Eric Kelley: Analyzing the Psychological Impact of Facial Expressions
Human communication is not limited to the words that two people share, but rather is a composite of those words and the host of non-verbal signals that comprise the interaction.
Since his junior year, senior psychology major Eric Kelley has been curious how different facial expressions – positive and negative – can impact how the mind processes stimuli. Eric’s research is rooted in a popular theory of cognitive psychology known as the Pollyanna Principle, which suggests that people naturally tend to process information of a positive nature more effectively and efficiently than they process information of a negative nature.
“I find it interesting how vast and versatile our minds can be, and how we process certain stimuli better than others. It is also interesting to measure peoples' response times when engaged in a visual search task,” reflects Eric. “The available literature on the different effects of varying stimuli and facial expressions (especially when involved in visual search) is extensive, and I wanted to take that further and try to sort things out for myself.”
Project Titles: "Sometimes Pollyanna: Principle Holds for Targets but not Distracters during Visual Search"
Date: Scholarship and Creative Arts Day 2008 – Tuesday, April 22
Faculty Mentors: Dr. Catherine Lemley
Eric is one of several student scholars from Elizabethtown’s Department of Psychology who will present during Scholarship and Creative Arts Day 2008. A full schedule of this and other events featuring the creativity and scholarship of Elizabethtown students will be available in mid-April on the Scholarship and Creative Arts Day webpage.
