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A Study on Alcohol Decision-Making: How Group Composition Relates to Behavioral Willingness in Social Drinking Contexts
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/8c99d2cb-311c-4cc6-9322-10ce80c50e99/thumb/128.jpgThe present study examined how group composition relates to behavioral willingness in mixed-gender social drinking contexts. Study 1 was a secondary analysis of data from MacCalman et al. (2020) looking at how group size and group gender proportionality relates to behavioral willingness across realistic drinking scenes depicted through audio simulations in the Collegiate-Simulated Intoxication Digital Elicitation (C-SIDE). Behavioral willingness was measured in emerging adults (N=135) after a series of control (food & non-alcoholic beverage) and alcoholic beverage offers. Willingness to drink alcohol was higher in smaller drinking contexts than a larger context. Regression analyses revealed that, in the 21st Birthday and Beer Pong scenes, as gender match increased so did behavioral willingness for women. Conversely, men were less willing to drink as gender match increased, suggesting a preference among men and women to drink with women. Study 2 examined the way that imagined event size and perceived gender composition influence an individual’s behavioral willingness across different drinking contexts on the C-SIDE. Behavioral willingness was measured in emerging adults who identified as cisgender men, cisgender women, or gender diverse individuals. Again, willingness to drink alcohol was higher in smaller contexts than large contexts. Regression analyses suggested cisgender men were more willing to drink in scenes they perceived as equally feminine/masculine to completely feminine in the 21 st Birthday scene, suggesting a preference among cisgender men to drink in groups that are more feminine. There was no statistically significant change in willingness to drink for women or gender diverse participants, although gender diverse participants showed a similar pattern of willingness whereas willingness to drink for women remained fairly stagnant
Gastric Heroics: Towards a Grammar of Eating in Archaic Greek Poetry
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/600a1745-2195-474b-a247-a43c66b25e4d/thumb/128.jpgThis thesis examines the symbolic system of eating established in archaic Greek poetry, particularly with regard to how this system interacts with and reinforces cosmological and social hierarchies. The goal of the thesis is to offer a series of observations about broad alimentary patterns present in archaic documents, particularly the Homeric epics, Homeric hymns, Hesiodic Theogony, and the poem of the Derveni Papyrus. Rather than a comprehensive grammar of eating, the study hopes to develop a few observations about particular eating motifs, then apply those in a focused study to one section of text. Chapter one considers eating from a cosmological perspective, attempting to understand how eating in foundational myths helps poets represent “natural” and extrahuman hierarchies of power in the cosmos, with a particular focus on the Olympian order established by Zeus. It primarily relies on Hesiod’s Theogony, the Derveni Papyrus, and the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. Chapter two considers eating from the perspective of human communities, examining how eating episodes reiterate or disrupt hierarchies of power between human beings in social settings. It primarily relies on the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Homeric Hymn to Hermes. Chapter three, using the alimentary grammar established in the first two chapters, applies these observations in a close study to Book x of the Odyssey
From Wilson to Wells: A Semiotic Examination of the Renaming of a Portland High School
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/f5ef15c5-85a9-411d-9775-61f395399ce7/thumb/128.jpgIn the spring of 2020 a high school in the Portland Public School District embarked on a renaming process that would transform it from Woodrow Wilson High School to Ida B. Wells-Barnett High School. The stated goal of the renaming was to distance the school from its former namesake, who was a known racist and supporter of the Ku Klux Klan. After months of careful deliberation, they chose to rename the school after one of Wilson’s contemporaries, civil rights activist Ida B. Wells-Barnett. The renaming took place during a unique moment in history, amid the George Floyd protests and COVID-19 lockdown. Why, during a time of unprecedented national protest and conversation around racial justice, was the school’s name identified as the proper arena for pursuing racial equity? What enabled the success of this student led initiative? This thesis finds that the name’s symbolic power reflected and reinforced systems of racial oppression within the school’s history and culture. These systems fostered a culture of activism and resistance among students that created pressure on the administration to respond to racist incidents accordingly. By renaming the school, students were able to identify and resist these systems, as well as confer material improvements on the school’s culture and orientation towards racial justice
Not Another Hideous Progeny: Frankenstein, Adaptation, and the Theatre
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/fec03152-4a18-4933-8d4e-62635ae48b97/thumb/128.jpgOver the two-hundred-and-five years since Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus was published, the novel has been adapted into almost as many plays. This thesis examines the history and legacy of these adaptations. Based on contemporary adaptation theory, I argue that the actual narrative events of Shelley's novel are perhaps the least important part of retelling that story. To propose an understanding of what, then, is truly significant about Frankenstein, I establish three main tenets of the Frankenstein narrative— creation, communication, and alterity— that must (and do) factor significantly into every work that attempts to tell this story. Next, I explain the way this working definition can be used to better understand works explicitly adapting Frankenstein and argue that it can also be used for those that may not be. Finally, I establish the ways that this can be executed when adapting the Frankenstein narrative— that is, the ways that this new understanding of the Frankenstein narrative can be used as tools to create new works. I do this through looking at my own production of Blue Heart by Caryl Churchill, a play that does not explicitly invoke Shelley's Creature but can be reinterpreted through this lens as a part of the broader Frankenstein narrative. By stitching these two stories together, I believe I can aid an audience's understanding of both through contextualizing each within the other
Making a Simple GPU
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/97b2226b-4650-43b7-88cc-f79eacbdd905/thumb/128.jpgThere seems to be a lot of information available about how to design CPUs, but much less about how to design GPUs. In this thesis, we attempt to make a simple GPU with a framebuffer and some basic fixed-function hardware acceleration, implemented on an FPGA. In an effort to learn how everything works, we make everything ourselves, including a raw video signal generator, TMDS encoder, pipelined SDRAM controller, and command handler. The end result is a simple graphics adapter capable of 720p DVI-D video output driven by an ESP32 microcontroller, allowing for software rendering but lacking hardware acceleration due to time constraints. As a result, this thesis is more an exploration of the foundations of making a GPU (e.g. designing a memory controller) than a study of the evolution of GPUs over time, computer graphics, modern GPU architectures, SIMD, etc
The Mind Behind the Music: AI, Intentionality, and the Perception of Musical Narrative
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/9d0fa6e8-a107-4cd6-94f9-005b42e46090/thumb/128.jpgPeople exhibit a robust tendency to imagine stories when listening to music. Such narrative listening may be driven by features of the music itself or by higher-level factors like beliefs about the composer. Across two studies, the present thesis examined the role of the latter, specifically whether beliefs about human and AI composers are associated with narrative listening. In Study 1, participants listened to six clips of instrumental music, reported their experience of narrative listening, rated the perceived intentionality of the composer, and judged whether they thought the music was composed by a human or an AI system. Believing that music was composed by a human was associated with narrative listening, and perceived intentionality seemed to mediate this relationship. In Study 2, composer identity beliefs were experimentally manipulated, with each piece of music from Study 1 preceded by information describing its creation by a human or an AI system. The human condition yielded greater perceived intentionality than the AI condition, but narrative listening did not differ reliably between conditions. These results provide evidence that composer identity beliefs are related to perceptions of musical narrative, but fall short of showing that they causally impact them. Implications for narrative processing and AI research are discussed
Active Polarization Control For a Protected Measurement Experiment
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/99cbc9e0-301b-4b98-9534-763c1bb7f095/thumb/128.jpgThe basic theory of polarization and polarization control is presented. A discussion of the development of a polarization controller is given and various tests are determined for gauging the performance of the controller. It was shown that the polarization controller is capable of stabilizing the polarization in the presence of a significant source of polarization drift, particularly when the step and update size in the gradient descent algorithm used is high. However, there were significant problems arising from the lack of a phase unwinding procedure
Seating Placement as a Predictor of Self-Regulation and Academic Achievement
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/6b0e094d-466a-4f08-ba51-42a9e8db3da8/thumb/128.jpgWhere a student sits in a lecture-based classroom has been found to be important to their success. Existing literature has shown that students who sit closer to the front, or in an interactional zone close to the professor, do in fact outperform their peers who sit further away. However, there have been very few studies that have investigated the mechanisms that allow for this to happen. The present study attempts to look at this phenomenon through the lens of self-regulated learning. A survey of 159 Reed undergraduate students measured where they sit, their self-reported perceived academic performance, and their levels of contextual and motivational regulation. In contrast to the previous literature, there was no relationship between where a student sat and their academic performance. There was also no support for the novel hypothesis proposing a relationship between seating and self-regulated learning. There are various reasons as to why the present study does not coincide with existing literature. I conclude that there are variables that need to be measured better for a future study
TIF: Terrific or Terrible? The History and Efficacy of Tax Increment Financing in Portland, Oregon
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/b0d7c6d0-c6c8-4b40-ac30-914f36e1d1a0/thumb/128.jpgPortland has a long legacy of racism and discrimination. Economic development and urban renewal were often the justification for displacement of residents through eminent domain and gentrification. The modern use of Urban Renewal Areas (URA) and Tax Increment Financing (TIF) have created concerns within communities about the impacts of gentrification and displacement. In this thesis, I will examine the history of URAs and TIF in Portland as well as their impact between 2013 and 2021. My analysis centers on block-group level income estimates, vacancy rates, and demographic makeup. This data allows for an examination of tangible economic changes as well as social and community-based changes over time. My findings suggest that the use of TIF has a statistically significant effect on demographic makeup and may have a “catch-up” effect on income. These results validate concerns surrounding URAs and TIF. Community demographic makeup does change within TIF-affected block groups compared to unaffected block groups. Income also increases at a faster rate within TIF-affected block groups suggesting either an influx of wealthier residents or economic mobility. Ultimately, this analysis is limited by the granularity of the data and lack of a broader time scale, but it does suggest TIF may be correlated gentrification
Queer Attitudes: The Influence of Sexual Minority Status on the Attitude- Behavior Gap in College Hookups
No full texthttps://rdc.reed.edu/v1/resources/6356b350-53da-4193-803a-bbe42ac217d4/thumb/128.jpgMany studies have utilized heterosexual populations in studying casual sexual relationships; however, recent research posits that sexual minorities receive positive outcomes from hookups that heterosexuals do not. The current study explored differences between sexual minority and heterosexual hookups using the theory of reasoned action (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980). I expect to replicate previous research showing hookup intentions mediate hookup attitudes and hookup behavior. Additionally, I hypothesize that the strength of the attitudes- intentions-behavior mediation will be attenuated by sexual minority status. Lastly, I expect to replicate previous research indicating that queer students’ hookups predict increased engagement in the LGBTQ community and decreased minority stress. In this study, 936 students from Reed College and the University of Florida completed a battery of measures using an online survey program, including attitudes, intentions, and hookup behaviors, as well as research- identified covariates. My hypotheses were partially supported: intentions fully mediated attitudes and behavior; however, sexual minoritized status moderated only attitudes and intentions as well as attitudes and number of hookups for hookup-experienced participants, with reduced association for queer students than heterosexuals. These results suggest that the theory of reasoned action may not represent the LGBTQ community to the same degree as heterosexuals due to the implication that attitudes do not inform queer hookup behavior as much as it does heterosexual hookup behavior