Fresno State senior Marisa Loza checks and rechecks transcripts of interviews between police officers and student witnesses about a mock crime for accuracy.

The senior forensic behavioral science major in the College of Social Sciences at Fresno State is looking to see if police rapport affects the accuracy of information given by witnesses of a crime.

“It’s time-consuming, hard work, but I like it,” said Loza, who was invited last year to be a student research assistant on the study conducted by Dr. Jenna Kieckhaefer, assistant professor in the Department of Criminology at Fresno State.

Loza has long been interested in research — the methods and findings. Now, she’s working on a couple research projects and is one of eight Fresno State students presenting at the 33rd annual California State University Student Research Competition on Friday and Saturday, April 26 and 27, at California State University, Fullerton.

“We are thrilled to be sending a strong cohort of student researchers presenting in a wide variety of disciplines this year,” said Gayle Sherwood, grants and research administrator in the Division of Research and Graduate Studies at Fresno State. “This impressive group was selected through a competitive process by the University research committee. We are pleased to support their research activities and grateful to the Associated Students, Inc. for assisting with the students’ expenses.”

The CSU system-wide competition showcases the innovative research of undergraduate and graduate students and promotes excellence in scholarly research and creative activities. Participants will make oral presentations before a panel of judges that includes experts from major corporations, foundations, public agencies and colleges and universities statewide.

Loza will attend for the first time, presenting for Kieckhaefer’s project titled, “Examining Police Officer Rapport’s Influence on Mock-Witness Memory.” A Fresno native, Loza developed a love of psychology when she was a student at Sunnyside High School and enjoys pairing it with criminology.

Other Fresno State participants and their research titles include:

Candice Cortney — “Solvation Thermodynamics of the Keto-Enol Tautomerization Equilibrium of Acetylacetone in Binary Solvent Mixtures Using NMR Spectroscopy”
Emmanuel Flores — “Antimicrobial Resistance in Bacillus Strains Found in Probiotics”
Kaylee Jones — “Officer-State Verbal Techniques in Cooperative Witness Interviewing”
Satwinder Kaur — “Front Line Workers: South Asians’ Experiences of Intimate Partner Violence in the United States”
Javier Medina — “The Criminalization of Marijuana and the Opioid Epidemic”
Cameron Scott — “Opportune Climbers: The Wokou Surge During the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century”
Shylesh Umapathy — “Study of the Impact of Coarse-Grained Power Gate Placement on a Fine-Grained MAC Unit”