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 26
Description
The incorporation of electronic books (e-books) into the classroom and home of young children has been shown to have positive effects on the acquisition of early literacy skills. Dialogic reading methods, which include interactive conversations between caregiver and child about a story as it is being read, additionally are known to improve skills that lead to improved literacy during the school years. No research to date, however, has examined e-books and dialogic reading when used together. This study examines how using dialogic reading with a child reading an e-book will impact the acquisition of emergent literacy skills, particularly vocabulary knowledge and story recall ability. Twenty-three children aged 3 to 5 took part in a matched pairs experiment that included reading a select e-book four times in which half received a dialogic reading intervention. The children who received the intervention scored significantly higher in the story recall measure of the posttest than those in the control group. No differences were found between the experimental and control groups on the vocabulary measure, although mutual gains were found among both groups from the pretest to the posttest. The results suggest that dialogic reading when incorporated with e-books may improve a child's ability to recall a story. Further, the results indicate that repeated reading of the same e-book may increase vocabulary knowledge.
ContributorsFallon, Ashley Elizabeth (Author) / Connor, Carol (Thesis director) / Kupfer, Anne (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Division of Teacher Preparation (Contributor)
Created2014-12
Description
This study assessed preschool children's (N= 52) ability to introspect and monitor their own levels of certainty. After a book reading intervention, children reported that they were less certain of answer choices in a picture identification game. School differences showed that some groups of children reported improved levels of certainty monitoring, while other groups of children reported scores dissimilar to those predicted. This indicated that children who were immersed in rich learning environments, where strict curriculum and emotion understanding training were enforced, could be predisposed to this type of certainty understanding.
ContributorsHicks, Jordan (Co-author) / Sanyal, Awhona (Co-author) / Fabricius, William (Thesis director) / Kupfer, Anne (Committee member) / Gonzales, Christopher (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-12
Description
Both dialogic reading and embodied cognition have showed to be effective strategies in the development of early literacy skills. Additionally, the use of electronic books has been found to also have a positive effect, including in combination with dialogic reading. The effectiveness of dialogic reading and embodied strategy while reading an e-book has not been compared. The purpose of the study is to determine if embodied cognition can improve dialogic reading practices and possibly offer a theoretical framework for why dialogical reading practices work. Additionally, this study aims to determine the impact of embodied cognition and dialogic reading on the development of both vocabulary and story recall skills in preschool-aged children. Twenty-nine preschool children between the ages of 3 and 5 years old took part in a matched pairs experiment that included reading an e-book. Children in the experimental groups received four readings of either an embodied cognition condition or a dialogic reading condition. Following the four readings, the groups switched treatment. The children who received the embodied cognition conditions scored significantly higher on both story recall and vocabulary acquisition compared to those in the dialogic reading and control groups. Results of the study suggest embodied cognition in conjugation with dialogic reading practices could provide a more effective and improved model for promoting early literacy skills.
ContributorsMedrano, Danielle Alessandra (Author) / Glenberg, Arthur (Thesis director) / Kupfer, Anne (Committee member) / Gomez, Ligia (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / School of Music (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Introspective awareness refers to direct access to one’s own internal and subjective thoughts and feelings (Wimmer & Hartl, 1991). Two theories, simulation theory and theory-theory, have been used to understand our access to our mental states. Simulation theory (Harris, 1991) involves imagining yourself in another person’s situation, reading off of your mental state, and attributing that state to the other person. Theory-theory (Gopnik, 1993) involves an interrelated body of knowledge, based on core mental-state constructs, including beliefs and desires, that may be applied to everyone—self and others (Gopnik & Wellman, 1994). Introspection is taken for granted by simulation theory, and explicitly denied by theory-theory. This study is designed to test for evidence of introspection in young children using simple perception and knowledge task. The current evidence is against introspective awareness in children because the data suggest that children cannot report their own false beliefs and they cannot report their on-going thoughts (Flavell, Green & Flavell, 1993; Gopnik & Astington, 1988). The hypothesis in this study states that children will perform better on Self tasks compared to Other tasks, which will be evidence for introspection. The Other-Perception tasks require children to calculate the other’s line of sight and determine if there is something obscuring his or her vision. The Other-Knowledge tasks require children to reason that the other’s previous looking inside a box means that he or she will know what is inside the box when it is closed. The corresponding Self tasks could be answered either by using the same reasoning for the self or by introspection to determine what it is they see and do not see, and know and do not know. Children performing better on Self tasks compared to Other tasks will be an indication of introspection. Tests included Yes/No and Forced Choice questions, which was initially to ensure that the results will not be caused by a feature of a single method of questioning. I realized belatedly, however, that Forced Choice was not a valid measure of introspection as children could introspect in both the Self and Other conditions. I also expect to replicate previous findings that reasoning about Perception is easier for children than reasoning about Knowledge.
ContributorsAamed, Mati (Author) / Fabricius, William (Thesis director) / Glenberg, Arthur (Committee member) / Kupfer, Anne (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor)
Created2013-12
Description
Characterization of particulate process and product design is a difficult field because of the unique bulk properties and behaviors of particles that differ from gasses and liquids. The purpose of this research is to develop an equation to relate the angle of repose and flowability, the ability of the particle to flow as it pertains to particulate processes and product design. This research is important in multiple industries such as pharmaceuticals and food processes.
ContributorsNugent, Emily Rose (Author) / Emady, Heather (Thesis director) / Marvi, Hamidreza (Committee member) / Materials Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Chemical Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
For many years now, early word learning in children has been an important subject among many researchers. There are many ways in which children learn word-object pairings including using co-occurrences, forwards integration, and backwards integration. This study primarily focuses on backwards integration. Backwards integration entails using learned information to be able to recall a word-object pairing from a previous time. In this thesis, three different studies were conducted with children aged 3-7 years old. In the general task, children were presented with a computerized word-learning task in which they could track word-referent pairings using co-occurrence statistics, forward integration, and backward integration. The goal of Study 1 and Study 2 was to determine the best task design to study backwards integration. The goal of the final study, Study 3, was to provide preliminary data on backwards integration. The overall results indicate that a between subjects design is the most beneficial way to test backwards integration because as a group, children were learning when compared to chance. In addition, the results from Study 3 showed that children were not learning in the task. In general, this suggests that this task may have been very difficult for children to complete. One limitation of Study 3
was that there was a small sample size of only 29 children. In order to account for this, the sample sizes in Study 2 and Study 3 were combined. This combined data did show that children succeeded at the backwards integration condition. It is noteworthy to mention that backwards integration was above chance in Study 2 and in the Study 2 and 3 combination. Therefore, the overall results suggest that children may possibly be able to backwards integrate; however, no evidence of learning in any of the other conditions were present.
was that there was a small sample size of only 29 children. In order to account for this, the sample sizes in Study 2 and Study 3 were combined. This combined data did show that children succeeded at the backwards integration condition. It is noteworthy to mention that backwards integration was above chance in Study 2 and in the Study 2 and 3 combination. Therefore, the overall results suggest that children may possibly be able to backwards integrate; however, no evidence of learning in any of the other conditions were present.
ContributorsLalani, Hanna Alyssa (Author) / Benitez, Viridiana (Thesis director) / Kupfer, Anne (Committee member) / Fabricius, William (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Department of Management and Entrepreneurship (Contributor) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
The goal of this thesis is designing controllers for swarm robots transport a payload over inclines. Several fields of study are related to this study, including control theory, dynamic modeling and programming. MATLAB, a tool of design controller and simulation, is used in this thesis.
To achieve this goal, a model of swarm robots transportation should be designed, which is cruise control for this scenario. Secondly, based on free body diagram, force equilibrium equation can be deduced. Then, the function of plant can be deduced based on cruise control and force equilibrium equations. Thirdly, list potential controllers, which may implement desired controls of swarm robots, and test their performance. Modify value of gains and do simulations of these controller. After analyzing results of simulation, the best controller can be selected.
In the last section, there is conclusion of entire thesis project and pointing out future work. The section of future work will mention potential difficulties of building entire control system, which allow swarm robots transport over inclines in real environment.
To achieve this goal, a model of swarm robots transportation should be designed, which is cruise control for this scenario. Secondly, based on free body diagram, force equilibrium equation can be deduced. Then, the function of plant can be deduced based on cruise control and force equilibrium equations. Thirdly, list potential controllers, which may implement desired controls of swarm robots, and test their performance. Modify value of gains and do simulations of these controller. After analyzing results of simulation, the best controller can be selected.
In the last section, there is conclusion of entire thesis project and pointing out future work. The section of future work will mention potential difficulties of building entire control system, which allow swarm robots transport over inclines in real environment.
ContributorsShe, Hanyu (Author) / Berman, Spring (Thesis director) / Marvi, Hamidreza (Committee member) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor, Contributor) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
Self-regulation in the form of coping with emotions is something that most people have effectively adapted to by adulthood. This is an organically learned process that begins in early childhood through play, parenting, education, and peer interactions. This study examines whether six children aged 4-5 (M age= 4.72, SD= 0.372, 50% female, 100% Caucasian) are able to understand basic emotions and how to cope with them through one of two protocols. The conditions were either directive instruction or embodied cognition, and children were evaluated with a pre and post-test measure. Findings did not indicate any significant effect of the conditions on memorizing coping mechanisms, nor did it indicate that there was a significant improvement in emotion understanding following the sessions. These findings were limited by the sample size and participant interest.
ContributorsLittell, Naila Sabre (Co-author) / Frutiger, Kiana (Co-author) / Fey, Richard (Thesis director) / Kupfer, Anne (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-12
Description
Curiosity has been linked with many benefits, including increased overall well-being (Lydon-Staley et al., 2020) and greater academic achievement (Gottfried et al., 2016). The value that children place on learning new things and exploring novel ideas is unrivaled by older individuals. However, little research has been conducted to examine how parents may be able to help foster their children’s curiosity in a way that teaches them how to effectively search for and synthesize information. This paper aims to determine how parents’ language during a storybook task is related to their children’s strategy to collect rewards during a search game. Preliminary results suggest that parents may be able to encourage more effective search by asking more close-ended questions. These findings provide insight into how parents and guardians may be able to encourage their children to become better adept at searching for information by taking in clues about their environment and modifying their behavior to maximize their efforts.
ContributorsScirpo, Kalie Rose (Author) / Lucca, Kelsey (Thesis director) / Kupfer, Anne (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
Description
Over the past decade, fall related injuries and death among individuals 65 and older due to osteosarcopenia have increased significantly. To reduce the risk of recurrent falls among the elderly caused by osteosarcopenia, a soft-body pneumatically stabilizing device is designed. A few different actuation methods are considered, both rigid and soft body actuators, before deciding the best fit for the design goals of the wearable assistive device. Much of the design is developed through numerically modeling and analyzing the human upper body as an inverted pendulum. Through this method, common characteristics of falling behavior are identified to develop a control system that counteracts falling motion with pneumatically produced forces. An emphasis on human-oriented design provides much of the framework for translating the numerical model of forces into a device that prioritizes user comfort without sacrificing assistive performance.
ContributorsJohansen, Max (Author) / Grewal, Anoop (Thesis director) / Marvi, Hamidreza (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2022-12