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The Department of Psychology in the Faculty of Science celebrated its annual research day recently.

The event showcased research conducted by master’s and honours students and honoured staff and student achievements.

“We have research day every year because of the work that you do,” said Dr. Carolyn Walsh, the department’s deputy head and the event’s host. “We really do value you participating in this day and we hope you get the experience of being part of something that is larger when we come together like this.”

The morning was led by graduate student research and featured talks from 11 students on themes ranging from health and wellness, behavioural neuroscience, social psychology, cognition and development.

Rachel Lee was awarded the Best Talk Award for her presentation, Canadian Cancer Survivors’ Use of Cannabis as a Sleep Aid, while Laura Dawson received the runner-up award.

“We had a series of excellent graduate student presentations and the judges felt these two were outstanding,” said Dr. Jacqueline Carter-Major, chair of the department’s awards committee.

Francine Burke was presented with the Graduate Psychology Society Award for Academic Excellence, which highlights the research and teaching excellence of the department’s graduate students.

Brianna George was presented with the Graduate Psychology Society Award for Community Excellence, which recognizes volunteering and community service excellence.

“These awards were started by the society in order to honour outstanding graduate students in the department,” said Dr. Carter-Major.

‘Dedication to students’

In the afternoon, 53 honours students presented posters on their projects.

Taylor Anthony received the Best Honours Thesis Poster; Laura Au received the Robert Adamec Award for Best Neuroscience Poster.

Dr. Jacqueline Blundell, associate dean of science (research and graduate), presented the award in memory of her former master’s and PhD supervisor, Dr. Ademec.

“One thing no one could dispute was his dedication to his students,” she said. “He absolutely adored mentoring and spent a lot of time encouraging and facilitating their careers.”

The Bill McKim Honours Thesis Award was presented to the students who submitted the best honours thesis.

This year’s recipients were Alison Randell and Molly Downey.

“It was a really tough decision because they were several excellent honours theses this year,” said Dr. Carter-Major.

Dr. Darlene Skinner, the department’s honours program co-ordinator, presented the Psychology and Behavioural Neuroscience Society Award to Courtney Loveless.

“This is a lovely award because it was established by the students of the society to encourage and support their fellow students,” she said. “It’s given to an undergraduate student beyond their second year of study and who have demonstrated significant contributions to the internal or external psychology or behavioural neuroscience community.”

Inaugural infographic winner

Maliha Dew received recognition as the Psychology Social Media Committee’s inaugural infographic competition award winner.

“We really wanted students to talk to us about the best thing they learned during their psychology program,” said Dr. Sheila Garland, chair of the committee.

Ms. Dew’s infographic focused on the concept of fundamental attribution error, which is the tendency to think a person’s behaviour is because of their personality or character, rather than the situation or circumstances they are in.

Dr. Laura Fallon, who is also an alumna of the department, was this year’s recipient of the Rennie Gaulton Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Dr. Cheryll Fitzpatrick, who was the previous year’s recipient, presented it.

“If you ever have had this instructor, I’m sure you’re all well aware they are very liked by students and do excellent things in the classroom.”