This page is no longer being updated and remains online for informational and historical purposes only. The information is accurate as of the last page update.
For questions about page contents, contact the Communications Division.
Trustee Scholar Melissa Mitchell ’03 (Merchantville, Pa.), a junior psychology major, is conducting an intensive, two-part study on aging this academic year, looking specifically at memory loss and pain perception. Mitchell is working as an EXCEL Scholar with Jamila Bookwala, assistant professor of psychology.
Last semester, Mitchell began volunteering with Senior Horizons. Bookwala explains that Senior Horizons aims to educate senior citizens about early signs of memory loss through written materials and a quick screening test.
“Currently, Melissa and I are preparing the data collected during Senior Horizons for analysis,” Bookwala says. “We will examine the prevalence of early memory loss in seniors and how they vary by sociodemographic variables.”
“We’re scoring and evaluating over 700 memory questionnaires that were completed and collected at senior citizen fairs in Allentown and the surrounding areas,” says Mitchell. “When the scoring is completed, we plan on looking at trends among the different variables of age and how they affect simple memory tasks.”
Mitchell explains that in the memory surveys, senior citizens were asked to provide their age, marital status, gender, and various other questions regarding their memory, such as whether they have trouble performing daily tasks that they once found easy.
They were then asked to draw a clock that read ten to two, which is a very well-known memory task in the field and is scored on a number of different levels to assess memory and competency,” says Mitchell. Then, she says, they were asked to recall three words from the previous page of the survey without looking back at that page.
This research is part of the Memory Loss Education Project initiated by Dr. Kelly O’Carney, a geriatrics care services specialist from Easton, and Dr. Scott Berman, a neurologist from Bethlehem. Bookwala serves as a consultant to the study.
When they finish their work on the Memory Loss Education Project, Mitchell and Bookwala will delve into the second phase of their work together: investigating pain perception and evaluating surveys collected by Bookwala in prior research.
“They were completed by patients with osteoarthritis. The questionnaires evaluated different variables’ effects on their perception of pain,” Mitchell explains.
Last year, Mitchell participated in EXCEL research and studied color perception. “I wanted to try something new this year to expand my knowledge on the subject as a whole,” she says.
“Dr. Bookwala is an extremely patient woman, and she is very dedicated to and excited about the work she does,” says Mitchell. “All these things make it wonderful to work with her.”
She adds, “Lafayette’s environment is a very pleasant one in which to perform this research. The other professors are very supportive and are willing to help whenever they can. It’s also great to have the opportunity to do this research as an undergraduate. At large universities, the undergrads are not as lucky because the graduate students get to do all the work.”
“Melissa is smart and dedicated,” says Bookwala. “I have been impressed with her enthusiasm and her willingness to learn new and exciting things.”
Valedictorian of Bishop Eustace Prep’s Class of 1999, Mitchell is a tour guide for the Admissions Office and a member of Alpha Phi sorority.
A National Leader in Undergraduate Research. Melissa Mitchell ’03 made a presentation on her collaborative research with Jamila Bookwala, assistant professor of psychology, at the Gerontological Society of America’s national symposium.