Hannah Burgoyne is to present her exploratory study about AI at the EPA.
HANNAH BURGOYNE / COURTESY
Karen Flores, Senior Writer
Manhattan University students will attend the annual Eastern Psychological Association (EPA) Conference where multiple will present their research projects centered around specific aspects of psychology.
According to the EPA website, the EPA’s goal is to advance science and its profession by spreading information about the field of psychology by conducting this annual conference where members of the EPA can present their work to their colleagues.
Hannah Burgoyne, a senior psychology and Spanish double major, will be presenting her research project entitled “Using AI to Generate Personality Tests: An Exploratory Study” which she worked on with her research partner Madeline Braun and Professor Arno Kolz, Ph.D..
“We took two different AI softwares, ChatGPT and Claude, and we made personality tests that were 60 item tests, similar to the NEO Personality Inventory and the HEXACO which are standard personality tests that most psychologists use,” Burgoyne said. “We basically ran a factor analysis to see whether or not the test these AIs created actually measured the big five, which are openness, conscientiousness, neuroticism [and] agreeableness.”
Burgoyne mentioned that while doing this research, she enjoyed seeing the results of her study and that she felt she learned a lot more about AI as a whole.
“AI is very integrated into society now, but during this research we realized that these AI softwares often plagiarizes work,” Burgoyne said. “So we prompted the AI each time to create 12 unique items for extraversion but told it to not copy from the NEO or HEXACO. We checked it over and more often than not, the AI would copy so it was interesting to see how many iterations it took of us asking the AI to actually get 12 unique items that they didn’t copy from either of the two tests.”
Maria Perrino, a senior psychology and philosophy double major with a minor in religious studies, is presenting two of her research projects at the conference. She shared a bit about the topics she plans to cover.
“One of my projects is called ‘Variety is the Spice of Life: Effects of Lightness Heterogeneity on Perceived Beauty and Interest,’ which I did with Dr. Jay Friedenberg which is a form of perception research,” Perrino said. “We created these dot patterns that started with 40 dots that are all black and they changed color in increments until they were all white. We show the participants these dots in a random order and ask them if they think they are beautiful or interesting. You have to start with a very simple design like these dots to find the basic principles of perception.”
Perrino’s second research project is centered around sea lions, which she studied over the summer as part of the Jasper Summer Scholars Research Program.
“My second project is called ‘Individual Differences in Captive Sea Lion Behavior’ which I did with Dr. Maria Maust-Mohl and it is a preliminary study on animal personality,” Perrino said. “I spent my summer making trips to the Bronx Zoo to observe the sea lions living there and it was very fun and cool to me.”
Burgoyne encourages students to do academic research throughout their undergraduate years as it allows for students to learn skills outside of the classroom.
“I would highly recommend doing research with an advisor on campus, because it teaches you valuable skills on how to present research [and] how to delve deeper into topics that are taught in the classroom,” Burgoyne said. “For example, we ran a factor analysis in our results, which is not something that we cover in our curriculum. That’s something that usually a psychology student would learn in grad school. So it allows you to get ahead of the curve and opens the door for opportunities like the EPA conference. It’s an overall great experience.”
