY 2011 TALKIN’ RESEARCH
Page 3: Inside UW-Green Bay May 2011 Volume
Page 7 and 8: Student drills down on ‘S-commerc
Page 9 and 10: The Facebook Factor Top psych resea
Page 11 and 12: Prized parcel known for birds, not
Page 13 and 14: UW-GREEN BAY Made for me. I had a b
Page 15 and 16: Inaugural ‘Business Week’ bring
Page 17 and 18: Photo: Staff members Helen Alexande
Page 19 and 20: 1970s James Ullmer ’71 regional a
Page 21 and 22: Lee Riekki ’95 human development
Page 23 and 24: Pamela Brunk ’07 human developmen
Page 25 and 26: Apply by July: Legacy scholarship f
Page 27 and 28: That’s why we work so hard to sta

TALKIN' - University of Wisconsin - Green Bay

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?