Ada Moses attaches a sensor to Kaitlin Lennox’s finger as they work with eye-tracker equipment. Team members Hannah Shipp, Eliana Black and Assistant Professor of Psychology Marcus Leppanen observe. (Laura Moyer photo.)
Academic test-taking can spark anxiety in even the calmest students. But is anxiety even more pronounced when the tests are taken online, with a visible timer ticking down the minutes and seconds?
University of Mary Washington psychology majors Eliana Black ’24, Kaitlin Lennox ’24, Ada Moses ’25 and Hannah Shipp ’25 are approaching that question with scholarly precision as participants in UMW’s second annual Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Summer Institute (AHSSSI).
Working alongside Assistant Professor of Psychology Marcus Leppanen, the four have devised a small-sample study that uses UMW’s high-tech eye-tracking equipment and a biometric sensor to determine test-anxiety levels in college-age volunteers. They and four other student-faculty research teams will present their findings at the AHSSSI Symposium at 2 p.m. Wednesday, June 14, in Room 139 of Combs Hall.
Inspired by the success of UMW’s Summer Science Institute (SSI), now in its 24th year, UMW last summer introduced AHSSSI as a parallel institute for disciplines outside of the traditional STEM fields. Read more.