Lab Research Leads to Capstone Project

 

Sandry Mettry, Verrazzano Class of 2020, Completed major in Psychology

I have always enjoyed my time around children and as a Psychology major, I was constantly exploring and learning how they perceive the world around them and learn during their early years. The Child Development class sparked the idea of conducting my capstone research in this specific field.

I spent the first semester of research in the Cognitive Development Lab under Dr. Jennifer Wagner’s supervision reading articles and journals, which mainly focused on autism in children similar to Dr. Wagner’s projects in the lab.

I was introduced to the different projects and data available from past work and during my second semester, I decided to focus my capstone research on Pupillary Light Reflex (PLR) and autism traits in school-aged children. PLR is defined as the change in pupil size in response to light. This reflex is under the autonomic nervous system (ANS) control. Individuals with ASD (autism spectrum disorder) have shown atypical ANS functions, and researchers have been looking at correlations between PLR and ASD or ASD traits in individuals.

Due to the pandemic, I was unable to conduct my own statistical analysis to look at such correlations. However, I furthered my research citations and read more journals for accuracy and precision to present my hypothetical results.

The Capstone experience has taught me responsibility towards my work and professionalism with my mentor and readers. I was able to form a student-mentor relationship with my professor, and with different people who worked in the lab on different projects.