Understanding and Reducing the Gender Gap in Math and Science: Cognitive, Social, and Neural Mechanisms in Identity Threat

拟议项目的重点是通过研究陈规定型观念威胁的影响，关注STEM学科中的性别差距，陈规定型观念威胁被视为数学和科学领域女性代表性不足的一个重要因素。在数学和科学领域，对妇女的陈规定型观念威胁的形式是担心她们可能会被负面的陈规定型观念所评判。这项研究严格地测试了一种新兴的观点，即身份威胁通过降低心理能力，特别是工作记忆能力，使个体变得混乱，从而损害学习和表现。具有与任务无关的消极想法的头脑（例如，担心），并诱导他们过度监控任务的表现。本研究采用多层次分析方法，检验刻板印象威胁是否通过降低工作记忆容量而降低女大学生的数学和科学成绩; B）确定自我肯定干预对减轻刻板印象威胁对女性数学表现的负面影响的功效，并阐明潜在的认知机制（即，耗尽的工作记忆容量），据称介导其影响;和c）检查自我肯定干预是否可以改善新的科学概念的学习，除了提高数学和科学问题的解决。这项建议的一个重要优势是，通过研究具有多种收敛措施的多个中介机制（例如，反应时间事件相关电位心率拟议的研究将产生丰富的数据，这些数据将为在实际STEM教室中进行更大规模的纵向干预提供基础。该研究也有可能推进跨多个领域的知识和理解，并创造变革性的概念。该项目有可能通过显着减少这些学科的代表性不足，并提高数学和科学标准化考试的成绩，显着减少本科和研究生阶段STEM领域的性别差距。与此同时，拟议的活动为本科学员、研究生和研究生提供了一个独特的培训机会。跨学科团队包括在认知心理学，社会神经科学和科学教育方面具有专业知识的领先研究人员。因此，该项目也可以作为一个概念的证明，跨学科的方法可以揭示的机制之一，最重要的心理障碍，妇女的成功在STEM，以及针对身份威胁的心理干预可以提高妇女的STEM学习和性能。

The proposed project is focused on the gender gap in the STEM disciplines through research on the impact of stereotype threat, which is viewed as an important factor in female underrepresentation in mathematics and science. Stereotype threat for women in math and science takes the form of a fear that they could be judged in light of negative stereotypes. The research rigorously tests the emerging view that identity threat impairslearning and performance by reducing mental capacity, specifically working memory capacity, cluttering individuals? minds with negative task-irrelevant thoughts (e.g., worry) and inducing them to excessively monitor task performance. Affirmation is hypothesized to reduce task-irrelevant thoughts and/or excessive performance monitoring, thereby protecting working memory capacity from the effects of identity threat.Using multiple levels of analysis, the research is designed to: a) test whether stereotype threat diminishes the math and science performance of undergraduate women by reducing working memory capacity; b) determine the efficacy of a self-affirmation intervention for lessening the negative impact of stereotype threat on women's math performance and clarify the underlying cognitive mechanism (i.e., depleted working memory capacity ) that allegedly mediates its impact; and c) examine whether a self-affirmation intervention can improve the learning of new scientific concepts in addition to enhancing the solving of math and science problems. A significant strength of this proposal is the proposed testing of working memory capacity in a more rigorous and comprehensive manner than previously done, by examining multiple mediating mechanisms with a diverse array of converging measures (e.g., reaction times, event-related potentials, heart rates. The proposed research will yield rich data on underlying mechanisms that should provide a foundation for conducting larger-scale longitudinal interventions in actual STEM classrooms. The research also has the potential to advance knowledge and understanding across several fields and create transformative conceptsThis project has the potential to significantly reduce the gender gap in STEM fields at the undergraduate and graduate levels through significantly reducing underrepresentation in these disciplines and increasing performance on standardized tests of math and science. At the same time, the proposed activities offer a unique blend of training opportunities to undergraduate trainees, graduate and post-grad students. The interdisciplinary team includes leading researchers with expertise in cognitive psychology, social neuroscience, and science education. Thus the project also can serve as a proof of concept that an interdisciplinary approach can reveal the mechanisms underlying one of the most significant psychological barriers to women's success in the STEM, and that a psychological intervention targeting identity threat can improve women's STEM learning and performance.