Master of Arts Theses, 2006

Wesleyan's competitive graduate program includes prior undergrads receiving a Master's degree in their fifth year as well as students from other schools completing the program.

Nonconscious Activation Can Cause False Memories: Experimental Control of Conscious Processes in the Deese, Roediger, and McDermott Task
                Sivan C. Cotel

Studying semantically related word lists (e.g., bed, rest, awake...) causes false memory of nonstudied associates (e.g., sleep), but the exact role of nonconscious activation in this effect is unknown. We manipulated conscious processing in the Deese, Roediger, and McDermott (DRM) procedure. Subjects studied perceptually masked associates at a rapid rate, followed by immediate recall of each list. Either after the recall of each list, or after all lists had been recalled, subjects were rapidly presented with nonstudied words for perceptual identification and recognition memory judgments. The results showed that even when critical words were not recalled after list presentation and not identified at test, related critical words were still recognized more than unrelated critical words, thus providing evidence for nonconscious activation. This finding was true, however, only for critical words tested immediately after each list was studied and recalled, suggesting that nonconscious activation is only sufficient to produce false memory over short intervals. This study provides the first direct evidence of nonconscious activation in the DRM procedure, but suggests that conscious processes also appear to be necessary for the generation of longer-term false memories.

Social Class in the Academy: Working Class Faculty Perspectives
                Peter A. Drake

I examine how social class background, specifically for tenure-track Wesleyan faculty who self-identify as working class, influences their perceptions, and uncover experiences related to class-based sorting of the teaching ranks. This study utilizes a qualitative interview research methodology, beginning with a set of general research interests and questions, then gathering participant perspectives, and finally arriving at insights. Several common themes appeared: a) Tenure status changes everything: Attitudes, beliefs, and experience, b) Working class faculty love their students, despite the sometimes great differences in social class background, c) Working class faculty accommodate in various ways to any potential dissonance caused by perceived class-based experiences, and d) The Wesleyan community (institutionally and socially) continues to de-emphasize the role of class in mediating experience and outcomes for both students and faculty.

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