1. K-State home
  2. »Arts and Sciences
  3. »Psychological Sciences
  4. »Research
  5. »Kirkpatrick
  6. »RTD lab
  7. »Accomplishments

Department of Psychological Sciences

Recent Undergraduate Accomplishments

July 2018

-RTD Lab Undergraduate Aaron Schnegelsiepen has been selected to receive a Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Research Award for the fall semester. Aaron will be using this award to support his work on developing a D2 immunohistochemistry assay. He will receive $1000 in Financial Aid plus a further $250 for research expenses. Congratulations Aaron!

-Laura Freise, who is visiting the RTD lab for the summer as a SUROP student, presented her science communication project at the Sunset Zoo on Science Saturday. Laura created an impulse control game using twister and a modified Stroop task. She did a great job overall and learned a few things in the process.

May 2018

-The RTD lab was well represented at the 41st Annual meeting of the Society for Quantitative Analyses of Behavior meeting on May 24-25. Brynn Critcher and Jesseca Pirkle presented posters. Everyone did a great job and we also managed to find some time for fun in San Diego. Great work girls!

-Several RTD lab members presented at the Psychological Sciences' Annual Undergraduate Convocation. Jesseca Pirkle presented a talk based on her Shanteau fellowship. Aaron Schnegelsiepen and Ian Davis presented a poster on time-interventions in female rats. Annie Mains presented a poster on interventions to improve episodic-like memory. Brynn Critcher presented a poster on cholinergic activity and episodic-like memory. Finally, Pallie Koehn and Julia Duran presented on real-time food and money tasks in humans. Everyone did a really great job!

April 2018

-We took a short road trip to Lawrence for the annual Kansas Association for Behavioral Analysis meeting where Dr. Kirkpatrick gave an invited talk. Aaron Schnegelsiepen and Ian Davis presented a poster on time-interventions in female rats. Annie Mains and Brynn Critcher presented a poster on interventions to improve episodic-like memory. Jesseca Pirkle presented a poster on diet-induced obesity and impulsivity. Finally, Julia Duran presented on real-time food and money tasks in humans. Julia took second place in the poster competition. Congrats everyone on a great conference!

-Jesseca Pirkle was honored at the Annual Psi Chi Banquet. She received the Phares award for undergraduate research. Great job Jess!

July 2017

-The RTD lab was pleased to be able to host a summer research opportunity (SUROP) student this summer. Jordan Howard visited from Lakeland University (Florida) for 9 weeks during the months of June and July. She worked with Cassi Friday on a study examining different types of interventions for promoting self-control and with Sarah Stuebing on developing a modified episodic-like memory task for use in future studies. She ended up presenting the episodic-like memory task for the end of summer SUROP talks. A big thanks to everyone, especially Sarah, for helping look after Jordan so she could have a successful visit! Jordan was a wonderful addition to our lab for the summer. She still has two years left at Lakeland and then plans to attend graduate school. Good luck with your future pursuits, Jordan!

May 2017

-RTD Lab undergrad Pallie Koehn received an OURCI undergraduate research award! Pallie's project will be a human version of one of our recent rat intervention studies. She will be comparing the fading (where the LL delays increase gradually) and reverse fading (where the LL delays decrease gradually) interventions and then testing impulsive choice to see if people show similar patterns to the rats. So far, it looks like the fading intervention works better in rats, but we are still testing them so we shall see... A big congrats to Pallie! She will be spending her summer in Denver, CO on an internship to study human trafficking, an area of research that she is thinking of pursuing for her graduate work. Enjoy your time in Denver this summer, Pallie!

-We had a great showing at the Department of Psychological Sciences’ Undergraduate Convocation this year. Sydney Edmisten, who is head to KU Medical School next year, presented her Doreen Shanteau Fellowship project. Jesseca Pirkle presented her College of Arts & Sciences Research Award project. We also had several poster presentations: Aaron, Schnegelsiepen, Annie Mains, Brynn Critcher, Dhruthi Singamsetty, and Ian Davis. Everyone did a really great job and made the RTD lab proud! What a great way to end an excellent semester! 

-Jesseca Pirkle has been selected to receive a Biology University Distinguished Professor Scholarship for next year. There were only four of these scholarships awarded across the whole of the Biology major, so this is a pretty major accomplishment. Jesseca will be a senior next year and plans to pursue an MD/PHD dual degree. Here’s a link to the announcement: http://www.k-state.edu/today/announcement.php?id=34570

April 2017

-Jesseca Pirkle and Brynn Critcher recently presented at the annual Biology Undergraduate poster session. They both did a great job representing the lab! Thanks guys!

-RTD Lab undergraduate Jesseca Pirkle has been selected to receive a Doreen Shanteau Undergraduate Research Fellowship. Her project will examine whether insulin resistance affects impulsive choice. Jesseca received her award at the annual Psi Chi banquet on April 25. Here’s a link to the write up on the department awards: http://www.k-state.edu/today/announcement.php?id=34483. Way to go Jesseca!

-We also had another surprise at the Psi Chi banquet. Ian Davis was elected as the new Psi Chi President! Ian will be heading up the Psi Chi group for his senior year next year. This will be a great chance for him to practice his leadership skills. Nice work Ian!

January 2017

-Former RTD lab undergraduate, Maya Wang, published her senior project on “Differential effects of social and novelty enrichment on individual differences in impulsivity and behavioral flexibility” in Behavioural Brain Research. Maya is currently pursuing her PhD at the University of Rochester with Ben Hayden. A big congrats to Maya on her first, first-authored publication!

April 2016

-Jesseca Pirkle has done it again! She was selected as one of the Division of Biology’s Most Promising Students. This award is given to students early in their career who have distinguished themselves, particularly in the research domain. They typically select only 5-10 students for this award, so it is a very nice achievement. Jesseca has already won two research awards, one from OURCI plus the Chapman scholarship, and these have significantly advanced her research career. Great job, Jesseca!

 March 2016

-RTD Lab undergraduate Jesseca Pirkle received a Mark Chapman Scholarship. The scholarship will support Jesseca to conduct research with Catherine Hill on the effects of high-fat and high-sugar diets on impulsivity and food preferences. Jesseca has been using her Biology background to work on developing some biomarkers for assessing the effects of diet on brain processes. The Chapman will support her research starting in the summer and carrying on through the next academic year. For more info on the Chapman Scholarship program: http://artsci.k-state.edu/student-resources/opportunities/chapmanscholars.html. Congratulations, Jesseca! We are super proud of you!

October 2015

-The RTD lab attended the Society for Neuroscience meeting (Sarah Stuebing, Sydney Edmisten, and Catherine Hill are pictured below). Undergraduates Christian Davis, Sydney Edmisten, and Jeremy Lott all delivered presentations. Everyone won travel awards to support their attendance. How about that for power-CV building! Nice work, everyone!

SfN1

-Sydney Edmisten, an undergraduate researcher in the RTD lab, was appointed as an ambassador for the KSU Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Inquiry (OURCI). She will be working to promote undergraduate research across the university. This is a great honor, as only six students were selected to represent the entire campus, and we are all very excited for Sydney! Here’s the press release on her ambassadorship: http://www.k-state.edu/media/newsreleases/oct15/ourciambassadors10615.html

 June 2015

-RTD Lab undergraduates, Jesseca Pirkle and Sydney Edmisten, each received a $1000 OURCI research grant: http://www.k-state.edu/media/newsreleases/sept15/ourciawards92815.html. Jesseca will be working on developing a cFOS assay to assess the effects of diet on reward system activity. Sydney will be working on completing the data collection, histology, and data analysis on a project examining the effects of nucleus accumbens lesions on impulsive choice, reward processing, and timing. Both Jesseca and Sydney will be working on their projects in the fall. Nice job!

 May 2015

-Several of the RTD Lab undergraduates presented at the annual Undergraduate Research Convocation. Jeremy Lott and Christian Davis co-presented a poster on dominance effects on impulsive and risky choice. Sydney Edmisten and Melina Campa co-presented a poster on the effects of nucleus accumbens lesions on impulsive choice and reward sensitivity. Ashton Triplett presented a poster on impulsive choice and timing in female rats.

UGConvocation1

UGConvocation2

UGConvocation3

 April 2015

News flash from the beach at CO3…

-Many of the lab members attended the Conference on Comparative Cognition. RTD Lab members presenting at the conference included Dr. Jen Peterson, Catherine Hill, Andrew Marshall, undergraduate Jeremy Lott, and Dr. Kirkpatrick. See if you can find us in the big group photo.

CO3Spring2