Assistant Professor of Psychology
We investigated women’s (N = 27,611) preferences for sexual dimorphism in male faces in relation to self-reports of sexual attraction to men/women (from ‘not at all’ to ‘very’). We found that self-identified heterosexual women reported considerable variation in sexual attraction levels. We also found that sexual dimorphism preferences related positively with attraction to men and negatively with attraction to women.
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Using a 45-country sample (N = 14,399), we attempted to replicate classic studies on human mate preferences and test both the evolutionary and biosocial role perspectives. Support for universal sex differences in preferences remained robust: Men, more than women, preferred attractive, young mates, and women, more than men, preferred older mates with financial prospects. Cross-culturally, both sexes had mates closer to their own ages as gender equality increased.
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An encyclopedia entry on variations that arise in preferred mate qualities as a result of cultural influences.
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Many studies have examined how defendant characteristics influence jury decisions, but none have investigated the effect of cosmetics. In this study, we therefore examined how cosmetics influence jury decisions for young and middle-aged female defendants.
The Triangular Theory of Love (measured with Sternberg’s Triangular Love Scale – STLS) is a prominent theoretical concept in empirical research on love. To expand the culturally homogeneous body of previous psychometric research regarding the STLS, we conducted a large-scale cross-cultural study with the use of this scale.
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Student Coauthors:
Elizabeth Butler '19, Patricia Crigler '16, Glenn Robbins '19
In this study, my students and I surveyed local waterways for the presence of Aphanomyces astaci, a species of oomycete that is responsible for devastating crayfish plague in Europe. Previous studies have suggested that A. astaci is native to North America, and was accidentally introduced to Europe along with asymptomatic crayfish. We were able to confirm the presence of A. astaci locally, and suggest that environmental damage and the introduction of invasive species may impact the natural resistance of native crayfish to this disease.
I draw from Dewey's account of habit in juxtaposition with the enactive philosophy of linguistic bodies to consider three key features about human language, working to locate linguistic practice fully in body–environment interactions and habits that arise therein. A deep connection between language, habit, and environment is needed now, I argue, because as humans we must tell ourselves, and we must believe, that habits can change, and that what is exceptional about our kind of being can be good and not only deadly for the rest of the universe.
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Professor of Geosciences
Student co-authors: Jake Bleacher '00
Inflated lava flows grow vertically through a combination of initially rapid molten core thickening and gradual crustal accretion. The McCartys lava flow field includes a series of interconnected lava‐rise plateaus that formed via inflation over the course of years. Recognizing products of inflation on Earth and other planetary bodies can constrain lava emplacement processes and eruption timescales
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Dr. E. Paul & Frances H. Reiff Professor of Geosciences
Student co-authors: Leah (Houser) Givens '16
Freshwater limestone deposits in the Olduvai Gorge represent unusual concentrations of calcium carbonate, mobilized from volcanic deposits and deposited in springs and ponds. These sites appear to have been used as sources of potable water for animals and hominids.
Student co-authors: Elizabeth A. Margolis '12, Rebecca J. Keyes '11, Stephen D. Lockey IV '11
Student co-authors: Julia Weiner '19, Judith Monzy '21
FPS co-authors: Scott H. Brewer
A study exploring how children learn to solve simple problems, how this ability changes across development (age 2-5 years), and how it compares to a sample of chimpanzees and gorillas run in the same paradigm.
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FPS co-authors: Scott H. Brewer
The effects of heavy atoms and isotopic substitution have on the vibrational lifetimes of azides was explored. It was found that both factors can be used to extend lifetimes and 15N-isotopic tin azides were found to have the longest lifetimes.
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A review of all current work with nonhuman primates using the eye tracking method, along with information on best practices and considerations for the field going forward.
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A study exploring how children learn to solve simple problems, how this ability changes across development (age 2-5 years), and how it compares to a sample of chimpanzees and gorillas run in the same paradigm.
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Three studies explore whether children learn more from an event where a person is present vs. absent. Uses behavioral, eye-tracking, and neural methods to show that human children demonstrate a "social memory bias", recalling more when they are learning from other people than in their absence.
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For the first time a clear petrogical link was established between komatiites, basalts, and residual dunite upper mantle residual material.
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Finding a suitable site that is similar to the surface of Mars to test the suitability and reliability of analytical equipment is a challenge. It proved to be unexpectedly challenging.
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Approximately 800 kg of material intended to duplicate the chemical and mineralogical composition of the Martian regolith was prepared and analyzed to insure homogeneity. This simulant will be used in component and system testing for water extraction from Martian surficial material. Think of the book: The Martian.
Evidence has been gathered that suggest a heretofore unknown lake existed in the Godaya Valley of the Afar Region of Ethiopia between 3.804 and 3.777 million years ago. Hominid fossils have been found in equivalent aged terrestrial sediments adjoining these lacustrine sediments.
Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology
We evaluated the role of local and watershed-scale stream habitat variables and stream flow conditions to understand the factors associated with survival of age-0 Smallmouth Bass in Ozark streams. Age-0 bass were most abundant in deeper, warmer streams and following benign July stream flows, though these relationships were dampened or absent in close proximity to larger mainstem rivers.
Professor of Chemistry
Student co-authors: Nathan Miller, Maura Dougherty, Ruochen Du, Tyler Sauers, Candice Yan, Jonathan Pines, Kate Meyers, Y Dang, Emily Nagle, Ziqin Ni, Tipsiri Pungsrisai
FPS co-authors: Kate Plass
We seek to better understand how molybdenum adsorbs to iron sulfides in marine sediments and how that adsorption might impact the transformation of those iron sulfides.
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Assistant Professor of Biology & Public Health
Contrary to previous studies demonstrating HIV disclosure as a tool to improve medication adherence among perinatally HIV infected adolescents, the findings of our study demonstrate that the improvement in medication adherence is maintained for a brief period followed by a significant decline. Our findings suggest healthcare institutions provide additional counseling and support services to adolescents as they learn of their positive HIV status.
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Professor of Psychology
Written by psychologists, historians, and lawyers, this handbook demonstrates the central role psychological science plays in addressing some of the world's most pressing problems. Over 100 experts from around the world work together to supply an integrated history of human rights and psychological science using a rights and strengths-based perspective. It highlights what psychologists have done to promote human rights and what continues to be done at the United Nations.
Assistant Professor of Psychology & Scientific and Philosophical Studies of Mind
Student co-authors: Val Zizik '19 and Kelly Minard '21
We investigated whether storybooks and direct instruction can influence children's preferences to distribute resources either equally or based on merit. While storybooks with animals didn't change children's resource distribution preferences, direct instruction reliably altered children's resource distribution preferences. Matched storybooks and direct instruction featuring humans produced similarly strong changes.
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Student co-authors: Sydney Bierhoff '18, Taisha Pelletier '18, Anastasiia Grigoreva '20, Josie Benitez '18
We found that biases against physically unclean and unhygienic people emerge by the age of 5. These biases are generally constant across different causes of dirtiness, and they manifest similarly for participants from the United States and from India.
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John W. Nevin Memorial Professor of Geosciences, Emeritus
Student co-authors: Ryan Secor
Co-authors: Bruce Runnegar and Kerry Matt
Remarkably preserved clusters of chaetae (bristles), never before seen as features of a living or extinct snail, are described in association with the earliest documented fossil snails, about 512 million years old, from Lancaster County. These chaetae confirm the prior inference, based on molecular data from living organisms, that molluscs, annelid worms, and brachiopods ("lamp shells") share an ancient common ancestry.
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Commentary in response to an article published in journal.
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Professor of Biology
Student co-authors: Scott M. LaValva '15 and Matthew M. Loiacono '15
The body parts of a squid that articulate to form a joint that allows the head to move independently of the body are held together by suction. Squid may be able to adjust the suction force to modify the function of the joint.
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Associate Professor of Mathematics
FPS co-authors:
Sara Ibañez, Research Associate of Mathematics, and Danel Draguljić, Associate Professor of Mathematics
Pyramidal neurons of the prefrontal cortex in rhesus monkeys undergo many structural and functional changes during normal aging, but the effects of these changes on working memory performance is not understood fully. Our differential equations-based computational model simulates two spatial working memory tasks, and shows how a loss of synaptic connections and an increase in electrical excitability of pyramidal neurons observed in aging can lead to cognitive impairment.
Two studies demonstrate that White Americans have difficulty imagining middle-class Black space as desirable and high quality, and the stronger this difficulty, the more likely they are to devalue a house in a Black neighborhood. These findings have implications for place-based racial disparities, such as residential segregation and environmental racism.
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