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Orlando was one of 1,600 students from more than 70 countries, regions or territories to attend the fair. She took the entire event by storm, totaling nearly $5,000 in cash prizes for her project on facial mimicry.
The project, “The Effect of Emoticon Stimuli on Human Facial Muscle Activation and Social Evaluation using Electromyographic Technology: A Novel Determination,” earned Orlando an Intel First Award in Behavioral Science – a $3,000 cash award – for being one of the top two behavioral science projects in the world.
Other prizes include a $1,500 cash award from the American Psychological Association (APA) for being the top project in the world according to APA guidelines and a $350 prize from Psi Chi –the International Honor Society in Psychology – for earning second place by their standards.
In her project, Orlando discovered that the facial mimicry effect in response to schematic representation of various faces. Using electromyographic technology and a computer simulation, she found that something as simplistic as a text emoticon was strong enough to elicit physiological and psychological responses from the receiver, akin to face-to-face communication.
The young scientist concluded that as communication continues to be digitally-based, non-verbal communication is being lost. The study shows that an emoticon is an adequate substitute for a human face in technological communications.
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