Allegra B.
WISRD Associate, WIE Member
NARC1SSUS: August 2024
Began a clothing brand centered around a specific theme, with plans to donate profits through WISL. By September, the first designs were printed and released, giving the project a tangible start. In October, I launched a fashion club built around the brand, creating a space for collaboration and sharing ideas.
Leather working: November 2024 to February 2025
Decided to pivot from clothing to a more personal craft, beginning with a leather wallet. By December, I was experimenting with templates and cutting leather, and by January had learned saddle stitching and practiced assembly. The wallet, completed in February, became a one-of-a-kind object reflecting individuality and focus.
Original Research Project: March 2025 to October 2025
In March, I shifted my focus from leather working to psychology research, initially exploring attention, dopamine, and stress through cortisol measurement (I also became an associate member of WISRD). I integrated a brainwave eye tracker and the Cortisol ELISA Saliva Kit to capture participants’ physiological responses, which I demonstrated at Dark Matter Day in October.
Summer 2025: Video Game Research Development
Over the summer, I refined the project’s focus to studying stress responses during video game play. Recognizing that hormonal changes accompany stress, I expanded the experiment to include testosterone and estrogen measurements alongside cortisol.
Experimental Design and Preparation: August to October 2025
I conducted background research to identify relevant studies, selected video games that induce immediate stress responses, drafted consent forms, and developed an experimental protocol. This groundwork established a rigorous foundation for measuring physiological and hormonal responses in high school participants.
Next Steps:
Begin full participant testing, collecting pre- and post-video game saliva samples, and analyzing correlations between testosterone, estrogen, cortisol, and attention/stress outcomes. The goal is to understand how hormonal fluctuations interact with acute stress in gaming contexts and contribute to broader insights into adolescent physiology and cognition.