Arts - Buffalo State College

they are imperative to the Buffalo State College campus.
Presentation Type and Session: Poster I
Anybody Seen That Hominin? Cataloging
Hominin Casts With PastPerfect
Megan Barr, ANT 495: Past Perfect
Faculty Mentor: Professor Julie Wieczkowski, Anthropology
Collections management includes everything that is done to
document, care for, and develop museum collections and make
them available for use. Computerized inventories are nearly
indispensable for keeping track of items, their storage locations, and
relevant documentation. PastPerfect has become the most widely
used museum collection management software, with thousands
of organizations using it worldwide. PastPerfect conforms to the
latest standards for cataloging archive, library, historic object, art
object, natural history, archaeology, and photograph collections.
The Anthropology Department has a large collection of hominin
fossil casts. In using PastPerfect, I will manage this collection by
cataloging it according to typical museum collection management
policies. This documentation will include object identification, a
full description of each item, place of origin, age of the fossil, year
excavated, condition, and present location; this information will
be accompanied with photographs of every object. This project
will provide me with experience using the museum collections
management system, and also provide access to the organized
information and fossil casts for the faculty and students within the
Department. The acquisition of this software by the Anthropology
Department will allow for the continued management of its many
other teaching collections, such as its Skeletal Collection and
Archaeological Collections.
Presentation Type and Session: Poster III
Archaeology At Old Fort Niagara
Jennifer Mclaurin, ANT 499: Old Fort Niagara Excavation Report
Writing
Faculty Mentor: Professor Susan Maguire, Anthropology
The 2011 Buffalo State College Archaeological Field School
at Old Fort Niagara sought to explore the everyday lives of the
soldiers at the fort during the War of 1812. Four 2m by 2m units
were excavated along the foundation of the Red Barracks, an early
19th century barracks which served as an infirmary for American
soldiers before the British takeover of the fort in December 1813.
The excavation was held over the course of 6 weeks, during
which time a number of artifacts were recovered. These artifacts
included, but were not limited to, window glass, nails, musket balls,
buttons, animal bones and projectile points. After the conclusion
of the excavations, myself and another Anthropology student
cleaned, identified, and cataloged the artifacts recovered during
the excavations. I am currently assisting in the preparation of
the excavation report for the field school. As part of this work, I
Psychology and Social Sciences
have been working with the computer software ArcGIS. Using
this software, I digitized the foundation walls located during the
excavations. The archaeological traces of the foundation of the
Red Barracks can be digitally overlapped with historic plans of the
fort from the early 19th century to show changes in the layout of
structures at Old Fort Niagara over time and to check the accuracy of
the historic plans of the fort.
Presentation Type and Session: Poster II
Are We Smarter With Our Hands?
Relationship Between Gesturing and Fluid
Intelligence
Carla Kuhl, PSY 499: Independent Study
Faculty Mentor: Professor Stephani Foraker, Psychology
We all struggle to remember things. Research shows mental
imagery is an effective encoding mnemonic (e.g., Barresi and
Silbert, 1976), and recently, research investigating gesturing shows
it has a facilatory effect on learning and unintentional encoding
(Cook, Mitchell, and Goldin-Meadow, 2008). In this study, we tested
whether natural gesture rate modulated the effectiveness of gesturing
as a memory strategy. We predicted that those with a high natural
gesture rate would benefit more from the gesture strategy than
those with a low rate. We also measured fluid intelligence to assess
its impact on memory recall and relationship to gesture rate in
our task (Sassenberg, Foth, Wartenburger, and van der Meer, 2011;
Wartenburger, Kuhn, Sassenberg, Foth, Franz, and van der Meer,
2010). To establish gesture rate, participants were first videotaped
narrating a video clip and explaining how to wrap a gift. Later, the
rate of representational gestures per second was calculated and a
median split defined high versus low gesture rate groups. The 80
participants were randomly assigned to the imagery or gesturing
strategy, which were used to learn 30 unassociated word pairs
for cued-recall, immediately after learning and two days later.
Following the delayed memory test, participants completed the fluid
intelligence test (Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices). High
versus average fluid intelligence was calculated according to the
manual. Results indicated immediate and delayed cued-recall was
superior for imagery over gesturing, with no effects of gesture rate on
recall. However, high fluid intelligence facilitated recall, which was
increased by an imagery strategy.
Presentation Type and Session: Poster II
Articulate Ancients: Cave Art As
Communication
Angela Broughton, HON 400: All College Honors Colloquium
Faculty Mentors: Professor Lisa Anselmi, Anthropology and
Professor Andrea Guiati, Director, All College Honors Program
Paleolithic cave paintings are commonly viewed by the lay public
as a primitive attempt at creating art that are closer to doodles than
any modern masterpiece. However, creating Paleolithic cave art
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