LU psychology students present at Midwest conference
Four Lakeland students from the LU Psychology Laboratory – Mai Lor, Kayla Potter, Emilie Schartner and Molly Schwibinger – traveled to the annual meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association in Chicago in March.
Lor and Schartner were first authors and presented separate posters describing their research in the Psychology Laboratory.
Lor's poster documented a study on the relationship between creativity and age of active use of a second language, secondary language fluency and sex. Earlier age of acquisition of, and greater fluency in, a second language were both associated with creativity scores.
Schartner's poster recorded the investigation of the relationship between musicianship and creativity, measuring musicianship both categorically and dimensionally. Students who are involved in musicianship earned higher scores on measures of verbal creativity. Positive correlations were indicated between dimensional measures of musicianship and creative thinking as measured by the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults. Results point to potential benefits of musical education.
The students were accompanied by associate professor of psychology Jessica Kalmar.
The purpose of the MPA annual meeting is to share research across all areas of psychology. It features invited addresses and talks from leading psychologists across the U.S., papers and posters addressing a wide range of topics in current psychological science, workshops addressing the teaching of psychology, research methods and statistics, and discussion groups, roundtables and social events where members can share ideas and interests.
