Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.
Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 29
Description
The purpose of the present study was to determine if vocabulary knowledge is related to degree of hearing loss. A 50-question multiple-choice vocabulary test comprised of old and new words was administered to 43 adults with hearing loss (19 to 92 years old) and 51 adults with normal hearing (20 to 40 years old). Degree of hearing loss ranged from mild to moderately-severe as determined by bilateral pure-tone thresholds. Education levels ranged from some high school to graduate degrees. It was predicted that knowledge of new words would decrease with increasing hearing loss, whereas knowledge of old words would be unaffected. The Test of Contemporary Vocabulary (TCV) was developed for this study and contained words with old and new definitions. The vocabulary scores were subjected to repeated-measures ANOVA with definition type (old and new) as the within-subjects factor. Hearing level and education were between-subjects factors, while age was entered as a covariate. The results revealed no main effect of age or education level, while a significant main effect of hearing level was observed. Specifically, performance for new words decreased significantly as degree of hearing loss increased. A similar effect was not observed for old words. These results indicate that knowledge of new definitions is inversely related to degree of hearing loss.
ContributorsMarzan, Nicole Ann (Author) / Pittman, Andrea (Thesis director) / Azuma, Tamiko (Committee member) / Wexler, Kathryn (Committee member) / Department of Speech and Hearing Science (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
The neurobiology of sentence comprehension: an fMRI study of late American Sign Language acquisition
Description
Language acquisition is a phenomenon we all experience, and though it is well studied many questions remain regarding the neural bases of language. Whether a hearing speaker or Deaf signer, spoken and signed language acquisition (with eventual proficiency) develop similarly and share common neural networks. While signed language and spoken language engage completely different sensory modalities (visual-manual versus the more common auditory-oromotor) both languages share grammatical structures and contain syntactic intricacies innate to all languages. Thus, studies of multi-modal bilingualism (e.g. a native English speaker learning American Sign Language) can lead to a better understanding of the neurobiology of second language acquisition, and of language more broadly. For example, can the well-developed visual-spatial processing networks in English speakers support grammatical processing in sign language, as it relies heavily on location and movement? The present study furthers the understanding of the neural correlates of second language acquisition by studying late L2 normal hearing learners of American Sign Language (ASL). Twenty English speaking ASU students enrolled in advanced American Sign Language coursework participated in our functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) study. The aim was to identify the brain networks engaged in syntactic processing of ASL sentences in late L2 ASL learners. While many studies have addressed the neurobiology of acquiring a second spoken language, no previous study to our knowledge has examined the brain networks supporting syntactic processing in bimodal bilinguals. We examined the brain networks engaged while perceiving ASL sentences compared to ASL word lists, as well as written English sentences and word lists. We hypothesized that our findings in late bimodal bilinguals would largely coincide with the unimodal bilingual literature, but with a few notable differences including additional attention networks being engaged by ASL processing. Our results suggest that there is a high degree of overlap in sentence processing networks for ASL and English. There also are important differences in regards to the recruitment of speech comprehension, visual-spatial and domain-general brain networks. Our findings suggest that well-known sentence comprehension and syntactic processing regions for spoken languages are flexible and modality-independent.
ContributorsMickelsen, Soren Brooks (Co-author) / Johnson, Lisa (Co-author) / Rogalsky, Corianne (Thesis director) / Azuma, Tamiko (Committee member) / Howard, Pamela (Committee member) / Department of Speech and Hearing Science (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
For my creative project, I began an art press that produces small-run vinyl records and artist's books. Initially, the venture began as a means to circumvent record pressing facilities as a vinyl record-cutting service. By the end of this project, the focus shifted to encompass more visual art products than just vinyl records. The project began with vinyl records because I saw a need in the market; in the past decade, the industry has grown dramatically, but the dozen record pressing plants in the country cannot keep up with the demand. Because record pressing companies prioritize large orders, it is difficult for many small bands and independent record labels to produce work on this medium. This is due to the long lead times, high prices, and large minimum order sizes. I located a man in Germany, who invented a machine that makes high-quality, lathe-cut records. I named the project Blushing Soup, as homage to my father, who passed during my first semester of college. It is through his passing that I was able to secure funds to pursue this venture. I brought on a partner, who was more familiar with art and audio recording than myself. In the summer of 2015, we met with this inventor to learn how to use his machine. By October of 2015, a machine of our own had arrived. In early November, Blushing Soup won a grant from the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art. During this time, we released two vinyl records for local bands. For a culminating project, I coordinated a Record Store Day compilation album consisting of six bands featuring. After securing all of the music, the machine started having problems, which forced me to cancel this release. Recognizing the delicacy of the machine, prompted a shift in the aim of Blushing Soup. During this process, I started learning printmaking processes, and I realized that Blushing Soup could function as more than a record cutting service; we could be an art press. In the last few month of this project, I started making artist's books. By the end of April 2016, Blushing Soup will have released vinyl records for two bands, as well as produced four handmade books. This creative project centered around the process of creating art through lathe cutting and printmaking; the objective was not to maximize profits but rather refocus the consumption of art (in a sustainable practice).
ContributorsStringer, Shelby Manning (Author) / Essig, Linda (Thesis director) / Peck, Sidnee (Committee member) / School of Art (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Language, as an abstract, is one of the most sophisticated inventions even devised by human beings. Reading alone is a multi-faceted problem, and understanding how the brain solves it can offer enormous benefits for scientists and language-enthusiasts alike. In order to gain a more complete picture of how language and the brain relate, Chinese, an East Asian logographic language, and English, an alphabetic language, were compared and contrasted using all available scientific literature in both psychology and neuroimaging. Taken together, these findings are used to generalize the processing of written language. It was found that the hypothesis of a neuroplastically adaptable network that recruits brain areas based on the demands of a specific language has stronger support in current research than does the model of a fixed language network that is merely tuned for different languages. These findings reiterate the need for meticulous control of variables in order to reasonably compare language tasks and also demands more precise localization and labeling of brain regions for the purpose of determining function of individual areas.
ContributorsMcCann, Garrett (Author) / Helms Tillery, Stephen (Thesis director) / Azuma, Tamiko (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
Children today are being primed with technology at very young ages, leading to a more digitally focused lifestyle. Tangentially, today's digital culture has led to the increase of online shopping rather than in-store shopping. A group of students at Arizona State University's Innovation Space program, in partnership with Disney Consumer Products, set out to create a children's product that bridged the physical-digital gap, and encouraged outdoor activity. The result of their work was Blitz: a versatile, outdoor gaming console that brings traditional outdoor fun into the digital world. This thesis and paired creative project are an extension of the research and development done by the Blitz team. The purpose of this additional research is to discover how parents and children shop online in to design a website to market and sell the Blitz gaming system. Some of the topics covered include visual design, functionality, user interaction, and marketing tactics. The goal is not to develop advertising tactics to manipulate children, but to find the best ways to design for, and market children's products.
ContributorsPoindexter, Devin Alan (Author) / Fehler, Michelle (Thesis director) / Peck, Sidnee (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / Department of Finance (Contributor)
Created2014-12
Description
SparkLED designs innovative and intelligent LED products to concert attendees for the music industry (specifically, electronic dance music). Unlike other LED product distributors/manufacturers, such as emazinglights.com, orbitlightshow.com, and led-clothing.com, we offer products with higher degrees of customization, while maintaining higher quality, such as battery life and product durability. Our venture aims to solve the problem that consumers have with current LED product offerings. In most cases, consumers have a problem with the quality of their products while they are used throughout the day at a concert, club, or festival. In addition, with an over saturated market of LED product vendors that strictly utilize online channels, we hope to offer the physical channel needed to foster customer relationships and development at various events.
ContributorsYip, Indy Boyin (Author) / Trappen, Eric (Thesis director) / Peck, Sidnee (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Management (Contributor) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
Entrepreneurs have always existed in some form. Many researchers have attempted to define the core characteristics and personal traits of entrepreneurs. Few authors have presented significant research about the relationships between these entrepreneurs and their mentors. The purpose of this paper is to explore and evaluate the need for mentoring student entrepreneurs. Quantitative data on the subject is scarce, but there are several sources that provide qualitative data that are available for review and interpretation. This study will review the available research and draw from the insights and conclusions to provide a framework to improve the success of entrepreneurship through mentoring.
ContributorsViramontes, Stephen (Author) / Ostrom, Amy (Thesis director) / Boradkar, Prasad (Committee member) / Peck, Sidnee (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
DescriptionA comprehensive business model aimed at providing young travelers with authentic local experiences while reducing the financial burden of travel by leveraging users primary and extended networks.
ContributorsAskin, Christian Edward (Author) / Miller, Duane (Thesis director) / Peck, Sidnee (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Management (Contributor) / Department of Marketing (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
This thesis is a technical project management overview of development of software for a student startup venture named TableTop. There were many changes made throughout the process in order to address new conditions as to keep the vision of the project on the most direct and reasonable path. Development followed the agile product development model in order to adapt as the concept pivoted or as hurdles presented themselves. The goal at the end of the project was to have a well-defined business model based off of the lean startup business model canvas. The business model would shape development of the software that needed to be functional and ready for testing by the completion of the thesis. Functional was defined as having completed the user and merchant side of the application including communication between both. Ultimately, a user needed to be able to complete a transaction that a merchant had submitted on the software.
ContributorsMaloney, Ryan Daniel (Author) / Mayron, Liam (Thesis director) / Peck, Sidnee (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Arts, Media and Engineering (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
The increase of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) cases in recent war history has increased the urgency of research regarding how veterans are affected by TBIs. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of TBI on speech recognition in noise. The AzBio Sentence Test was completed for signal-to-noise ratios (S/N) from -10 dB to +15 dB for a control group of ten participants and one US military veteran with history of service-connected TBI. All participants had normal hearing sensitivity defined as thresholds of 20 dB or better at frequencies from 250-8000 Hz in addition to having tympanograms within normal limits. Comparison of the data collected on the control group versus the veteran suggested that the veteran performed worse than the majority of the control group on the AzBio Sentence Test. Further research with more participants would be beneficial to our understanding of how veterans with TBI perform on speech recognition tests in the presence of background noise.
ContributorsCorvasce, Erica Marie (Author) / Peterson, Kathleen (Thesis director) / Williams, Erica (Committee member) / Azuma, Tamiko (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Speech and Hearing Science (Contributor)
Created2015-05