Gender, Learning Curves, and Intellectual Functioning

在现代美国社会，没有什么比学业成功对年轻人的成功能力更重要的了。众所周知，糟糕的成绩和/或糟糕的标准化考试成绩有效地封锁了大部分潜在的机会。不幸的是，学习成绩差的人并不是平均分布的。例如，在数学和科学成绩方面，在学业上受到歧视的人（如女性和非洲裔美国学生）在标准化考试中的得分通常低于没有受到歧视的人（分别为男性和白人）。最近，一些研究者对这些差异提出了一种社会心理学的解释：学业环境（例如考试环境）对女性和非裔美国人来说尤其具有威胁性，因为这些环境被认为有可能证实与这些个体相关的低能力的负面刻板印象。由于在这些情况下经历了困难，确认负面刻板印象的威胁可能会引起焦虑和自我怀疑，从而干扰智力功能，从而导致表现不佳。基于这一逻辑，拟议的研究将检验一个理论命题，即一个被污名化的人在考试前对一系列学习问题的改进和掌握的意识——一种由典型学习曲线描述的表现模式——将提高他在考试中的表现。假设提高和掌握的意识可以通过两种方式减少焦虑和自我怀疑，这种焦虑和自我怀疑被认为会损害被污名化的个体（特别是女性和非裔美国人）在标准化和课堂测试中的智力表现。首先，这种意识提供了一个最近的和生动的例子，一个人成功地有效地处理困难的考试情况。第二，通过练习而获得的进步告诉学生，在真正的考试中的表现是一种可塑技能的结果，而不是一种固定的能力。因此，表现不佳可能是由于缺乏足够的练习，而不是天生的能力差。这个研究项目的最终目标是为科学家、教育工作者和学生提供一个实际的理解，让他们了解在学术上被污名化（可能是数学焦虑）的人群中，准备和学业表现之间的关系。有了这样的认识，传统上成绩较差的群体的学习成绩就可以显著提高。

There are few things as vital to a young person's ability to succeed in modern U.S. society as academic success. It is common knowledge that poor grades and/or poor standardized test scores effectively seal off vast portions of potential opportunity. Unfortunately, poor academic performance is not evenly distributed among individuals. With respect to math and science performance, for example, the scores of academically stigmatized persons (e.g., female and African-American students) on standardized tests are typically lower than their non-stigmatized counterparts (males and whites, respectively). Recently, several investigators have suggested a social psychological explanation for these differences: academic situations (e.g., exam situations) are especially threatening to women and African-Americans due to the potential these situations are perceived to have in confirming the negative stereotype of low ability associated with these individuals. As difficulty is experienced in these situations, the threat of confirming the negative stereotype presumably evokes anxiety and self-doubt, thus interfering with intellectual functioning, which in turn leads to poor performance. Based on this logic, the proposed research will test the theoretical proposition that a stigmatized person's awareness of the improvement and mastery experienced on a set of study problems -- a pattern of performance described by the typical learning curve -- prior to taking an exam will improve the person's performance on the exam. Awareness of improvement and mastery is hypothesized to reduce the anxiety and self-doubt that is believed to impair the intellectual performance of stigmatized individuals (specifically, women and African Americans) in standardized and classroom testing situations in two ways. First, such awareness acts to provide a proximal and vivid example of one-s success in dealing effectively with difficult exam situations. Second, improvement as a result of practice tells the student that performance on the real exam is the result of a malleable skill, as opposed to a fixed ability. Thus, poor performance may be attributed to lack of sufficient practice, rather than poor native ability. The ultimate goal of this program of research is to provide scientists, educators, and students with a practical understanding of the relationship between preparation and academic performance in academically stigmatized (and possibly, math anxious) populations. Armed with such an understanding, academic performance among traditionally low-achieving groups can be markedly improved.