Edgar Rodriguez Castro

• SOAR Position: Member
• Major: Psychology
• Faculty Mentor(s): Dr. Stuart Bernstein

Current Focus: Scoring elementary students’ spelling and comparing how story writing can improve the students’ spelling.

Project Description

Four groups of elementary students writing was collected and scored based on the accuracy of the word they were targeting when story-writing. Two groups were seen as a control group. The other two were the treatment group that would continue story-writing.

Why does this topic interest you?

From my first time getting involved in research, I found that I was a lot more interested in a topic that I never really considered. I got involved with some of Dr. Houston’s Grad students studying the impact on creativity when working independently and in dyads. I had enjoyed being a part of this experiment and wanted to see if anyone was doing something else with creativity. I had found this child spelling comparison and seeing how it had to do with some form of creativity I chose to get in contact with the professor.

What are your professional aspirations?

As of now I am hoping to get into a grad program that focuses on cognitive psychology or neuroscience. In the long run, I am hoping to become a researcher.

Do you have any advice for future researchers?

Ask questions! I would hold myself back from asking questions because I felt I was not talking to the right person for the question or because I felt embarrassed to ask. Once I built up the courage to ask questions, I found that professors will help you and try to connect you to the right person for the question. Get Involved with research as much as you can! With the experience you gain through what you get involved in, you can better understand what you like or dislike. This will also help you get better acquainted with professors. Keep moving forward! There will be times where you do not feel good about yourself, but the best thing to do is remember what motivated you to start and those who have supported you along the way.

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