Highlighting Posters From APS’s Second Annual Global Psychological Science Summit

• From Extraction to Co-Creation: Decolonizing Neurodiversity Interventions across Global Contexts
• Smartphone Use Contributes to Feeling-Younger Behavior Among Older Adults in Japan 
• Cerebral Lateralization for Language as a Potential Biomarker for the Broad Autism Phenotype: A Functional Transcranial Doppler Ultrasound Investigation
• From Sound to Synapses: Music’s Impact on Psychological States & Emotional Intelligence through Mental Imagery
• Dating While Trans: A Conjoint Analysis of Men’s Romantic Preferences 
• Sweet Talk Gone Sour: Endearment Use and Speaker Gender Independently Harm Impressions 
• Abuse: How It Affects the Worldview of the Person 
• Elucidating Predictors of Imposter Phenomenon Among African American Women 
• When Striving for Success Breeds Distress: Maladaptive Perfectionism Amplifies Changes in Control Discrepancy, Which Significantly Contribute to Heightened Stress and Anxiety

During APS’s second annual Global Psychological Science Summit, students and researchers virtually joined from around the world to engage with other psychological scientists, network, and share their research through poster sessions. For this edition of the Observer, we’ve asked nine early career researchers to share more about their research and findings, as well as the impact their research might have on the future of psychological science. 

From Extraction to Co-Creation: Decolonizing Neurodiversity Interventions across Global Contexts 

Emily Sjafii (Independent Researcher), Gaurav Saxena (University of Bristol), Sonti Zelma Mokobane, PhD, Sibongile Dayimani (University of Fort Hare, South Africa), Julian Gozalez (Pillar Research Institute), and Holly A. Haynes, PhD (Pillar Research Institute, Fresno Pacific University) 

What did the research reveal that you didn’t already know?  

Decolonial and locally driven research are important concepts I already knew, but preparing this poster deepened my understanding of what they truly look like in practice, when it’s led and written by non-Western, local researchers. This reinforced what I’ve sensed since my undergraduate studies, as an Indonesian trained in the United States, that Western interventions and frameworks can’t simply be replicated uncritically elsewhere, and more locally grounded/indigenous frameworks are needed beyond just adaptation. It also revealed something more: Many regions beyond Western contexts are already practicing decolonial, community-based, and participatory approaches (PAR/CBPR), but their voices and innovations have not received much attention, especially in international discourse.  

What is the relevance of your findings for the future of psychological science?  

Our poster highlights two key points: 1) The importance of locally led research, especially in global collaborations, and 2) The value of PAR/CBPR. Beyond inclusion and relevance, PAR/CBPR redistributes power and ownership to communities. This can potentially enable change at the community level, not just the individual. In neurodiversity research, this matters because the movement itself is grounded in equity, acceptance, and valuing diverse ways of being, which requires meaningful community involvement rather than focusing solely on the individuals. 

Applying these principles may shape the future of psychological science to be more contextually grounded, equitable, and impactful, even within Western contexts. Additionally, empowering community-level change via PAR/CBPR could help address mental health needs that often exceed practitioner availability and make scientific knowledge more accessible.  

What are your next steps with regard to this research?  

My colleagues and I seek to apply what we advocate in our own work. Currently, we are developing a project based in South Africa using these methods, with our South African colleagues, and local community members, such as neurodivergent students, educators, and parents, as local experts to inform our research design.  

Beyond this project, I hope to continue amplifying the work of regionally diverse scholars and advocate for international conferences to broaden their reach. My voice and co-authors’ represent only a few among many. Including more regionally diverse voices in the global discourse is essential to ensure that the globalization of psychological science is inclusive, equitable, and mindful of diverse local realities. 

Related: Global Summit Brings Psychological Scientists Together for Second Year

Smartphone Use Contributes to Feeling-Younger Behavior Among Older Adults in Japan 

Tomoko Haraguchi and Hideyuki Fujiu (University of Tsukuba) 

What did the research reveal that you didn’t already know?  

First, the research revealed behavioral aspects of younger subjective age among older adults. We found that certain everyday behaviors can promote a feeling of youthfulness, which in turn is associated with a younger subjective age. Second, the study revealed that older adults utilize smartphones for a wide range of purposes, extending beyond family communication. Before conducting the study, some were skeptical, assuming that older adults might only use smartphones to contact family members or view photos of their grandchildren. Contrary to this assumption, our data demonstrated that their usage patterns are diverse and, in some cases, comparable to those of younger adults. Moreover, our findings showed that older adults differ in both the frequency and types of their smartphone use. Third, we identified a significant association between smartphone use, “feeling younger” behaviors, and a younger subjective age.

What is the relevance of your findings for the future of psychological science?

Digital engagement has become a growing topic in psychological research, yet most studies focus on younger populations. Our findings suggest the need to expand this research to older adults, whose psychological and behavioral adaptation to digital technologies remains underexplored. As we live in a rapidly growing digital society, smartphones serve as essential tools for maintaining autonomy, connection, and cognitive engagement at any age. Understanding how digital use contributes to subjective well-being and age perception among older adults can provide new insights into promoting healthy aging and lifelong psychological growth.

What are your next steps with regard to this research?

It was our first exploratory study on “feeling younger behavior” (FYB). Our next steps include refining the FYB scale, verifying its convergent and concurrent validity, and reconsidering item wording to improve internal consistency. We also would like to examine which specific types of smartphone use—such as social networking, entertainment, or health management—are most strongly associated with FYB. Furthermore, we intend to conduct longitudinal and intervention studies to clarify the causal relationships between smartphone use, FYB, and subjective perceptions of age. Ultimately, these studies will help us understand the mental health of older adults, develop practical strategies to enhance their psychological well-being, and inform future research.

Cerebral Lateralization for Language as a Potential Biomarker for the Broad Autism Phenotype: A Functional Transcranial Doppler Ultrasound Investigation 

Research Proposal Poster
Venetia Mendrinou, Marietta Papadatou-Pastou  (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Biomedical Research Foundation Academy of Athens [BRFAA]), Anastasia-Konstantina Papadopoulou (BRFAA, University of West Attica), and Ioanna Panopoulou (BRFAA, Panteion University of Political and Social Sciences) 

What spurred your research interest in this topic? 

I became interested in neurodevelopmental disorders—and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) particularly—after the completion of my Master of Science degree in cognitive and clinical neuroscience in Brunel University of London, and while working as an assistant psychologist at an Adult ADHD Service in the National Health Service in England. I had the opportunity to closely interact with individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders, including ASD. Witnessing the challenges they faced, and the complexities of their experiences, deeply motivated me to contribute to advancing our understanding of ASD. As a doctoral student, I am particularly drawn to this project because it integrates both the practical application of research and theoretical exploration. Given that ASD and its broader phenotype remain a multifaceted and still not fully understood topic, I believe research in this area holds significant potential to improve lives and inform better clinical practices. 

What is the relevance of your findings for the future of psychological science? 

Our research project addresses the necessity to better understand the characteristics not only of individuals with autism, but also those presenting with BAP (broad autism phenotype), through studying functional cerebral lateralization for language as a neurophysiological biomarker for the BAP. Better methods for characterizing the BAP will also facilitate the identification of autism genes. In addition, the assessment of cerebral lateralization for language can be used as an early screening tool for risk for autism and BAP, which would allow for early intervention. Last, but not least, the identification of BAP traits in family members has important clinical implications in terms of treatment planning, as an understanding and awareness of familial factors is crucial to the development of individualized intervention plans when a family seeks treatment for their child. In the long term, our research will explore avenues for early screening (leading to early intervention) of ASD and BAP. Importantly, and in particular relevance to the thematic area, it will use fTCD (functional transcranial Doppler ultrasound)—a technique specialized in measuring cerebral lateralization—to study cerebral lateralization. 

What are your next steps with regard to this research? 

We are currently in the process of finalizing the study’s registered report, following open science practices, and completing my training for the fTCD and experimental setup. Data collection and analysis will follow, as well as the other parts of our team’s wider project—titled BROAD_AUTISM—including a meta-analysis and a study focusing on the validation of the fTCD technique against a computerized behavioral lateralization battery. 

From Sound to Synapses: Music’s Impact on Psychological States & Emotional Intelligence through Mental Imagery 

Garett D. Knight, Erin O’Bryan, PhD, Courtney Long, PhD, and Mythili Menon, PhD (Wichita State University) 

What did the research reveal that you didn’t already know? 

The most prominent revelation was the prominent, cross-participant dynamism of a listening experience. Looking at both popular and academic discourse, there is often an assumption that a familiar song has a stable and fixed identity. In other words, it is assumed that a song will get the same effect and response each time. This research, however, strongly suggests that this assumption is a fallacy and that no two listening experiences are ever the same. 

The findings indicated that a listener’s response is not a simple reaction to the music’s acoustic features, but is instead a complex, real-time interaction of music, listening atmosphere, the listener’s immediate psychological state, their autobiographical background, and personal memories. In other words, each listening experience is a dance between the listening environment, the listener’s psychological atmosphere, and their entire backlog of personal memories and cultural-linguistic frameworks. For example, participants mapped the same musical structures onto vastly different narratives: one participant connected specific song instrumentation to Nigerian oral tradition, while another interpreted a dissonant chord resolving as a spiritual catharsis based on their Latine spirituality. Two separate songs caused the same call back to cultural identity. 

This demonstrates that the listener is not a passive recipient but a critical variable, actively co-creating the experience. The listener is a part of the music. This is what led me to propose the Multidimensional Unified Synchronization Effect (MUSE) Theory, which includes Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART; Grossberg & Carpenter, 2016) as a critical layer. With ART contextualized to music listening, the MUSE Theory posits that for music to trigger a profound emotional-somatic response—to truly resonate—it must cross a personal threshold by interacting with and “activating” the listener’s unique autobiographical and cultural resonances. 

What is the relevance of your findings for the future of psychological science? 

The findings strongly suggest that music research must move beyond generic, “one-size- fits-all” models of music and emotion and toward highly individualized, culturally attuned applications, specifically in clinical and therapeutic settings. The research supports the emotivist view of music as an active architect of psychological transformation, like Juslin and Västfjäll’s 2008 BRECVEMA (Brain Stem Reflex, Rhythmic Entrainment, Evaluative Conditioning, Contagion, Visual Imagery, Episodic Memory, Musical Expectancy, and Aesthetic Judgment) model, rather than simply passive and representative. 

The data counters the traditional cognitivist view that music can merely represent sadness, like a painting of a storm; instead, it shows that music can induce both physiological and emotional change, seen in participants’ journeys from grief to empowerment. The key implication is the power of personalization. The findings show that cultural and autobiographical schemas are not just passive filters, but rather they actively scaffold the emotional response of the listener. This opens a path for interventions that are far more precise than simply prescribing “calm” or “happy” music. 

Imagine a future where we can identify the neural signatures for complex psychological states like resilience, post-traumatic growth, or catharsis—all of which were observed in the project’s participants. We could then use neuroimaging to map how personal and culturally salient music activates those specific states. The ultimate goal is to equip clinicians with the tools to co-create musical experiences tailored to a patient’s unique life history, preferences, and cultures. This would help patients reliably access, process, and manage those specific emotional states, using music as a precision tool for mental health. 

To better understand this idea, think about your ‘go-to’ song for a specific feeling, a song that always calms you or motivates you. Now ask yourself, “Why does this work?” That why connection is your personal schema, your autobiographical anchor. By identifying these personal anchors, you’re already curating your own emotional state. The future is about doing this with greater intention. 

What are your next steps with regard to this research? 

The initial qualitative study was essential for identifying that cultural and autobiographical context shapes the musical experience. The next step is to understand how the brain neurally processes this. We are currently about to begin collecting data for a multi-modal fNIRS-EEG neuroimaging study to investigate the neural patterns underlying particular music-listening experiences. 

The neuroimaging study will involve having participants listen to music that’s familiar to them—songs deeply embedded in their memory. However, we will introduce audio manipulations to intentionally violate their well-known predictions of already familiar songs. We are specifically interested in what happens at that moment of violation.The new neural data will be crucial for connecting another core component of the proposed MUSE Theory: The Hierarchical Predictive Integration (HPI) framework (McGovern & Otten, 2024). This established framework models how the brain’s schema layer (memories and expectations) interacts with the sensorimotor layer (the initial auditory experience). 

You can feel this prediction violation for yourself. Find a remix or a live version of a song you know by heart. As you listen, notice those small moments of tension when a chord change isn’t to the chord you expected, or a lyric is delayed. The feeling of surprise or recalibration is your brain’s predictive model in action—your HPI framework processing a mismatch between your personal schema and the new, unfamiliar, sensory data. Our fNIRS–EEG study aims to capture that exact moment.

Full Presentation | Supplementary Sources

Dating While Trans: A Conjoint Analysis of Men’s Romantic Preferences 

Jade Ismail and Aaron L. Wichman, PhD (Western Kentucky University) 

What has the research revealed that you didn’t already know? 
This study revealed how conjoint analysis can uncover subtle relational biases that are often missed by traditional survey or self-report methods. By embedding transgender identity among multiple partner characteristics—such as morality, attractiveness, and personality—the method exposed the cognitive trade-offs participants make when evaluating romantic partners. Though prior studies documented stigma toward transgender women in general terms, conjoint analysis quantified the extent to which gender identity alone reduced perceived desirability even when all other attributes were favorable. The findings illustrate that bias operates less as an explicit moral stance and more as an ingrained evaluative pattern influencing decision making at the most personal level. 

What is the relevance of your findings for the future of psychological science? 
These results demonstrate the importance of examining discrimination within private and relational contexts, not only in institutional or public domains. They also highlight how methodological innovation can refine the study of prejudice. Conjoint analysis allows researchers to observe preference formation as a process of comparison rather than declaration, revealing implicit value hierarchies that traditional instruments cannot capture. Such approaches are essential for understanding the intersection of moral cognition, ideology, and social perception as they manifest in interpersonal behavior. As psychology continues to address equity and representation, methodologies that combine realism with experimental control will be increasingly vital. 

What are the next steps with regard to this research? 
The next stage of this work involves collecting qualitative data on how participants justify or explain their choices after completing the conjoint tasks. Comparing stated beliefs about attraction with the implicit trade-offs measured experimentally will clarify the distinction between conscious reasoning and unconscious bias. Expanding this design to include diverse orientations and cultural backgrounds may further reveal how relational stigma adapts across social contexts, strengthening psychological science’s capacity to map prejudice as a dynamic cognitive process.  

Sweet Talk Gone Sour: Endearment Use and Speaker Gender Independently Harm Impressions 

Elizabeth Ellair and Alison Jane Martingano, PhD (University of Wisconsin–Green Bay) 

What did the research reveal that you didn’t already know? 

Research on terms of endearment (ToE; e.g., honey, dear) suggests men who use them are viewed negatively but less is known about women who use them. We expected to find that negative perceptions of ToE users would depend on the users’ gender, such that men who used ToEs would be viewed more negatively than women who used ToEs. However, our results did not support this hypothesis. Results revealed that characters who used ToEs were perceived more negatively regardless of gender. These were two statistically independent effects. For example, ToE users were perceived as more sexist and less competent than those who did not use ToEs. This suggests that ToE use outside of close relationships can harm perceptions regardless of whether the user is a woman or a man.  

What is the relevance of your findings for the future of psychological science?  

Our findings add to research on how small, seemingly harmless details in everyday language may impact how people perceive us. Terms of endearment such as “sweetheart” or “honey” may seem polite on the surface, but our results reveal that they can change how people view you—and not in a positive way. This finding highlights the importance of continued research on ToEs and other forms of language with subtle or ambiguous meanings so that people can make more informed choices about the language they use.  

What are your next steps with regard to this research?  

We are currently recruiting additional participants to check the robustness of our results and to confirm with confidence that there are no subtle interactive effects that we might have missed because of a lack of statistical power. For example, ToE use may increase perceptions of hostile sexism more for male speakers. We plan to continue exploring results and look forward to sharing updated findings at future conferences. 

Abuse: How It Affects the Worldview of the Person 

Research Proposal Poster
Leung Yuet Ching Bernice (Trinity College Pathways School, University of Melbourne)

What spurred your research interest in this topic? 

I became interested in this topic as I have experienced similar difficult and challenging experiences during my childhood. Initially, I felt alone in my situation as I believed that the occurrence of child abuse was relatively rare, but stories from child abuse victims on social media and internet forums have changed my mind about how common this problem is among society. I realized that societal perception through the lens of an abused child can be the catalyst for many psychological disorders, such as anxiety and depression, after watching the anime Moriarty the Patriot by Ryōsuke Takeuchi, where the protagonist, William James Moriarty, cynically generalized society after enduring repetitive abuse during his childhood. However, I have noticed little research regarding the altered perception victims of child abuse in psychological science research, which motivated me to research this topic, hoping that it would help child abuse victims. 

What is the relevance of your findings for the future of psychological science? 

Firstly, I believe that my findings could spread awareness on the adverse effects of child abuse. Secondly, I aim to locate the main root cause behind the psychological disorders related to child abuse, which isn’t simply suffering from past trauma, but the alteration of how one perceives the world and their mindset concerning the positiveness or negativeness of society. By identifying the core problems child abuse victims have encountered, clinical psychologists could potentially shift their therapy approaches from simply offering closure to changing their negative view on humanity. 

 What are your next steps with regard to this research? 

As I enter university in February next year, I hope to collaborate with other psychologists who share the same interest in this topic and carry out the research project with the help and guidance from professors. 

Elucidating Predictors of Imposter Phenomenon Among African American Women 

Melissa A. Law and Kristine M. Jacquin, PhD (Fielding Graduate University) 

What did the research reveal that you didn’t already know?  

The results revealed that among the variables investigated, academic self-concept was the best predictor of imposter phenomenon (IP) among African American women. Academic self-concept was inversely related to IP feelings, suggesting that it serves as a protective factor against IP feelings. Surprisingly and contrary to expectations, participants’ experiences of racial microaggressions were not a significant predictor. However, ethnic stigma consciousness, which increases one’s susceptibility to stereotype threat, was a predictor directly related to IP feelings. 

What is the relevance of your findings for the future of psychological science? 

I believe that the findings emphasize the importance of developing cultural identity to increase academic self-concept and ensuring that African American girls have opportunities to cultivate their sense of self within academic settings, which may mitigate IP feelings in adulthood. 

What are your next steps with regard to this research? 

My next step with this research is to focus on African American women currently pursuing doctoral degrees. 

When Striving for Success Breeds Distress: Maladaptive Perfectionism Amplifies Changes in Control Discrepancy, Which Significantly Contribute to Heightened Stress and Anxiety 

Emma J. Levinbook, Christopher J.C. Davis, and Anthony L. Burrow, PhD (Cornell University)

What did the research reveal that you didn’t already know? 

To test our hypotheses, we developed and employed an ecologically relevant experimental design to explore the cascading effect of maladaptive perfectionism and control discrepancy on stress and anxiety. Ultimately, we uncovered two interesting and novel insights. First, we demonstrated that control discrepancy is malleable and can be experimentally manipulated in both positive and negative directions. This finding is significant given that prior work on control discrepancy has been exclusively cross-sectional. Second, our research revealed that changes in control discrepancy are greatly influenced by maladaptive perfectionism, with meaningful consequences for mental health. Specifically, we found that individuals with high trait maladaptive perfectionism are more sensitive to contexts in which control is taken away or excessive. They experience amplified changes in control discrepancy in such contexts, which, in turn, predict heightened subjective stress and anxiety. Extant research has identified a robust relationship between maladaptive perfectionism and anxiety, and emerging evidence suggests a cross-sectional link between control discrepancy and anxiety. However, our research goes beyond these findings both methodologically and conceptually, elucidating the precise temporal dynamics and nuanced pathways underlying the interplay between maladaptive perfectionism, control discrepancy, and anxiety.  

What is the relevance of your findings for the future of psychological science?  

Our findings deepen our understanding of how and why maladaptive perfectionism contributes to anxiety through the lens of control discrepancy. Thus, they underscore the importance of refining existing cognitive frameworks linking maladaptive perfectionism and anxiety to incorporate control discrepancy as a central mediating factor. Additionally, because contexts and experiences that elicit control discrepancy are unavoidable aspects of everyday life, our findings suggest that interventions targeting anxiety may be strengthened by addressing not only maladaptive perfectionistic tendencies—as is typical of current approaches—but also the ways in which individuals perceive and respond to control discrepancies. 

What are your next steps with regard to this research?  

We hope to conduct interventional studies to clarify whether modifying individuals’ control discrepancies can reduce anxiety symptoms, particularly among individuals high in trait maladaptive perfectionism. Additionally, we are eager to examine other individual differences (e.g., trait emotion regulation, self-efficacy) that may also confer heightened sensitivity to changes in control discrepancy and their downstream consequences for mental health. 

The Call for Submissions for the 2026 APS Convention is now open. The submission deadline is Dec. 5, 2025.  

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