Lab Rats

Something new that I've been doing this summer is helping out the psychology department. And by helping I don't mean volunteering- I'm not that nice.

Over the summer, a program called URSI invites students to stay over the summer and help conduct research with faculty members in the realms of science and math, which are pretty much foreign to me. Of course, you have to apply for these positions. But whoever is running the research is not really of my concern-what I really care about are the research experiments!

During the year, most experimenters can find students to use as test subjects. Psychology professors have the students in their classes participate in at least two studies for credit. The experiments are always unusual, and some of them involve wearing electrodes on your head. One time I had to wear a cap with electrodes in it while the experiment conductor massaged gel into my hair. Then I watched pictures of my brain on a computer. It was pretty uncomfortable, but it was my friend's experiment and he needed test subjects so how could I say no? I just hope none of my friends will need test subjects this year.....

Summer is a little different because classes aren't in session and there are fewer students on campus, so finding students who are willing to participate requires a bribe. If I'm not going to leave work in the middle of the day to participate in a psychological experiment unless it's worth my time, then why should anyone else? My point exactly. But these experimenters are good, and they know exactly what will get me to leave my office and participate in their studies.

So what do college students need the most? Money. Yeah, that's right. I don't work for free anymore.

So far this summer, I've managed to participate in three studies, and there may be more coming up. They're usually pretty easy. All you do is look at some graphs or pictures, answer some questionnaires, and then pick up your cash. Currently I'm doing a two weeklong experiment that requires me to carry around a PDA and answer a short questionnaire about my emotions five times a day when the PDA beeps. When I went to pick up the PDA, the experimenter told me not to reveal the specifics of the study, and I'll hold true to my word. However, I always feel that whenever I enter my emotions into the PDA they aren't exactly correct because whenever the PDA starts ringing, I either get angry because I'm busy or surprised because it caught me off guard, which seems like it would slant my answers. To be honest, I personally wouldn't trust students doing these experiments. But that's just me, and it's probably because I'm a sociology major. Either way, the experiment itself is worth $75, and it requires little to no effort.

I always thought about being some sort of science major before I finally decided on sociology. I turned to sociology after I decided I would rather be some sort of writer, and one of my professors said that the best writers always came from the sociology, history, and political science departments. Why be an English major when you can get the same writing experience from something cooler, like sociology? Of course, that’s just my biased view, and I would say that major rivalries contribute to that.

Most students on campus think that their own major is the best, and then they'll make assumptions about the other majors on campus. Between some of my friends and I, we think the "slacker majors" are geography and film. Not that any of us has ever taken a geography or film course, but somehow they managed to get those reputations from us and they stuck. On the other hand, I think anyone who is an astronomy or physics major is a genius. I wonder what people think of my major....

Most of the major departments are campus are pretty closely knit, and there is always some sort of "history department dinner" or "Jewish studies department sponsored talk" going on around campus. The sociology majors made tee-shirts, and I'm sure we aren't the only department to proudly display our choice of major on our clothing. But even though these rivalries seem to exist, it's always fun to take a course in another department aside from your major, and the ability to try out all sorts of departments is what makes Vassar such a great place to get an education. There is no core curriculum at Vassar, so instead of taking a regular English or writing course as a freshman like my friends at other colleges, I took "Vampires, Lunatics, and Cyborgs" in the German studies department with Elliot Schrieber and I had a great time. We even took a field trip to New York City at the end of the semester to see The Nutcracker Ballet.

So far, I've taken courses in 18 different departments at Vassar, including German studies, media studies, philosophy, economics, physics, biology, religion, cognitive science, psychology, sociology, dance, political science, French, self-instructional language (Czech), music, English, anthropology and classics. And next semester I'm planning on taking courses in film, history, and science, technology, and society. When I look back, sometimes I wish I would have completed a double major, but it's great to have basic knowledge in a lot of things. Oh, the value of a liberal arts education! And that's my favorite thing about Vassar.