Article archive / August 1, 2015
Originally published: . Volume 6, No. 8. Source pages: 10, 11.
Born in Oklahoma, Mary Medlin has lived in Monroe most of her young life. Currently she is a graduate student in the masters program at the University of Louisiana Monroe (ULM), having earned her summa cum laude undergraduate in 2013. She finishes up her masters this fall and hopes to continue toward a PhD in perhaps a university in North Carolina, Oklahoma, New York, or maybe Texas, she told the Times.
Sounds almost reasonable so far. But there is much more on this super student’s to do list.
Mary is an award-winning researcher who is building up an impressive list of studies, she loves statistics, tutoring, has served as President of the ULM Psi Chi chapter, is a graduate teaching assistant, and she happens to be the trainer for Capri, the university’s mascot Warhawk.
Mary recently grabbed the second-place graduate poster award at the Louisiana Psychological Association (LPA) convention, with co-author ULM Professor, Dr. Kilian Garvey. The work was on “Individualizing and Binding Morality: Are They Mutually Exclusive?”
Mary’s awards are stacking up. Last year she took home both first and second places at LPA for “Cerebral Lateralization, Handedness, Intelligence, and Cognitive Thinking Styles,” and “Handedness and Tolerance of Ambiguity,” working with Dr. Garvey and colleagues Nick Cannady and Rachel Knight. And for the “Sinistrality of Rationality,” she earned first graduate poster at LPA in 2014.
She has earned a first place oral presentation for her work, “The moral foundations of animal abuse: A state-by-state analysis,” and first place poster presentation, “Religiosity as a Predictor of Altruistic Belief and Action,” at the ULM science conference.
Along with her thesis professor Dr. Garvey, who “… was very insistent in getting me further involved in research once I started graduate school,” Mary said, she has also worked with other ULM faculty and manages to keep learning new things.
She has worked with Dr. Jack Palmer on an altruistic belief study, looking at how religiosity correlates with altruism types.
Mary notes her work with Dr. Bill McCown, current assistant dean at ULM, has been very positive and supportive. Explaining the directions she gained from Dr. Joe McGahan, Mary said, “he taught me how to analyze statistical relationships and theories. He likes trying to teach students to look at things in different ways.”
She and Garvey examined the “The Laterality of Disgust,” a paper presented at the Arkansas Symposium at the University of Central Arkansas. They discovered that right-handers scored significantly higher on a measure of disgust, which they hypothesized was related to differences in interhemispheric interaction patterns. And in “The Laterality of Belief,” Mary and Garvey examine the effect of handedness on belief in creationism or evolution.
Mary is involved in some very creative research. Currently she is looking into the Pathogen Prevalence Theory of Human Values. In “Regional Variations in Pornhub Search Terms,” presented at Southwest Psychological Association Conference, Medlin and Garvey analyzed the counterintuitive finding that homosexual porn was searched for more in the Southern US Bible Belt, and found that “pathogen prevalence” was the highest correlation and the only variable that predicted pornography viewership in a multiple regression.
These themes relate to Dr. Garvey’s laboratory, the Social Cognition and Decision Making at ULM.
In another study presented at the Southwest Psychological Association, Medlin and Garvey looked at the relationship between political and social conservatism and answers to the question “are you gay” and found that pathogen prevalence was the greatest predictor of a “No Answer” response.
Mary has also worked with ULM Professor, Dr. Cecil Hutto. She and Hutto “share a love of behaviorism,” she said, “especially as it, and comparative methods, apply to animal research.” This comes in handy because Mary works at the Louisiana Purchase Gardens and Zoo.
Mary started working at the zoo in 2012 and is still there. “I have worked in all the animal departments and am now the ‘swing keeper,’ though I am primarily the carnivore keeper,” she explained. Most of her work is with the ULM Warhawk, Capri, that she has trained. “Since I began work as a zoo keeper at the Louisiana Purchase Gardens and Zoo, I have had the opportunity to do behavioral research with a lot of animals,” Mary explained. “Some examples include trick-work and sensation studies with a black crested macaque and training the mascot of my college, the ULM Warhawk.”
She was the trainer also for one of her favorite monkeys, a macaque named Ernie. She trained him from outside his cage because he was extremely hostile and these monkeys have one and a half-inch canines.
Mary has been a member of Psi Chi since 2012. She has served as both President and Vice President, and is still acting Vice President. “As president I led our chapter in several projects,” she said, “including an experiment on the malleable nature of eye-witness testimony.” The Psi Chi group is also involved in suicide prevention and awareness.
Dr. Rick Stevens, ULM Associate Professor, is the faculty advisor for Psi Chi. Mary considers Dr. Stevens primarily responsible for getting her involved in official tutoring.
“Pretty much since I started attending ULM I have been tutoring someone in something,” she said. “My tutoring knows no limits, as I have been the only psych tutor on campus, though I mainly tutor in statistics––the second love of my life––and research methods. I actually wrote a small textbooklet as a resource for our Psyc 4000, the Psych lab, class.”
Mary has been a graduate assistant for Dr. Stevens and Dr. Janelle McDaniel, both from whom she has learned a great deal. Mary has taught introductory psychology and child psychology. And she has also worked with Dr. David Williamson. “He instilled in me my now crazy love of statistics.”
“A project I have taken on with one of my professors is creating a new Registered Student Organization for Psych majors,” she said. It serves as a resource for psychology students to learn about advances in the field and prepare for graduate school, she explained.
She is planning on a PhD and considering a number of directions. How does she accomplish so much? “I also just enjoy working,” she said. “I've always had a job since I was 17, and have juggled school and work and for six years now. I have loved all the jobs I've had …”
“There's a running gag throughout the department that I live in my office on campus,” she said. “In summation, an insane work ethic, inspiring professors, lenient bosses, and the belief that sleep is overrated. I'm absurdly passionate about what I do. Go big or go home.”
University of Louisiana Monroe psychology graduate student Mary Medlin with “Capri.” She has used behavioral methods to train the warhawk who is the mascot for the university. ULM graduate student Mary Medlin with her research poster at the recent convention of the Louisiana Psychological Association. Her professor, Dr. Kilian Garvey, is co- author of the work.
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