TEDxNSU 2015: Perception

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  Breaking Bias

  Sarah Bramblette

  With just one look at my 430-pound body, people instantly have a negative perception about the status of my health and nature of my character. When I arrive at a job interview or doctor’s office, my fate is often sealed as soon as I’m seen. But, my excess weight is due to a medical condition called Lipedema, not poor lifestyle choices. The obesity epidemic affects one-third of American adults, yet research shows that weight bias in the healthcare industry actually hinders patients’ ability to receive quality care, which creates a cycle that leads to poorer overall health. The cost of obesity-related illness is nearly 21 percent of annual medical spending in the U.S. The rising cost of healthcare affects everyone. Therefore, everyone should play a role in breaking the bias that inhibits the efforts to reduce obesity.

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  Rising Above the Magazine Covers

  Brittany Calaluca

  After a series of events including preparing for a bikini competition, taking a Photoshop class, and dealing with food obsessions, Brittany Calaluca realized that bodily perfection is not reality. Anything close to it is short lived and technologically created. As a fitness professional, she has adopted a personal mission to air out the industry’s dirty laundry of unhealthy diets, food and body-part obsessions, and a reliance on Photoshop to create the ideal images of a fitness model. This talk will include Calaluca’s personal experience, statistical data, and examples of the power and influence of digital photo editing. Where is the real work being done—in the gym or on a computer?

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  Uncovering Truth with Faith and Reason

  Joshua Loomis, Ph.D.

  Few topics have historically raised as much hostile debate as the apparent incompatibility between faith and science. As science continues to unravel the mysteries of the natural world at an unprecedented pace, many in the faith community have responded by rejecting any finding that they perceive as contradictory to what is found in their religious texts. This has unfortunately created a situation in which many feel forced to make a choice to either follow the word of God or embrace the theories and findings of science. The purpose of this talk is to dispel the myth that faith and science are contradictory and to instead show that they actually complement one another as they both seek to find truth.

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  Clinical Utility of Auditory Steady State Response in Children

  Alyssa Needleman

  Despite the appeal of an objective measure for determining frequency-specific hearing thresholds, the integration of ASSR into everyday practice has not been embraced; many clinics citing poor correlations with behavioral auditory thresholds. This retrospective study compared thresholds obtained from both ASSR and behavioral audiometry to demonstrate a strong correlation between ASSR and behavioral thresholds as a function of frequency and degree of hearing loss. Results demonstrate ASSR is an effective measure for threshold estimation for ongoing treatment of hearing loss.

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  Systematic Biases in Understanding Ourselves and Others

  Weylin Sternglanz, Ph.D.

  People like to think that their perceptions of themselves and of other people are reasonably logical and accurate.Yet, it is easy to demonstrate that we are not only irrational—but systematically so—in our interpersonal perceptions.We are surprisingly poor at figuring out (a) whether other people are truthful or deceptive, (b) what other people are feeling and thinking, and (c) even whether other people notice our own behavior and appearance.We are also somewhat clueless when it comes to judging our own personality traits and evaluating our own performance. While we are actually quite savvy at noticing other people’s misguided interpersonal perceptions, we tend to be overly confident in our own self-awareness.This talk will explore why most of us just know that our own interpersonal perceptions are so much more rational and level-headed than those of the silly people around us.

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  Trick Your Mind into Being Creative

  Aadil Vora

  Why is facing a blank canvas so difficult? Is it the blinding glare of the paper that makes your eyes squint, or is it the perplexity of countless possibilities? Time and time again, when facing problems that require our creative best, we simply don’t know where to start and, instead, get stuck with obvious and boring ideas. Inventing the ingenious can seem insoluble! But there is a simple mindhack anyone can use to get over this “writers block,” spark the mind, and ignite the creative process. In this talk, Aadil Vora will demonstrate how we can trick ourselves into thinking more creatively while filtering out the cliché.

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  An 'F' Word Revival

  Kate Waites

  Feminism remains a controversial term, inspiring vitriol as well as celebration. Declared dead on Time magazine’s June 1998 cover, feminism has been standing on wobbly legs since the 1980s, thanks to public misperception and media-spin. However, today’s social-justice-oriented and media-savvy generation is creating a more feminism-positive environment and recognize that women’s rights are human rights, that men have a place in the movement, and that there is still much collective work to be done to realize the goal of sex and gender equality.

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  An ‘F’ Word Revival in the New Millennium

  Kate Waites, Ph.D.

  Declared dead on Time magazine’s June 1998 cover, feminism has been standing on wobbly legs since the 1980s, thanks to public misperception and media-spin. In 1968, a Miss America Beauty Pageant protest in Atlantic City dubbed feminists as radicals and gave feminism a longstanding black eye. However, today’s social-justice-oriented and media-savvy generation, led by millennial celebrities—including Emma Watson, Lena Dunham, and Beyonce—is creating a more feminism-positive environment. If second-wave feminism rode the coattails of the Civil Rights and Peace movements, today’s surprising feminist revival may well be riding the wave of the gay rights and same-sex marriage movement. Feminism remains a controversial term, inspiring vitriol as well as celebration. But millennials, having outed the media-produced bogeyman, recognize that women’s rights are human rights, that men have a place in the movement, and that there is still much collective work to be done to realize the goal of sex and gender equality.

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  CAPD Grand Rounds

  Sarah Wakefield, Erica Friedland, Teri Hamill, Sherry Rauh, and Nancy Rowe

  Poster presentation on research assessing the reliability of a new auditory processing screening measure.

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  Sharks Like Bubbles Too

  Matthew Ware

  Man’s misunderstanding of the marine realm has spawned fascinating tales of heroes, sea monsters, adventures, and misery beyond imagination. Sea creatures have terrified and captivated generations the world over—probably none more so than sharks. Their powerful jaws, rows of unending razor-sharp teeth, and immense muscular bodies endow them with incredible speed and strength—all perfectly designed by millennia of “hunt or be hunted” survival skills. Our perception of sharks as terrifying eating machines is among the most persistent stigmas of nature. Our fear of these beautiful creatures has spawned awful legislation and heinous fishing practices. Thankfully, we are beginning to understand their true ecological value as top predators of the seas. Their economic force is also growing, as armies of tourists descend on aquariums, while SCUBA training allows individuals to witness sharks firsthand in their natural environment. These are powerful tools to combat the misunderstanding of sharks and help us remember that we are visitors in their world.