Category: DTC 497

[Photography by Rod Long – Unsplash Image]

Our assignment was to take Harvard’s Implicit Association Test  (IAT). The series of tests was to see if you have certain associations or stereotypes. Each of the tests came with a word associated to the “E” key or the “I” key. Then you would go through seven different phases of the test. Through the middle of the test the associations would flop between the two categories.

I started with the Age IAT, my results were:

“Your responses suggested a moderate automatic preference for Young people over Old people.”

When I was taking the test it was fine in the beginning when it was going through photos. I had particularly hard time at first because I didn’t really get the hang of it and took too slow. Eventually going through the other tests I was a little quicker. But I also found that being quick caused more mistakes in the end after the two category associations had swapped. It was hard to remember that the categories had moved so sometimes I would default to the original answers. I also just automatically started associating the words with the pictures, which is where I think that’s where it changes the answers.

The results I had expected was more neutral than a “moderate automatic preference for Young people” I was shocked to find out that I had that kind of preference because I usually don’t really discriminate between the two groups. I was pretty confident that I wouldn’t prefer one group over the other but it also could have been because after the flip I was going  through the tests much quicker.

I think the most important experience I can take away from taking the IAT is to be more aware of these conditions. I can say I don’t have any personal biases and stereotypes but everyone in some kind of way still have them. Being aware of these could make you more cautious in the future though. Especially in a day and age where we are seeing more awareness and progression in trying to end stereotyping. It’s great to know that you can try to be more knowledgeable in these topics. To conclude about my experience, it is pretty easy to see how we might just stereotype one category over the other. The test had grouped positive words with younger people and negative people with older people. But now I am more educated on myself and I can better myself for the future

For class we were told to find five artifacts that best represented ourselves. The following is written about the items I have chosen and why they are important to me now or in the past and how I believe they will be useful for me in the future.

My laptop has been the most important artifact for me because all of my past projects have been stored on this device. I’ve used this laptop since high school and it’s had most of my important graphic design projects as well as Computer Science coding projects. I like being able to collect stickers from places I previously traveled to and represent it on the back of my laptop case. My laptop used to be where I would watch videos but now it holds a higher importance because it’s how I attend classes. In the future I think it probably won’t hold as much importance as it does now. It’s an old laptop and has been through plenty of sleepless nights. I might think of upgrading it to a lighter laptop but it’s helped me every step of my college career to shape who I am today.

This puzzle was gifted to me from my mother as a going away gift before I left for college. This item holds more of a sentimental value to it because I used to build puzzles with her when I was little. I enjoy the idea of traveling and exploring new places so I felt like this best represented my love for adventure. I want to be able to eventually travel and visit new countries and experience different cultures and I think this puzzle does a great job of reminding me to explore the area more. Hopefully I can plan out a trip after graduation.

The third item I chose was my calculator. I think it best represents my creativity. I like being able to paint as a way to relieve myself from stress. The painting was inspired by a watercolor print I had came across on Pinterest. My calculator is just as important for school math classes now, however, I don’t know what use I will have for it in the future. I enjoy being able to feel like math is less intimidating with the calmness of the painting I created on the cover of the calculator.

 

The fourth item I chose was my dad’s old Nikon film camera. I always thought it was cool that we still had it around and it had inspired me to get more into photography. My parents eventually gifted me a digital camera and I a took photography class. Having a camera has let me explore being able to take a photo and creatively manipulate it for different projects. I think photography will stay with me because I love using photography to document trips and create new projects.

The last item I chose was my water bottle. I never leave the house without it. I used to carry around it with me everywhere on campus when walking from class to class. Health is important to me and having a water bottle with me reminds me that I need to drink water throughout the day. I’ll continue to use this water bottle probably even after college, since it also represents the college that I’m from.