Stereotype susceptibility narrows the gender gap in imagined self-rotation performance

Wraga, Maryjane; Duncan, Lauren E.; Jacobs, Emily G.; Helt, Molly; Church, Jessica A.

doi:10.3758/bf03194002

Cited by 67 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Associated With Working Memory?-We mentioned previously a functional imaging study by Wraga et al (2006) of women performing a mental rotation task under conditions of stereotype threat, stereotype lift, or control. Although the study yielded the expected pattern of performance, it did not reveal significant differences between threat and control conditions in level of activation in regions associated with working memory (the anterior prefrontal cortex).…”

Section: Should We Expect Stereotype Threat To Cause Decreased Activamentioning

confidence: 99%

An integrated process model of stereotype threat effects on performance.

Schmader

Johns

Forbes

2008

Psychological Review

1,295

1,175

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Research showing that activation of negative stereotypes can impair the performance of stigmatized individuals on a wide variety of tasks has proliferated. However, a complete understanding of the processes underlying these stereotype threat effects on behavior is still lacking. The authors examine stereotype threat in the context of research on stress arousal, vigilance, working memory, and selfregulation to develop a process model of how negative stereotypes impair performance on cognitive and social tasks that require controlled processing, as well as sensorimotor tasks that require automatic processing. The authors argue that stereotype threat disrupts performance via 3 distinct, yet interrelated, mechanisms: (a) a physiological stress response that directly impairs prefrontal processing, (b) a tendency to actively monitor performance, and (c) efforts to suppress negative thoughts and emotions in the service of self-regulation. These mechanisms combine to consume executive resources needed to perform well on cognitive and social tasks. The active monitoring mechanism disrupts performance on sensorimotor tasks directly. Empirical evidence for these assertions is reviewed, and implications for interventions designed to alleviate stereotype threat are discussed.

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Section: Should We Expect Stereotype Threat To Cause Decreased Activamentioning

confidence: 99%

An integrated process model of stereotype threat effects on performance.

Schmader

Johns

Forbes

2008

Psychological Review

1,295

1,175

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…They further found that the largest effect was found for the Mental Rotations Test (MRT; Vandenberg & Kuse, 1978). Wraga, Duncan, Jacobs, Helt, and Church (2006) report that, although traditional gender gaps in cognitive performance have diminished over many years, mental rotation tasks have consistently yielded large and reliable gender differences of about 1 standard deviation with no significant reduction. At least one study, however, found that, under certain circumstances, gender differences in the MRT did not hold.…”

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confidence: 99%

Computerizing the Mental Rotations Test: Are gender differences maintained?

Monahan

Harke

Shelley

2008

Behavior Research Methods

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422Linn and Petersen (1985) separated spatial ability tests into three categories based on effect size. One category of ability was spatial visualization, the ability to manipulate complex spatial information when several stages are needed to produce the correct solution. Gender differences in spatial visualization had a small effect size and were statistically nonsignificant. Another category of ability was spatial perception, the ability to determine spatial relations despite irrelevant information. Gender differences in spatial perception had a medium effect size and were statistically significant. The third category of ability was mental rotation, the ability to rotate two-or three-dimensional figures quickly and accurately in imagination and to compare them with other similar figures. Mental rotation was the only spatial ability category to yield a large gender difference effect size and was also statistically significant.More recently, Voyer, Voyer, and Bryden (1995) conducted a meta-analysis of the three categories of spatial abilities and found similar results. Spatial visualization tasks showed significant gender differences only for participants who were over 18 years old; for younger participants, there were no significant gender differences. Spatial perception tasks showed a significant gender difference for participants who were 13 and older. Mental rotation tasks showed gender differences for participants of all ages. For all three spatial ability categories, there was a significant linear increase in effect size with increasing age, possibly indicating that sexual differentiation is important in gender differences in spatial ability. They further found that the largest effect was found for the Mental Rotations Test (MRT; Vandenberg & Kuse, 1978).Wraga, Duncan, Jacobs, Helt, and Church (2006) report that, although traditional gender gaps in cognitive performance have diminished over many years, mental rotation tasks have consistently yielded large and reliable gender differences of about 1 standard deviation with no significant reduction. At least one study, however, found that, under certain circumstances, gender differences in the MRT did not hold.Goldstein, Haldane, and Mitchell (1990) administered the MRT under two different sets of instructions. In Experiment 1, participants were allowed the standard 3 min of time for each 10-item half of the test. The standard method of scoring the MRT is to count correct only those items for which both correct alternatives are marked (maximum possible score of 20). Using the standard scoring method, the probability of scoring a point by chance is .16. Instead of using the standard method of scoring, Goldstein et al. calculated scores in two alternate ways. One way was to count the number of correct alternatives chosen (maximum possible score of 40). With this method, the probability of scoring a point by chance is .5 for the first guess of an item. Goldstein et al.'s second scoring method was to derive the ratio of the number of correct alternatives chosen ...

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“…Numerous studies have supported gender differences in spatial processing and perception (Arthur, Hancock, & Chrysler, 1997;Cahill, 2005;Linn & Petersen, 1985;McFadden, Henselman, & Zheng, 1999;Ries et al, 2007;Seurinck, Vingerhoets, de Lange, & Achten, 2004;Sholl, 1989;Tremblay & Elliott, 2007;Witelson, Beresh, & Kigar, 2006;Wraga, Duncan, Jacobs, Helt, & Church, 2006;Zuidhoek, Kappers, & Postma, 2007). The general pattern appears to be that males perform better than females on tasks that emphasize visual spatial cues, such as reading maps, whereas, females perform better on tasks that emphasize verbal or other acoustic sensory information.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…Past findings have documented a pattern of women's exhibiting a deficit in spatial reasoning in tasks such as mental rotation and navigation (Lawton, 1994;Lawton & Morrin, 1999;Linn & Petersen, 1985;Sholl, 1989;Ward et al, 1986;Wraga et al, 2006). Yet typically, these tasks are based on visual spatial information.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender differences in spatial perception of body tilt

Naylor

McBeath

2008

Perception & Psychophysics

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The tendency for observers to overestimate slant is not simply a visual illusion but can also occur with another sense, such as proprioception, as in the case of overestimation of self-body tilt. In the present study, distortion in the perception of body tilt was examined as a function of gender and multisensory spatial information. We used a full-body-tilt apparatus to test when participants experienced being tilted by 45º, with visual and auditory cues present or absent. Body tilt was overestimated in all conditions, with the largest bias occurring when there were no visual or auditory cues. Both visual and auditory information independently improved performance. We also found a gender difference, with women exhibiting more bias in the absence of auditory information and more improvement when auditory information was added. The findings support the view that perception of body tilt is multisensory and that women more strongly utilize auditory information in such multisensory spatial judgments.

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Stereotype susceptibility narrows the gender gap in imagined self-rotation performance

Cited by 67 publications

References 45 publications

An integrated process model of stereotype threat effects on performance.

An integrated process model of stereotype threat effects on performance.

Computerizing the Mental Rotations Test: Are gender differences maintained?

Gender differences in spatial perception of body tilt

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