Oregon Undergraduate Research Journal: Vol. 23 No. 1 (2025)
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Item Open Access OpenAI's Fault Lines: Cracks in a Groundbreaking “Capped-Profit” Organization(University of Oregon, 2025-02-20) Collins-Burke, DrewInfluential artificial intelligence (AI) company OpenAI has a unique corporate structure featuring a non-profit/capped-profit (NP/CP) model. In the NP/CP model, a non-profit organization has control over a for-profit arm that offers financiers a fixed return based on their initial investment, as opposed to offering unlimited potential return. OpenAI’s NP/CP structure is intended to reduce the negative impacts of shareholder capitalism on high-stakes artificial general intelligence (AGI) development projects. This paper evaluates OpenAI’s organizational successes and failures, comparing its approach to the pitfalls many shareholder corporations fall into: excessive profit motives, lack of transparency, and negligence towards societal impacts. It also explores how OpenAI’s structural features, such as investor profit caps and non-profit authority over the for- profit arm, have aided the company in avoiding some common issues with shareholder corporations. However, CEO Sam Altman’s high-profile ousting and reinstatement, OpenAI’s lack of open-source practices, and Microsoft’s influence raise concerns about the overall efficacy of this structure. Through an analysis of OpenAI's structure, actions, and public statements, this paper investigates the hybrid NP/CP model’s potential for mitigating the negative impacts of shareholder capitalism on responsible AGI development, highlighting its successes and limitations. The paper concludes that OpenAI’s ability to develop AGI safely within this organization model is possible but uncertain.Item Open Access COINdinistas and Contradictions: US Adoption of Counterinsurgency in 2007(University of Oregon, 2025-02-20) Li, AlexMultiple theories of politics—specifically, rational actor theory and organization theory—have been used to explain decision-making processes for military actions. Rational actor theory states that military actors base decisions on value calculations and incremental changes. Organization theory suggests that military organizations push a specific doctrine to preserve power in the face of civilian challenges or criticism. While organizations generally wish to appear rational, doctrinal decisions may betray irrationality. This paper aims to identify a clear history of US counterinsurgency (COIN) and test the existing literature on organization and rational actor theory against the US military’s readoption of the counterinsurgency doctrine in 2007. The US military COIN operations in Iraq that accompanied the Surge of 2007 followed a legacy of failed COIN experiments. Beginning in Vietnam with the strategic hamlet program, the continued use of COIN despite its empirical inefficacy throughout the 20th century demonstrates the military’s pattern of irrational action. This paper concludes that COIN existed quietly in the background of the Cold War before its implementation in 2007. Moreover, COIN’s doctrinal adoption in 2007 is better explained through organization theory as the military organization pushed COIN onto a desperate Bush administration. Finally, the history of COIN indicates that rational actor theory is insufficient to explain doctrine during low-intensity conflicts.Item Open Access Transitive Inference as an Intrinsic Process(University of Oregon, 2025-02-20) Murray, Austin; Chaloupka, BenThe present study tests participants’ ability to infer implicit relationships between stimuli by building hierarchical—ranking by some value—relationships, a process known as transitive inference. For example, if you know person A is taller than person B and person B is taller than person C, you can infer that person A is taller than person C without directly comparing the two. The literature has provided contrasting results regarding whether prior knowledge of the hierarchy is needed for participants to infer the indirect relationships. This study aimed to resolve this discrepancy by investigating whether participants could learn an implicit hierarchy of six art stimuli (A > B > C > D > E > F) without prior knowledge using a transitive inference task (N = 78). After being trained on all pairs of adjacent stimuli in the hierarchy (e.g., A > B or D > E), participants were tested on all possible pairs of stimuli (e.g., A > C or B > F). Participants were able to infer relationships between untrained items two steps apart in the hierarchy (e.g., B > D) just as well as they remembered trained relationships. They were especially successful in judging untrained relationships three steps apart in the hierarchy (e.g., B > E). This suggests that participants were able to generalize across the trained pairs to form the hierarchy, even without prior knowledge of the underlying structure. Our results support the idea that humans possess an intrinsic ability to infer implicit relationships between stimuli.Item Open Access The Influence of Positive Maternal Involvement on the Relationship Between Maternal Emotion Dysregulation and Preschooler Internalizing and Externalizing Problems(2025-02-20) Prunuske, JinChildren of mothers with elevated emotion dysregulation (ED) may be at greater risk for developing internalizing (INT) and externalizing (EXT) problems and, in turn, future psychopathology. While previous studies have investigated early risk pathways that may explain this association (e.g., unsupportive maternal responding), our understanding of factors that protect against the downstream effects of maternal ED on child outcomes is limited. To explore prospective protective factors, the current study examined the moderating role of positive maternal involvement on the relationship between maternal ED and preschoolers’ INT and EXT problems. This study included 178 mother-child dyads, where maternal ED was assessed using the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, positive maternal involvement was assessed using the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire – Preschool Revision, and preschoolers’ INT and EXT problems were assessed with the Child Behavior Checklist. Maternal ED and positive maternal involvement had significant direct effects on preschoolers’ INT and EXT problems; however, the moderating effect of positive maternal involvement on the relationship between maternal ED and preschooler INT and EXT problems was nonsignificant. Further examination of factors that may mitigate risk among children of mothers with elevated ED is necessary to inform effective prevention and intervention efforts.Item Open Access Letter from the Editor(University of Oregon, 2025-02-20) Schmitt, KylaI am so excited to wrap up this Winter Term by sharing the latest edition of the Oregon Undergraduate Research Journal (OURJ)—Volume 23, Issue 1, Winter 2025. This issue—as is so often the case in the ‘turbulent’ world of undergraduate publishing—has been a long time coming. Three of the articles included in the pages that follow were accepted in the summer and fall of 2024, well before the previous year drew to a close. Is this publication late, or is it a carefully crafted retrospective: a year in academic research? The world may never know…Item Open Access Art Feature: “Body Fluidity”(University of Oregon, 2025-02-20) Betancourt, Gio“Body Fluidity” deals with the complexities of the human body, especially in the case of genitalia. People are assigned a specific sex/gender based on the development of their genitalia before birth. Throughout puberty or even during birth, it may become apparent that someone is intersex due to external appearances or hormonal differences internally. In other cases, some individuals feel as though the sex/gender they were assigned by society does not align with their own sense of self and may transition to a different gender or deconstruct gender altogether in a way that subverts society's expected norms. In all of these instances, we see the body as fluid, not binary, not one gender or the other, but as the home of the soul, which inhabits a body unique to everyone else's. In this way, this piece is representative of undergraduate research; through research you may uncover new findings, some of which deconstruct old findings to represent a better understanding of a topic. My art piece is meant to do that—deconstructing the binary instilled into society for centuries and replacing it with a new understanding of the human body.Item Open Access Journal Editorial: “Research as Learning and Being”(University of Oregon, 2025-02-20) Zaman, AhmarEvery developing child is learning to understand the world and their place in it. They do this through touching, experimenting, questioning, and watching the world around them; every question they have is their own research question to make sense of their world.Item Open Access Art Feature: “Heavy Under Pressure”(University of Oregon, 2025-02-20) Betancourt, GioCreated during my study abroad trip to Greece, “Heavy Under Pressure” deals with the complexities of gravity underwater. As someone who had not swam in a body of water for a long period of time, being submerged in water felt heavier than usual, as if my body was made of stone. To illustrate this point, I rendered my hand with goggles wrapped around to signify swimming and the heaviness felt when trying to move your joints underwater. This piece captures the science of gravity underwater, and how complexly the human body adapts to different environments, even if impacted by different feelings.Item Open Access Meet the Editorial Board(University of Oregon, 2025-02-20) Schmitt, Kyla; Sechrist, Ava; Olds, Charlotte; Nguyen, Ethan; Tippetts, Keegan2 pagesItem Open Access Cover Art: “Beyond Fruition”(University of Oregon, 2025-02-20) Betancourt, Gio“Beyond Fruition” describes navigating the unknown. Although planning is a great habit for all events, some situations are out of your control, and an individual must problem-solve to figure out solutions to unplanned occurrences. This piece was unplanned initially and became complete through navigating new ways to find answers to issues that I was confronted within the process. Likewise, undergraduate researchers are problem-solvers. Their entire task is to navigate the unknown planned or unplanned, they may navigate unplanned obstacles along the way.