Jessica Fell
LATEST PROJECTS
Master's Thesis
A comparison of traditional and evolutionarily-informed fitness training
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Humans generally engage in daily physical activity of some type, whether walking around the house or participating in a structured sport or exercise program. Although we continue to utilize our bodies for work, play and basic tasks, our movement patterns typically vary from those of our ancestors. In response to increased awareness of the mismatch between ancestral health and physical activity, and our modern health and exercise choices, greater attention has been given to dietary and physical activity choices in recent years. One result of this has been the emergence of evolutionarily informed fitness training programs that emphasize functional, whole-body activities that more closely mimic the movement patterns of our ancestors. This study aims to explore the health and fitness activities, perceptions, expectations, motivations, and outcomes of Gold’s Gym members (representative of a traditional gym experience) and CrossFit members (representative of an evolutionarily informed training program). These variables are included in broad predictions of CrossFit members having higher attendance rates, reporting a greater feeling of community and camaraderie, and increased fitness outcomes as compared to Gold’s Gym members.
Neanderthal Project
New Paltz Neanderthal Project
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New advancements in technology have allowed us to explore our ancestral history. It has been discoverd that long ago, inbreeding among neanderthals and homo sapiens occured. With this, it has been found that the DNA within modern-day humans has some overlap with that of neanderthals. It has also been varifyed that some individuals have a higer DNA percentage overlap than do others. This study aims to explore this overlap in DNA among modern-day humans and neanderthals. Through the collaboration with established genomics companies, the New Paltz Evolutionary Psychology Lab seeks to find possible implications of having a higher percentage of neanderthal DNA overlap as opposed to having a lower percent overlap.
Religion Study
IAT Religion Study
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The purpose of this research is to gain an understanding about the relationship between religion and violence. We hypothesize that religion is an evolved characteristic of humans. It evolved as a meals of forming strong in-groups, by allowing for costly signals of group membership. Social psychologists have frequently found that strong in-group identificalion leads to increased out-group aggression. Our specific goals are to investigate whether religion, through this out-group mechanism, provides for greater toleration of violence done in its name. Through the use of an implicit associalions task, the investgators will measure participants' reation times to the lenght of time it takes them to categorize items based on labels provided by the investigator, using two response locations. Prior researchas shown that when participants are asked to categorize two different sets of categories simultaneously, still only using two response locations, participants' reaction time is slowed when categorizing against their biases as opposed to with theh biases.