Caption: Senior Yasmean Abdullah Source: Yasmean Abdullah
Senior Yasmean Abdullah was awarded the Regional Research Award by the Midwestern Psychological Association for her research study on The Relationship Between Creativity and Cognitive Flexibility.
Abdullah’s research project has been accepted to present during the Psi Chi program at the 96th Annual Meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association (MPA), at an in-person conference on April 18-20, 2024, at the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago IL.
“I am deeply honored and thrilled to have achieved this significant milestone in the field of Psychology. My gratitude for winning this award is immense, and I owe much of this success to the invaluable guidance and support of my mentor, Dr. DeGirolamo,” says Abdullah.
Dr. DeGirolamo provided assistance, guidance in conducting research, helped analyze data, and edited and revised the study during the finalization of Abdullah’s research project.
According to MPA, they have received more than 800 abstracts from their program this year and only a small number among the top-rated abstracts are receiving an award. Reviewers selected an award based on the high-quality of the research project and is to be considered a genuine achievement.
The MPA serves to share research across all areas of psychology, with annual meetings featuring “invited addresses and talks from leading psychologists across the United States, papers and posters addressing a wide range of topics in current psychological science, workshops addressing the teaching of psychology, research methods, and statistics, and discussion groups, roundtables, and social events where members can share ideas and interests” according to their website.
Winning this award from MPA provides Abdullah recognition for her achievements and can contribute to building her professional career in psychology. Psychology is considered a competitive field so winning an award like this gives her a bump up.
“This recognition opens doors to new opportunities and collaborations. Winning this award increases visibility within the psychological community. This may lead to invitations to speak at conferences, contribute to publications, or participate in panel discussions and further establish your expertise,” says Abdullah.
Abdullah takes interest in the cognitive functions of the brain and where creativity lies in the human brain, which formed her idea for the project.
After reading and reviewing what other researchers have attempted to find, Abdullah replicated prior research by changing one of the variables and adjusting the study factors. This led to creating a new research idea of her own.
Abdullah’s research investigates the relationship between cognitive flexibility and creativity. As said by Abdullah, “Cognitive flexibility positively aids creative thinking and multitasking.”
Cognitive flexibility is described as how your mind can adapt and switch between different thoughts or tasks as needed. Creativity is how you come up with original ideas and solutions.
For example, cognitive flexibility is taking a break from doing homework to go for a walk or going from reading a book to talking with a friend.
Creativity is the capacity to create, such as music composition or painting.
The study further explores how problem solving is affected by creativity and looks at whether performing more creative activities can be linked to a greater cognitive flexibility.
Abdullah’s research is managed entirely online. Participants are asked to complete two questionnaires with balanced tasks on each. One survey covers a creativity task and the other covers a cognitive flexibility task.
“One of the hardest parts of research is getting as many participants to complete the study to have a large pool of participants,” says Abdullah.
Each questionnaire is used to assess both cognitive flexibility and creativity by using balanced tasks to analyze the five areas of creativity: everyday, scholarly, performance, science, the arts(k-Docs); and cognitive flexibility.
“The study sheds light on how creativity influences one’s ability to adapt their thinking and approach to various situations, tasks, or problems,” says Abdullah.
This study was created in order to help people adjust to different situations. The understanding of how cognitive flexibility and creativity are linked can help further study how people cope with change.
“By grasping cognitive flexibility better, we can use smarter thinking strategies and boost creativity, which we can use in different areas,” according to APA PsycNet.
Abdullah’s study is not yet fully completed and she is currently in the process of conducting her research study at the moment.
*This article was edited on 2/2/2024 to include the correct article.*
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