09-10 PsycSMP Showcase
What kinds of projects have our SMP students done?
Check out the database of past PsycSMP abstracts
Prospective PsycSMPs: A past student may have suggested a path for future research that you would like to follow!
Students can visit the College Archives (Calvert 009-ground floor) to read or view past St. Mary's Projects Mondays and Thursdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. (appointments recommended).
Access to a full SMP can depend on how a student completed a release form, but most SMPs can be read or viewed in the College Archives without restriction.
Electronic copies of SMPs are usually provided to faculty and staff upon request, but students are provided electronic copies of SMPs only with the permission of a faculty member.
Allison Teta
Teta, Allison.
(2011, May). How much loss is too much loss? The effect of temporal
separation on sunk coast attenuation in investment scenarios.
Mentor: Dr. Richard Platt
Abstract
Research suggests that individuals tend to take
past unrecoverable costs into account when making decisions (Arkes and Blumer
1985; Thaler 1980). Mental accounting theory argues that people mentally track
costs and benefits to maximize the net benefits received. Previous research has
shown that when costs and benefits are temporally separated over time, sunk
costs become attenuated in the mental account, having less of an effect on
decision-making (Gourville and Soman, 1998). The current study attempts to
apply mental accounting theory about sunk cost depreciation to investment
scenarios. Study one attempts to replicate previous findings on temporal
separation. Studies two, three, and four seek to apply decoupling theory to
investment scenarios. Finally, study five looks at decision satisfaction and
post-decision mental accounting.
