Archive for category: Students

Meet fourth-year undergraduate researcher David Figueroa!

David Figueroa majors in Psychology and minors in Film, Television, Digital Media and is in our Undergraduate Research Fellows Program (URFP). The title of his project is “Buy It All and Then Some: How Social Status Induces Selfishness Under Resource Scarcity.” He focuses on understanding why we observe selfishness even when such behaviors may be detrimental to other people. His best piece of advice to write a research plan, but be flexible with it!

How did you first get interested in your research project?

In March 2020, we saw a panic-buying response to stay-at-home orders and COVID-19. There is a particular case study that surprised me: a man purchased over 17,700 bottles of hand sanitizer across Tennessee and Kentucky. At about $3 a bottle, not including tax, such a purchase would cost over
$50,000. That amount is almost 3 times above the poverty line for a single-person household in the United States. For some, $50,000 is not even their yearly income, let alone funds available to stock up on hand sanitizer. In February 2021, we saw instances of wealthy, white LA residents using vaccine access codes that were meant for Black and Latino communities to get vaccinated for COVID-19. The reason these behaviors are concerning is that they were done when resources were scarce. Hand sanitizer was limited when stay-at-home orders first began, and as we all know, there are currently not enough vaccines for everyone. The question then arose: Within the context of resource scarcity, will high-status individuals act more selfishly than low-status individuals?

What has been the most exciting aspect of your research so far?

The most exciting aspect of my research so far has been being able to collaborate with my graduate student mentor, Lauren Hofschneider, as well as my faculty advisor, Dr. Tomiyama. I had already been working in Dr. Tomiyama’s DiSH lab coordinating one of Lauren’s studies; we already knew each other long before the start of my personal research. However, being able to create an original project and collaborate with those who have supported and mentored you throughout your undergraduate career was an opportunity I could not miss. I am forever in debt to both for taking a chance on my crazy idea almost a year ago.

What has surprised you about your research or the research process?

The most surprising aspect of the research process that I have become aware of was how long it takes to get research off the ground. Hours, days, weeks must be spent learning and researching the literature, waiting for IRB approval, and finalizing your research materials. All of this is not even taking into consideration waiting for funding and other collaborators to be ready as well. It is all part of the process.

What is one piece of advice you have for other UCLA students thinking about doing research?

Plan. Plan for every single step of the process because it will be hard to know where you are going or what you must do without some sort of record to keep you on track. Related to this, is to be flexible with this plan. Sometimes you will find yourself ahead of your schedule and other times something may take twice as long to complete as you had originally anticipated. Write a research plan, but do not write it in stone.

What effect do you hope your research has in your field, at UCLA, in your community, or in the world?

The most fundamental aspect of my current research is understanding why we observe selfishness even when such behaviors may be detrimental to other people. Referring to the two cases that I previously mentioned, some people decided to rely on selfishness to benefit themselves at a huge cost to others whether it be buying all the hand sanitizer or steal vaccine access. If we can understand why some people resort to these selfish behaviors and attitudes, the next step is pinpointing methods of promoting generosity and cooperation to reduce the temptation to buy 17,700 bottles of hand sanitizer across two states.

 

 

 

Meet fourth-year undergraduate researcher Daisy Ramirez!

Daisy Ramirez majors in Psychology and minors in Education and Disability Studies and is in our Undergraduate Research Scholars Program (URSP). The title of her project is ” Relationships Between Sleep Disturbances, Depression, and Academic Achievement in Latinx Youth: Moderation by Generational Status and Family Conflict.” She hopes to bring light to the different educational trajectories Latinx students undergo based on their generational status. Her best piece of advice is to find a topic you’re interested in and go for it!

How did you first get interested in your research project?

As a first-generation Latina college student, I faced many challenges throughout my educational experience. Growing up I resented my up bring because I had little to no resources at home. My immigrant parents were not able to assist me in academia and I was forced to figure everything out on my own. At a young age, I assumed that later generations (second/third generations) were more fortunate because they had a “head start.” However, I later learned that this is not necessarily true. According to the immigration paradox, first-generation students display higher academic achievements than those of later generations because of the strong desire of obtaining better economic and educational opportunities. All in all, my identity sparked my research topic, and I am also looking into other variables, such as sleep disturbances and depression, which may also influence Latinx youth’s academic achievements.

What has been the most exciting aspect of your research so far?

I have enjoyed every aspect of my research project! I have analyzed an extensive amount of literature on a variety of different variables and I am also learning how to use the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). However, if I had to pick one aspect, then it would be running statistical analyses because I am able to see the results from a sample of 1,271 Latinx students aged 9-10 across the United States.

What has surprised you about your research or the research process?

With this being my first independent research project, I was surprised at how difficult it was to settle on one research question. The task of identifying and tackling a novel topic was difficult because I tried combining multiple topics into one. With the support from my mentor Blanche Wright (M.A) and faculty mentor Dr. Anna Lau I was able to combine my ideas into one concise topic.

What is one piece of advice you have for other UCLA students thinking about doing research? Find a topic you’re interested in and go for it! I was extremely intimated at first because I did not think I was good enough, but the research field is a learning process. Enroll in research methodology classes, coding courses, and apply to any program/lab you’re interested in!

What effect do you hope your research has in your field, at UCLA, in your community, or in the world?

I hope my research brings light to the different educational trajectories Latinx students undergo based on their generational status. I also hope it encourages other first-generation students to strive in all aspects of their life, but especially within the education system!

Meet fourth-year undergraduate researcher Louisa Edwards!

Louisa Edwards majors in Studio Art and minors in VAPAE and is in our Undergraduate Research Scholars Program (URSP). The title of her project is “The Sky.” Her project will focus on the natural phenomena of the sky and how information including binaries are permeable. She hopes that her project is generous to the viewer and can give to and receive from people in the ways that they need. Her best piece of advice to just do research as it is a great opportunity!

How did you first get interested in your research project?

An interest in the ways systems of space, time and persona are formed and organized has long been evident, in my practice. The investigation of the sky is a continuation of ideas about the dichotomy day/night. On the New Year of December 2018/January 2019, in the Mojave desert, I danced as the sun/moon moved from one side of the Earth to the other. Cradled in darkness, and kept alert by the 50’ degree air temperature; the night moved through a small sea of bodies. I watched the sun slip away in the West, and emerge in the East. This experience of watching sunset/sunrise, for the most part uninterrupted, got me hung up on the oppositional view of these two transitionary periods. At this point, I was most interested in how this experience of sunset/sunrise related to the concept of a mirror. When we look in the mirror, we see a reflection and we presume it exists as a replica of what is being reflected. However, it is a reversed version. Fascinated by this, I created a diptych of painted tapestries, that hang facing each other with about 5 feet between them creating a portal like effect for the viewer, that suggests dusk/dawn as mirrors of each other rather than opposite transitions, subsequently challenging the dichotomy of day/night. Branching off this idea of multiplicity, I began creating schedules of activities that defined time-period specific identities. I was interested in the multiplicity of identity, which often (falsely) feels unmoving and stubborn. The aim of this exercise was to single out this stimuli and culture that created my identity in five year periods. The most direct way I could track the influence of the world around me in congruence to my identity, while simultaneously exploring time, was by using the rigid format of a calendar; A calendar is both profoundly personal and distinctly public.” Additionally, I began to document my dreams; In doing so, I realised I was living as much while sleeping as I was while awake. It became important for me to incorporate my dreams into these drawings, as a part of my daily life. After exploring how my surroundings and the microcosm I existed within had influenced my identity I wanted to think about universal elements that shape the reality of all human beings. Thus, I was led to focus, once again, on the sky.

What has been the most exciting aspect of your research so far?

The most exciting aspect of research is also the most difficult. Recently, I have been thinking about the limitations of my imaginary. Earning to make art objects that do not add to the colonial and capitalist agenda, from the ground on which we stand, is nearly impossible. In this entirely interconnected world we live in, what actions can take that are benevolent; humans are harmful; existence is violence. So what is left? I want honesty but not despair. At times find myself very frustrated and at times very driven by this predicament. The main blind spot I am encountering in this project as with countless other artworks, is about the aestheticization of nature and how by aestheticizing something you are enforcing a certain gaze of and control over said form. I mean, how do you say I love you to a living thing? You can of course, but it is really only self serving. Nature as framed as separate from humans (which it is not) would be better off without the human hand. In doing this project about the sky, I find myself avoiding discussing the sky as a ploy to muddle this issue. For the most part, I only talk about things surrounding the sky and when discussing or using the motif of the sky directly I earn to make it evident that this is from and for a human perspective. I suppose, I have never decided on if I am entirely on board with humanism and this research project is throwing this debate right at me.

What has surprised you about your research or the research process?

The amount my project has transformed in so little time has been exciting, nerve-wracking, and surprising. When I proposed this project in Spring 2020 I felt I had a definitive idea of how it might take shape. It has been difficult to be okay with not following my agenda to a T when the project is taking me in a different direction.

What is one piece of advice you have for other UCLA students thinking about doing research?

I am not sure I have any advice, really, other than to do it! It is a great opportunity; when I applied, I thought I had no chance of getting this opportunity. I would definitely recommend applying even if you think your project is petty or not doing enough to change the world. If it is important to you and you are keen to commit the time, apply!

What effect do you hope your research has in your field, at UCLA, in your community, or in the world?

I hope that the work I make is generous to the viewer. I hope it can give to and receive from people in the ways that they need. I hope they feel understood, or confused. I hope it is interesting and curious. If the sky could be proud, I would want the sky to be proud.

Meet third-year undergraduate researcher Teresa Xu!

Teresa majors in Art History and minors in Anthropology and Digital Humanities and is in our Undergraduate Research Fellows Program (URFP). The title of her project is “Intercultural Museum Display: an Investigation on Tangibility.” She hopes that her project can bring a new way of seeing intercultural exhibitions or help museums to deal with the problematic magic of tactility. Her best piece of advice is to enjoy the learning experience and find the stance you want to take.

How did you first get interested in your research project?

I took an Art History class called “Art and Empire” which examined the creation of art through the lens of imperialism. There was a museum accident at the Franklin Museum in which a man accidentally snapped off a thumb of a 2000-year-old terracotta warrior on loan from China, and I connected this incident with the remaining effects of postcolonialism and became interested in museum exhibitions, especially the contextualization of intercultural ones.

What has been the most exciting aspect of your research so far?

My focus has primarily been on current art historical scholarship: books, magazines, and other scholars’ research. I have a rudimentary idea about how we can use replicas to better design intercultural exhibitions. I will design a short questionnaire and collect answers from the public to learn how people’s opinions about using replicas in museums change before and after understanding their cultural context. The questionnaire will be conducted in both Chinese and English to see how different cultural communities will perceive the replicas differently.

What has surprised you about your research or the research process?

Even though I was not able to visit the museums I planned to use as case studies in person, the pandemic has allowed me to see so many more digital exhibitions and see other directions future museums can take. Exhibitions and art media will no longer be restricted by the limit of physical spaces. We can expect new forms of representation that may transcend time and space in the near future.

What is one piece of advice you have for other UCLA students thinking about doing research?

Don’t feel rushed or obligated to have research experience just because other people are doing it. Enjoy the learning experience and find the stance you want to take. It doesn’t have to be something that has never been done before. Start with what you like.

What effect do you hope your research has in your field, at UCLA, in your community, or in the world?

I hope my research can bring about a new way of seeing intercultural exhibitions and/or help museums deal with the problematic magic of tactility. Sometimes people just want to touch the marble sculpture, become closer to the cave painting, sit on the fragile wooden chair that is over 200 years old just because of the beauty of these objects. But museums visits are not only about sightseeing. We need museums to not only provide the artifacts, but also the stories behind them so that visitors can find their own relevance. Otherwise, what museums are displaying are just lifeless gravestones of what has already been killed by history and ourselves.

Meet fourth-year undergraduate researcher Michael To!

Michael majors in Psychology with a minor in Biomedical Research and is in our Undergraduate Research Scholarship Program (URSP). The title of his project is “The Outbreak of Anxiety in Tandem with COVID-19: A Health Anxiety and Media Use Analysis,” which he hopes will better illuminate the interaction between health anxiety, media consumption, and psychosomatic symptoms.

How did you first get interested in your research project? 

I’ve had an interest in the interaction between the brain and body for several years, starting with my work on Brain Computer Interfacing Systems to create moveable prosthetics in 2018 at California State University, Fullerton. Through this experience, I realized that I wanted to look at the brain-body interaction in a more macroscopic sense. Upon transferring to UCLA, I was able to meld my interests in the brain and body by looking at the psychosomatic interaction between health anxiety and unexplained somatic symptoms at the Brain and Body Lab. 

What has been the most exciting aspect of your research so far? 

The most exciting part, for me, is that I work with a diverse, interdisciplinary group of people who wholly enrich my academic experience at UCLA. I love the process of learning, and at the BAB Lab I have been routinely challenged to learn new skills, new programs/tools, and new ideas through the process of interaction with my laboratory peers, my lab managers, and principal investigator. Significant results are exciting and provide a sense of satisfaction, but they are a smaller part of the overall, intellectually stimulating atmosphere I am immersed in through my URSP research experience. 

What has surprised you about your research or the research process? 

The research process is so much more than just sitting at a bench and crunching data. There is a huge outreach portion of research that goes into raising awareness about your work, disseminating that information in your community, and marketing your ongoing studies to future participants. I really enjoy the communication aspect of research, and it’s an area I didn’t know I was interested in until I got involved in my lab. 

What is one piece of advice you have for other UCLA students thinking about doing research? 

I would say that its important to keep in mind that research labs need you just as much as you need them! You have leverage, in that sense. Although at times it can be intimidating reaching out to labs, at this stage of our career, principal investigators are not expecting you to have a resume filled with relevant experience. What they are looking for is for you to display an avid curiosity and passion for the subject you are interested in. Research skills can be taught, but passion – well, you have to bring that with you. Be persistent, engage with what you do, and the rest will follow.

What effect do you hope your research has in your field, at UCLA, in your community, or in the world? 

I hope that my research will better illuminate the interaction between health anxiety, media consumption, and psychosomatic symptoms; by having a greater understanding of these relationships, we can develop protective guidelines surrounding healthy media consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as future regional, national and global health crises.