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

拟议中的项目通过研究刻板印象威胁的影响，重点关注STEM学科中的性别差距，刻板印象威胁被视为女性在数学和科学领域代表性不足的一个重要因素。对数学和科学领域的女性来说，刻板印象威胁的形式是她们担心自己会被人以负面刻板印象来评判。这项研究严格地验证了一种新兴观点，即身份威胁会降低心智能力，特别是工作记忆能力，从而损害学习和表现。具有与任务无关的消极想法（例如，担忧）的大脑，并诱导他们过度监控任务表现。假设肯定可以减少与任务无关的想法和/或过度的绩效监控，从而保护工作记忆容量免受身份威胁的影响。本研究采用多层次分析，旨在：a)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成绩的负面影响的效果，并阐明其潜在的认知机制（即工作记忆容量耗尽）。c)检验自我肯定干预除了提高数学和科学问题的解决能力外，是否能改善新科学概念的学习。该建议的一个重要优势是，通过使用各种不同的收敛测量（例如，反应时间，事件相关电位，心率）来检查多种中介机制，以比以前更严格和全面的方式测试工作记忆容量。拟议的研究将产生关于潜在机制的丰富数据，为在实际的STEM教室中进行更大规模的纵向干预提供基础。该研究也有可能促进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著减少这些学科的代表性不足，提高数学和科学标准化考试的成绩，显著缩小STEM领域本科和研究生阶段的性别差距。同时，拟议的活动为本科生、研究生和研究生提供了独特的培训机会。该跨学科团队包括认知心理学、社会神经科学和科学教育领域的领先研究人员。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女性在STEM中取得成功的最重要的心理障碍之一的潜在机制，以及针对身份威胁的心理干预可以改善女性的STEM学习和表现。

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.