Independent
Research or Independent Study
PSY495 or PSY497
Who should take it?
If you are a motivated, conscientious, responsible,
and curious person who likes the contact with children and adults, independent
research might be for you. IF you are planning on going to graduate school,
you are particularly encouraged to sign up for some research credits.
What will I do and learn?
Independent research is a different type of course, an applied class. When
you sign-up for credit (1-3 hours/semester), you are expected to meet regularly
for at least one hour/week with me and all other research assistants. During
those meetings, we review and discuss the articles that you will have read on
the project(s) and how they impact the design and methodology of the studies.
You will be exposed to all aspects of research, from the design, to the set-up,
data collection, data entry and analysis, to the write-up and presentation of
the research. Depending on your commitment, you will be asked to participate
in one or more conference presentations and, perhaps, you will get your name
on a publication!
I am interested, what do
I need to do?
Please contact me (280-1228 or via email: cherneyi@creighton.edu)
and we will discuss the details. Some students who have worked with me in the
past are: Anna Hassebroek, Trisha Koga, Courtney Bussey, Santosh Nadipuram,
Jessica Gappa, Daniel Cruz, Jay Ventura, Long Nguyen, Nicole Neff, Katie Kovarik,
Kate Rudersdorf, Amanda Stein, Matthew Posey, Brandi McCulloch, Lisa Susnjar,
Megan Riebe, Rachel Medrano, Claire Seiwert, Tara Dickey, Judith Flichtbeil,
Heidi Moser, Colleen Willham, J.D. Berg, Meghan Cook, Ann Kelly, Abhi Reddy,
Nick Basaley, Holly Bourek, Joshua Herigon, Jordan Winter, Hilary Harper, Jackie
Ternus, Adam Greteman, Brittany Travers, Jariel Rendell, Leah Skovran, Amanda
Oertli, Abbey Modica, Ryan McDonough, Melissa Weihe, Lindsey Arkfeld, Claire
Brabec, Nicole Dulle, Emily Polachek, Kristin Jones, Cathy Clerkin, Yee Lee
Shing (now at the Max Planck Institute in Berlin), Daniel Runco, Mallory Henninger,
Ashleigh Heinrich, Jessica Dempsey, Lynsey Rangel, Allison Rudersdorf (click
here for pictures), Kate McKillip, Nicolas Villanueva, Marcus Alt, Katerina Anastasiou, Samantha Lewis, Becky Bullard, Lisa Wolf, Sam Pierre
Current Research Students include: Kunal Sualy, Matt Dorweiler, Maren Hankey, Samantha Brown, Meghan Hastings, Nicole Schmidt, Kaitlin Campbell, Hannah Grawe, Kyle Bersted, Joe Smetter, Emily Lien, Jack Kostal, Sabrina Nelson, and Chris Culhane (click here for some pictures).
Check-out the conference
proceedings from this research!
Particularly noteworthy are our presentations at the Posters
on the Hill on Capitol Hill in 2002,
2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2009. Check out the diorama
pictures from
the April 1st 2003 trip (with Amanda & Matt) and from the 2004
trip (with Tara & Judy). The same students also presented research at the
convention of the Midwestern Psychological Association in Chicago
in 2005. In 2005, Hilary and Jordan traveled
to Washington to Capitol Hill. In 2006, Jariel, Ryan, Leah, and Emily were presenting
at the Capitol. Mallory Henninger got to present on Capitol Hill in 2007.
Three students traveled to Park City, Utah in the Fall 2003
to present a poster
at the Cognitive Development Society convention.
5 students presented their research at the Great Plains (2004)
conference in Kansas City: Rachel Medrano and Colleen Willham
on gender-schema, Jordan Winter on perceptions on mental illness (she and Caleb
won second prize for their presentation), Judy Flichtbeil and Tara Dickey on
visual-spatial skills.
Several students won their presentations at Great Plains 2005
held at Creighton University: Holly Bourek, Nick Basalay, Leah
Skovran, Brittany Travers and Adam Greteman.
Hilary Harper and Jordan Winter presented their study on New Toys for Tots at
the Society for Research in Child Development meeting in Atlanta
(April 2005).
5 students presented posters at the Midwestern
Psychological Association (MPA) conference in Chicago
(May, 2005): Leah Skovran a study on children's rights, Brittany Travers a study
on adults' perceptions of children's rights, Nick Basalay, Ann Kelly, and Holly
Bourek presented a training study in visuospatial skills.
Abbey Modica and I presented more research on Children's Reasoning about Toys
at the biennial Cognitive Development Society meeting in San
Diego (October 2005).
Brittany Travers, Adam Greteman,
Leah Skovran, and Emily Polachek traveled to San Francisco
in March 2006 to present their research at the Biennial Meeting of the Society
for Research in Adolescence.
In 2006, several students traveled
to Warrenburg, MO to the Great Plains conference:
Jariel Rendell, Ryan McDonough, Claire Brabec, Kristin Jones, Mallory Henninger,
Dan Runco, and Abbey Modica.
Ashleigh Heinrich, Cathy Clerkin,
and Sam Pierre traveled to Hays, KS to present research at
PERK/NPS in 2006.
Jessica Dempsey, Nicolas Villanueva,
Lisa Wolf, Kate McKillip, Claire Brabec, Kristin Jones, Jordan Poss, and Mallory
Henninger presented research at the Great Plains conference
in Wichita, KS in March 2007.
Kristin Jones, Lindsey Arkfeld, Krista
Poetting, and Mallory Henninger got to go to MPA in Chicago
in 2007 to present 3 different posters.
Emily Polachek and Ashleigh Heinrich
presented in Washington D.C. at the Association for Psychological
Science (APS) in May 2007.
Jess Dempsey, Kate McKillip, Nicolas Villanueva, and Lynsey Rangel presented
their two studies at the Cognitive Development Society Meeting in Santa
Fe (October, 2007). Sam Pierre and I presented at the Society
for Research in Adolescence in Chicago, March 2008.
Sam Pierre presented his research at the conference of the Society for Research in Adolescence in Chicago, in March 2008.
Kunal Sualy, Sam Pierre, Marcus Alt, Kate McKillip, and Nicolas Villanueva presented their research at the conference of the Society for Research in Child Development in Denver, April 2009.
Kate McKillip and Nicolas Villanueva presented their research at the 2009 Posters on the Hill in Washington D. C.
Check-out the publications
that resulted from the research!
Kavita Jagarlamudi, Erika Lawrence,
and Nicole Shimabuku published a study on mental rotation in Perceptual &
Motor Skills (2003).
Nicole Neff is the co-author of an article on strategy use and prior exposure
on mental rotation published in Perceptual & Motor Skills (2004).
Jordan Winter co-authored a manuscript on physics problem-solving in the Transactions
of the Nebraska Academy of Science (2005).
Claire Seiwert, Tara Dickey, and Judith Flichtbeil co-authored an article on
Children's drawings in Educational Psychology (2006).
Hilary Harper and Jordan Winter co-authored a manuscript on preschoolers' reasoning about gender in Enfance, a Canadian journal (2006).
Jordan Poss co-authored an article on the Wii and evolutionary theory in Psychological Reports (2008).
Brittany Travers and Adam Greteman co-authored a manuscript on adults' perceptions of children's rights, Social Justice Research (2008).
Yee Lee Shing co-authored a manuscript on children's rights in the Journal of Social Issues (2008).
Claire Brabec and Dan Runco co-authored a manuscript on navigation skills in Perceptual and Motor Skills (2008).
Student Summer Fellowships
Congratulations to Maren Hankey and Samantha Brown for winning a Creighton University Summer Research Grant (2009) for their study on museum learning.
Congratulations to Sam Pierre
and Kunal Sualyfor winning a Creighton University Summer Research Grant (2008)
for their study on stereotype threat in rural and urban adolescents.
Congratulations to Jessica Dempsey and Lynsey Rangel for winning a Creighton
University Summer Research Grant (2007) for their study on children's play complexity.
Congratulations to Samuel Pierre for winning the Bisenius Honors Program Summer
Research Grant (2007) for his study on rural women's career choices.
Congratulations to Mallory Henninger for winning a Creighton University
Summer Research Grant (2006) for her study on Children's body satisfaction.
Congratulations to Brittany Travers and Adam Greteman for winning a Creighton
Univeristy Summer Research Grant (2005) for their study on adults' perceptions
of children's compentence.
Congratulations to Leah Skovran for winning one of the Summer Research Grants
(2005) from Psi Chi. Super job!
Congratulations to Leah Skovran and Emily Polachek for winning an American Psychological
Foundation and Council of Undergraduate Research Summer fellowship.
Congratulations to Tara Dickey who was awarded a Summer Fellowship (2003) from
Psi Chi. Well done!
Congratulations to Jordan Winter and Hilary Harper for winning a Creighton University
Summer Grant (2004) for their study on New Toys for Tots.
Watch Photostories from the past Research Teams
Research Assistants (2004-2005) Photostory
Research Assistants (2005-2006) Photostory
