Traces of contact in intonation: Spanish in contact with Quechua in the Andes

Linguistics, Spanish, bilingualism, language contact, indigenous language

Research Mentor: Dr. Antje Muntendam, she/her
Department, College, Affiliation: Modern Languages and Linguistics, Arts and Sciences
Contact Email: amuntendam@fsu.edu
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from mentor):
Research Assistant Supervisor Email:
Faculty Collaborators:
Faculty Collaborators Email:

Looking for Research Assistants: No
Number of Research Assistants: 2
Relevant Majors: The project is Open to all majors who have (some) knowledge of Spanish. The project is most relevant to students who have an interest in linguistics or related fields.
Project Location: On FSU Main Campus
Research Assistant Transportation Required:
Remote or In-person: Partially Remote
Approximate Weekly Hours: 5-10, Flexible schedule (Combination of business and outside of business. TBD between student and research mentor.)
Roundtable Times and Zoom Link: Not participating in the Roundtable

Project Description

This project examines the linguistic outcomes of language contact between Spanish and Quechua in Peru and Argentina, with particular attention to intonation. Quechua is an Andean language and refers to a language family, rather than a language. There are approximately 44 Quechuan languages (Eberhard et al., 2020), which are spoken from southern Colombia to northern Argentina and Chile, with larger groups of speakers in Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador. Quechua has been in contact with Spanish for almost 500 years. This long-term contact situation as well as typological differences between the two languages have led to an influence from Quechua into Spanish and vice versa (see Muysken & Muntendam, 2016).
This project specifically investigates intonation, which is an area that has been relatively unexplored in language contact studies in general, and in Quechua-Spanish contact studies in particular. Intonation is the melody of a sentence and corresponds to changes in pitch (e.g., high and low tones), which may cause changes in meaning. For instance, in many varieties of Spanish, intonation is used to make a distinction between questions and statements (e.g., ¿Tienes un gato? ‘Do you have a cat?’ vs. Tienes un gato. ‘You have a cat'). Intonation systems vary highly across languages and language varieties, and based on intonation, we can recognize where someone is from (e.g., from Spain, Peru, Argentina, or Cuba).
This project specifically focuses on the marking of yes/no-questions (e.g., Do you have a cat?), wh-questions (e.g., What do you have?), and statements in Quechua and Spanish. Quechua and Spanish use different strategies to mark questions and statements. In Quechua, questions are marked in morphology, that is, with an interrogative particle. Importantly, in Quechua questions and statements are not distinguished intonationally; both have a falling intonation. In Spanish, however, intonation is used to distinguish questions and statements and questions often have a rising intonation. The question is what happens when these languages come into contact. The specific research questions of this project are: (1) Do Quechua-Spanish bilinguals in Peru and Argentina use intonation and/or morphology (i.e., interrogative particles) to mark questions and statements in Quechua and Spanish? (2) How do Spanish monolinguals use intonation to mark questions and statements? (3) Are bilingual Quechua and Spanish in Peru and Argentina affected by language contact? If so, how?
To answer these questions, data were collected from Quechua-Spanish bilinguals from Cusco (Peru), and Quechua-Spanish bilinguals and Spanish monolinguals from Santiago del Estero (Argentina). The tasks included a sociolinguistic background questionnaire, two controlled elicitation tasks to elicit questions and statements (a game (see Muntendam & Torreira, 2016) and a map task), and a story telling task (based on a frog story (Mayer, 1969). Bilingual participants did the tasks in both languages.
The data were transferred to a computer for data analysis. The data from the elicitation tasks will be segmented, annotated, and analyzed acoustically in Praat (Boersma & Weenink, 2022) (software for acoustic analysis). For the intonation analysis, Spanish_ToBI (Estebas-Vilaplana & Prieto, 2010) will be used. The data from the story-telling task will be transcribed in ELAN (Sloetjes & Wittenburg, 2008) (annotation software).
In all, this project will provide new empirical data on understudied Quechua and Spanish varieties and will contribute to our understanding of the outcomes of language contact, in particular in the area of intonation.

Research Tasks: The data for this project have already been collected and transferred to a computer for analysis. The research assistants will focus on the Spanish data (unless they know Quechua). Their tasks will consist of data segmentation, transcription, annotation, and analysis. Specifically, students will segment sound files in Audacity or Praat (software for acoustic analysis), transcribe short utterances (orthographically and/or phonetically), and annotate and analyze data for intonation analysis. The story telling data will be transcribed in ELAN. The research assistants will receive detailed instructions on all aspects of the project and will work closely with their mentor.
There will be in-person meetings for instructions and checking work. The research tasks can be carried out on a computer in the lab (during business hours), or on a laptop computer as all the software is freely available. The in-person meetings will be during business hours. The research tasks can be carried out during business hours or outside of business hours, as long as they meet the deadlines.

Skills that research assistant(s) may need: The required skill for this project is at least some knowledge of Spanish. Some background in Linguistics (e.g., LIN 3041 Introduction to Linguistics, IDS 2291 Language Birth, Language death, or another course) or in Spanish Linguistics (e.g., LIN 4700 Introduction to Hispanic Linguistics, LIN 4780 Spanish Phonetics, or another course), or some experience with Praat or ELAN is a plus (but not required as students will be trained).

The influence of TikTok on young adults’ attitudes toward eating behavior

TikTok, Eating Behavior, Social media, Dietary Attitudes

Research Mentor: Ms. Sun Young Park,
Department, College, Affiliation: communication, Communication and Information
Contact Email: sp22bb@fsu.edu
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from mentor): Ms. Noli Alessandra Noli
Research Assistant Supervisor Email: anolipeschiera@fsu.edu
Faculty Collaborators:
Faculty Collaborators Email:

Looking for Research Assistants: No
Number of Research Assistants: 2
Relevant Majors: Open to all majors
Project Location: On FSU Main Campus
Research Assistant Transportation Required: Yes
Remote or In-person: Partially Remote
Approximate Weekly Hours: 8 hours, During business hours
Roundtable Times and Zoom Link: Thursday, September 7, 1-2 pm, https://fsu.zoom.us/j/6321719535
Friday, September 8, 9-11 am, https://fsu.zoom.us/j/6321719535

Project Description

The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of TikTok on young adults' attitudes toward eating behavior. TikTok has become an important source of information and entertainment for young adults due to its increasing popularity and role as a social media platform. The study analyzes the content of popular TikTok videos related to food and eating behavior and examines how it affects young adults' attitudes and behaviors around food. Young adults age 18 to 25 will be interviewed using a qualitative research design and semi-structured interviews.

Research Tasks: conducting interviews and data analysis

Skills that research assistant(s) may need: Required interview skills

Species Distribution Modelling of Darters

environmental science, biology, GIS, evolution, rivers

Research Mentor: Maya Stokes, she/her
Department, College, Affiliation: EOAS, Arts and Sciences
Contact Email: mfstokes@fsu.edu
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from mentor):
Research Assistant Supervisor Email:
Faculty Collaborators:
Faculty Collaborators Email:

Looking for Research Assistants: Yes
Number of Research Assistants: 2
Relevant Majors: Open to all majors
Project Location: On FSU Main Campus
Research Assistant Transportation Required:
Remote or In-person: Partially Remote
Approximate Weekly Hours: 5, Flexible schedule (Combination of business and outside of business. TBD between student and research mentor.)
Roundtable Times and Zoom Link: Wednesday, September 6: 1 PM - 1:30 PM, https://fsu.zoom.us/j/7735819784
Friday, September 8: 12-12:30 PM, https://fsu.zoom.us/j/7735819784

Project Description

The southeastern United States is a temperate freshwater biodiversity hotspot host. However, little is known about the mechanisms that have generated this remarkable richness. This project will characterize the ecological axes of diversification in Darters (Percidae: Etheostomatinae), a charismatic clade of freshwater fish endemic to North America. Students will use GIS to analyze environmental datasets and produce species distribution models. Computational analysis will be supplemented with literature review to characterize information about microhabitat specialists and life history in darters.

Research Tasks: data analysis, literature review, GIS

Skills that research assistant(s) may need: GIS and/or coding (R or python) recommend (not required!)

Weathering and erosion in carbonate-dominated terrain

rivers, labwork, geology, earth science, environmental science

Research Mentor: Dr. Maya Stokes, she/her
Department, College, Affiliation: EOAS, Arts and Sciences
Contact Email: mfstokes@fsu.edu
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from mentor):
Research Assistant Supervisor Email:
Faculty Collaborators:
Faculty Collaborators Email:

Looking for Research Assistants: Yes
Number of Research Assistants: 1
Relevant Majors: Geology or environmental science preferred, Open to all majors
Project Location: On FSU Main Campus
Research Assistant Transportation Required:
Remote or In-person: In-person
Approximate Weekly Hours: 5, During business hours
Roundtable Times and Zoom Link: Wednesday, September 6, 1:30 - 2:00 PM , https://fsu.zoom.us/j/7735819784
Friday, September 8, 12:30 - 1:00 PM, https://fsu.zoom.us/j/7735819784

Project Description

The surface of the Earth is shaped by physical and chemical processes. Rivers sweep away material from landscapes, carving out valleys and canyons. Meanwhile, chemical weathering slowly turns rock into soil. In most landscapes, physical erosion is the dominant process. However, in landscapes underlain by carbonate rocks (e.g. limestone), chemical weathering can dominate over physical erosion. In this project, students will work with river sediments and water chemistry data collected from northern Alabama to investigate the balance of physical and chemical processes in shaping the landscape. Research will primarily involve labwork and data analysis. Extensions could include GIS, computational simulations, or literature review depending on interests of the researcher.

Research Tasks: laboratory analyses, literature review, data analysis

Skills that research assistant(s) may need: No specific skill required

***The Increasing Mindfulness Engagement (TIME) Project

mindfulness, qualitative interviews, recruitment, Black college students

Research Mentor: Dr. Laura Reid Marks, she/her
Department, College, Affiliation: Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems, Education
Contact Email: lmarks@fsu.edu
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from mentor): Mr. Nicholas Reese he/his
Research Assistant Supervisor Email: nreese@fsu.edu
Faculty Collaborators:
Faculty Collaborators Email:

Looking for Research Assistants: Yes
Number of Research Assistants: 2
Relevant Majors: Open to all majors with a preference for students who are interested in mobile health interventions and health disparities
Project Location: On FSU Main Campus
Research Assistant Transportation Required: Other
Remote or In-person: In-person
Approximate Weekly Hours: 8-10, Flexible schedule (Combination of business and outside of business. TBD between student and research mentor.)
Roundtable Times and Zoom Link: Not participating in the Roundtable

Project Description

For Project TIME, we are recruiting Black college students to conduct research interviews. We are asking participants to give us suggestions on the ways in which to make mindfulness using mobile health tools more attractive to Black college students who drink alcohol. Ultimately, we will use the data from the interviews to culturally tailor a mobile health mindfulness app for Black college students. Mindfulness can help manage stress but historically has not been culturally tailored for Black students.

Research Tasks: Data collection, literature review, data analysis

Skills that research assistant(s) may need: Recommended: Comfort with assisting with in-person recruitment (required), familiarity with reviewing scientific articles

Constructing electronics for the High Luminosity LHC

physics, electronics, high energy physics

Research Mentor: Ted Kolberg,
Department, College, Affiliation: Physics Department, Arts and Sciences
Contact Email: tkolberg@fsu.edu
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from mentor):
Research Assistant Supervisor Email:
Faculty Collaborators:
Faculty Collaborators Email:

Looking for Research Assistants: Yes
Number of Research Assistants: 2
Relevant Majors: Physics
Electrical Engineering
Computer Science
Project Location: On FSU Main Campus
Research Assistant Transportation Required:
Remote or In-person: In-person
Approximate Weekly Hours: 5-10 hours, During business hours
Roundtable Times and Zoom Link: Not participating in the Roundtable

Project Description

The FSU high energy physics group is active in the CMS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In order to fully study physics at the terascale, we are upgrading the accelerator and the detectors in order to cope with a 10x larger number of collisions in the coming years. At FSU we are building electronic systems for the upgrade, which involves using high speed digital systems to collect, format, and transmit physics data. We have openings for research assistants to work on the construction, testing, and troubleshooting of electronics which will eventually be installed into the CMS experiment at CERN.

Research Tasks: -- connecting and testing electronic equipment to test stands
-- data collection and analysis of electronic system performance
-- troubleshooting and problem solving with electronic systems
-- software for data acquisition and hardware testing

Skills that research assistant(s) may need: -- recommended experience with at least one programming language, especially Python
-- a desire to learn about the design and construction of digital electronic systems
-- a desire to learn about the physics program of the LHC and the CMS experiment

Promoting relationship satisfaction by intervening on gut-feeling reactions

attitudes, relationships, mindfulness, self-expansion, intervention

Research Mentor: Ruddy Faure,
Department, College, Affiliation: Psychology, Arts and Sciences
Contact Email: rfaure@fsu.edu
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from mentor):
Research Assistant Supervisor Email:
Faculty Collaborators:
Faculty Collaborators Email:

Looking for Research Assistants: No
Number of Research Assistants: 2
Relevant Majors: Psychology (open to majors in social and behavioral sciences more broadly)
Project Location: On FSU Main Campus
Research Assistant Transportation Required:
Remote or In-person: In-person
Approximate Weekly Hours: 10, Flexible schedule (Combination of business and outside of business. TBD between student and research mentor.)
Roundtable Times and Zoom Link: Not participating in the Roundtable

Project Description

This research project will focus on developing and testing interventions aimed at promoting both the functioning and the well-being of romantic relationships. While the rates of divorce have been rising increasingly over the past decades, preliminary research suggests that the seeds of marital decay can be detected in automatic partner attitudes – the spontaneous affective reactions (or ‘gut feelings’) that people exhibit toward their partner in indirect measures (e.g., reaction-time tasks) but often seem unable or unwilling to report in direct measures (e.g., questionnaires). The goal of this project is to (a) examine how automatic partner attitudes develop over time and to (b) test whether interventions that target such attitudes can benefit couples. Specifically, we will test the efficacy of two different intervention procedures: one aiming to enhance automatic partner attitudes (i.e., engaging in self-expanding--novel and exciting--activities with one’s partner), and one aiming to enhance people’s ability to accept and regulate their automatic partner attitudes (i.e., mindfulness meditation training). The project will involve a wide variety of measures (e.g., implicit measures of partner attitudes, questionnaires, videotaped conversations, daily diaries). On the whole, this project will provide theoretical insights into the causal role of automatic partner attitudes in close relationships and also inform applied research about strategies that may effectively help couples and reliably benefit society.

Research Tasks: Research assistants will be involved in all stages of the research process and thus will take part in various tasks, including but not limited to: reviewing relevant literature, designing study material, implementing the study, recruiting and running participants, analyzing data, coding videotaped interactions of couples, interpreting and presenting the study results in both written and oral forms. On the whole, research assistants will be presented with a wide range of opportunities to learn from and contribute to the project, both under supervision and in autonomy.

Skills that research assistant(s) may need: Research assistants will be required to be reliable, conscientious, organised, and interested in research. Ideally, research assistants already have quantitative research skills or experience. Any other programming skills or experience with Qualtrics and Inquisit would be a plus.

Technoference in romantic relationships: An intervention study

romantic relationships, intervention, smartphone use, dyadic interactions, daily life

Research Mentor: Ruddy Faure,
Department, College, Affiliation: Psychology, Arts and Sciences
Contact Email: rfaure@fsu.edu
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from mentor):
Research Assistant Supervisor Email:
Faculty Collaborators:
Faculty Collaborators Email:

Looking for Research Assistants: No
Number of Research Assistants: 2
Relevant Majors: Psychology (open to Majors in social and behavioral sciences more broadly)
Project Location: On FSU Main Campus
Research Assistant Transportation Required:
Remote or In-person: In-person
Approximate Weekly Hours: 10, Flexible schedule (Combination of business and outside of business. TBD between student and research mentor.)
Roundtable Times and Zoom Link: Not participating in the Roundtable

Project Description

This research project will focus on technoference in romantic relationships. Technoference qualifies the interference of relationship processes due to smartphone use. As can be imagined, this phenomenon is highly prevalent in modern-day romantic relationships and preliminary research suggests that it is typically associated with lower relationship outcomes. This project plans to further explore the causal role and underlying mechanisms of technoference in romantic relationships. More specifically, the goal is to design a multi-week intervention study that reduces smartphone use in couples in order to (a) establish the causal role of technoference for relationship outcomes over time and to (b) identify the mechanisms underlying the effects of technoference in relationship contexts. The project will involve a variety of methods (e.g., questionnaires, daily diaries). Given the importance of relationship quality for health, not only does this project contributes to theoretical research in our field, it also entails practical implications for society.

Research Tasks: Research assistants will be involved in all stages of the research process and thus will take part in various tasks, including but not limited to: reviewing relevant literature, designing study material, implementing the study, recruiting and running participants, analyzing data, interpreting and presenting the study results in both written and oral forms. On the whole, research assistants will be presented with a wide range of opportunities to learn from and contribute to the project, both under supervision and in autonomy.

Skills that research assistant(s) may need: Research assistants will be required to be reliable, conscientious, organised, and interested in research. Ideally, research assistants already have quantitative research skills or experience. Any other programming skills or experience with Qualtrics and Inquisit would be a plus.

What is a “low-performing” school? The implications of federal policy changes and state implementation decisions on the equity of school accountability designations

education, school, public policy, education policy, educational equity

Research Mentor: Dr. Erica Harbatkin,
Department, College, Affiliation: Education Policy and Evaluation, Education
Contact Email: eharbatkin@fsu.edu
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from mentor):
Research Assistant Supervisor Email:
Faculty Collaborators:
Faculty Collaborators Email:

Looking for Research Assistants: No
Number of Research Assistants: 2
Relevant Majors: Open to all majors
Project Location: On FSU Main Campus
Research Assistant Transportation Required:
Remote or In-person: Partially Remote
Approximate Weekly Hours: 5-10 hours per week, Flexible schedule (Combination of business and outside of business. TBD between student and research mentor.)
Roundtable Times and Zoom Link: Tuesday, September 5 from 10-10:30am (https://fsu.zoom.us/j/93543715087)
Thursday, September 7 from 4-4:30pm (https://fsu.zoom.us/j/97024320118)

Project Description

The United States has long been requiring states to classify schools as underperforming based on student achievement, but federal policies underlying this mandate have changed. Among the most important changes is how schools are identified as underperforming. Under No Child Left Behind, schools were labeled low performing for failure to meet proficiency targets, which are widely understood to reflect a student body’s socioeconomic advantage rather than a school’s quality. The most recent federal policy expands the definition of low performance and takes a more nuanced view of school quality.
In this project, we are working to build an understanding of whether and to what extent these new approaches to identifying low-performing schools yield schools a different set of schools than older proficiency-based policies. In particular, we are interested in whether the way states rate school performance under federal law affects the composition of schools that are ultimately designated as low performing. This matters because being identified as low performing is a double-edged sword for schools. On one hand, the low-performing label is demoralizing for communities, educators, and students in those schools. There is a large evidence base showing that schools with more students of color and economically disadvantaged students are labeled as low performing, raising important implications for equity. On the other hand, some policies allocate considerable additional funding for schools that are identified as low performing.

We are looking for an undergraduate research assistant to support, and ultimately lead portions of a document review and analysis of all state plans and revisions submitted to the U.S. Department of Education under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). What measures are states using to rate schools? How are they weighting each of those measures? How can schools exit improvement status in different states? The research assistant will play a central role in developing a coding scheme for these plans, conducting the coding, and potentially helping to analyze plans for academic publication moving forward.

One outcome for the project will be to disseminate the data that we collect to support additional projects. To that end, we would encourage and support the research assistant to use the expertise they develop on the project to advance their own research.

This is a joint project with a faculty member at University of Pittsburgh. The research assistant will have the opportunity to participate in the project from relatively early stages and follow it through to build a novel dataset that we expect will result in academic publications. This would be a nice opportunity for a student interested in pursuing (or learning about) a master's or Ph.D. in educational policy.

Research Tasks: Data collection, document review, data analysis

Skills that research assistant(s) may need: Attention to detail required. Familiarity with web-scraping and quantitative data analysis would be nice but are by no means required. The RA will have the opportunity to learn while in the role.

Historical Mapping of Oyster Habitat in Apalachicola Bay

Biology, Geography, Geographic Information Systems, GIS, Oysters, Ecology, Data Analysis, Marine

Research Mentor: Dr. Elizabeth Mansfield, she/her
Department, College, Affiliation: Coastal & Marine Lab, Arts and Sciences
Contact Email: emansfield@fsu.edu
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from mentor): Ms. Lillie Bradshaw she/her
Research Assistant Supervisor Email: lb22l@fsu.edu
Faculty Collaborators: Dr. Josh Breithaupt he/him
Faculty Collaborators Email: jbreithaupt@fsu.edu

Looking for Research Assistants: No
Number of Research Assistants: 1
Relevant Majors: Biology/Biological Sciences, Oceanography, Geography, Environmental Science, Natural resources/conservation
Project Location: On FSU Main Campus
Research Assistant Transportation Required: No, the project is remote
Remote or In-person: Partially Remote
Approximate Weekly Hours: 8-10, Flexible schedule (Combination of business and outside of business. TBD between student and research mentor.)
Roundtable Times and Zoom Link: Wednesday Sept 6, 5:30-6:00 pm

https://fsu.zoom.us/j/99300036816
Meeting ID: 993 0003 6816

Project Description

The FSU Coastal and Marine Laboratory (FSUCML) is home to a large, multi-faceted research project; the Apalachicola Bay System Initiative (ABSI). ABSI aims to conduct research and restoration experiments that will guide management efforts to help the recovery of the local oyster population following the 2012 ecosystem collapse. Understanding the history of the Apalachicola Bay oyster habitat can be key in determining historical baselines, and provide understanding of system change over time. Digitization of historical maps to track oyster reef changes through time can help with baseline information, and provide context of historical events and ecological disturbances. For this UROP project students will be trained to use the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Online to aid in digitizing historical maps of the Apalachicola Bay oyster population distribution and map changes through time. Outside the main GIS component, additional field experience will be available in various ABSI sampling efforts to provide students with a deeper context of the project.

Research Tasks: 1. GIS: The UROP student will be trained in how to use ArcGIS Pro for geo-referencing and digitizing historical maps.
2. Data Entry: Data collected from historic maps and publications will be recorded and maintained in a database. Additional historical information will be collected and recorded.
3. Data Analysis: Changes in shape and size will be analyzed using ArcGIS Pro. Information of historical influences to area changes will be summarized.


Skills that research assistant(s) may need: 1. Available at least one day per week to meet with mentor for check-ins and training assistance, in-person or over Zoom. As independence is achieved schedule will be more flexible for working from home *Required*
2. Proficiency in the basics of MS Excel and MS Word * Required*
3. Foundational knowledge of statistical analysis *Recommended*
4. Foundational knowledge of Geographic Information Systems, specifically ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Online. *Strongly Recommended*