Students Present at SPARC, WPA, and URCA conferences

Spring quarter was a busy conference season for TALE Lab members. Six students presented at three different conferences.

Spartan Psychological Association Research Conference in San Jose, California (SPARC)

SPARC took place on April 18th, and three students presented posters on their TALE Lab research. Sydney presented her honors thesis, which looked at how emotion and word phrasing affect memory recall. Payton presented research on the socioemotional functions of personal stories in student-to-student story sharing and responding. Julia presented a research on a series of proposed experiments about the the teaching and learning function of autobiographical memory. Here are some student reflections: 

Julia - “I really liked this conference because it was my first one and it was helpful to see how they work and get experience! I also really appreciated the opportunity to put together a research paper and I learned a lot from that process.”

Payton - “As this was my first official conference, I was excited to present a poster on research that we have been collecting and analyzing for several months. I was able to meet undergraduate students, doctoral students, and faculty advisors who provided feedback on our research, as well as, presenting their own studies. I learned more about intriguing clinical psychology topics, my future area of research, that I hope to incorporate in my doctoral program. Finally, spending time with Dr. Albada and fellow lab members was really exciting and it was an experience we get to share together. ”

Sydney - “I liked the experience and being able to see everyone’s presentations. I also liked being able to present my research and practice talking in front of other people as I felt it was good practice. I was also able to meet a few people with similar interests and connect with them.”

The Western Psychology Association Conference in Portland, Oregon (WPA)

WPA took place from April 27th to May 1st in Portland, Oregon. Three current and one former TALE Lab member presented on their honors theses. Amy presented her work exploring if race concordance or not between Asian/White patients and physicians in a telehealth setting leads to lower levels of anxiety and higher levels of trust. Pauline presented her research that explored how personal story sharing relating to illness between a patient and physician can impact patient well-being and perceived empathy. Raina presented her work which explored the link between music-evoked autobiographical memories (MEAMs) and self-concept and identity. Here are their reflections:

Amy Tran - “I really enjoyed the Asian American Mental Health stigma panel! It was very relevant to my resource and the work that I would like to pursue in the future. The panel allowed me to see the current work that is happening in that field. Since the conference had people from all over the United States there, it was interesting to see how their research catered to the community they were in. I appreciated how intersectional and community-based a lot of the research was.”

Pauline Yang - “I really enjoyed getting to meet various people at this conference. It was a fun experience to be able to present my research poster and discuss something I am passionate about with so many people. It made my work feel important and made me realize the impact my research can have on the health/medicine field of psychology.”

Undergraduate Research & Creative Activities (URCA)

Amy, Pauline, and Sydney also participated in various events during URCA week. Sydney presented her research at the poster session, while Amy and Pauline were panelists for different panel sessions. Pauline was on “The Minds and Methods” panel that presented on May 4th. Amy was on the “Communicating Better” panel that occurred on May 5th. All three speakers presented their own honors thesis research.