Jean-Marc Monteil

Individual Differences in Working Memory Moderate Stereotype-Threat Effects

Research on stereotype threat has shown that negative stereotypes hinder stigmatized individuals’ performance on difficult tasks (Schmader, Johns, & Forbes, 2008; Steele & Aronson, 1995; for stereotype threat among children, see Huguet & Régner, 2007, 2009). Stereotype threat typically affects those who excel in—and are strongly identified with—the stereotyped domain being evaluated and who have much to lose by confirming the negative characterization of their group in this domain (Schmader et al., 2008; Steele, 1997; Steele, Spencer, & Aronson, 2002; Walton & Cohen, 2003). This threat appears to lower performance by reducing working memory (WM) capacity (Beilock, Rydell, & McConnell, 2007; Rydell, McConnell, & Beilock, 2009; Schmader & Johns, 2003), an executive resource used to perform complex tasks (Kane, Conway, Hambrick, & Engle, 2007). Recently, Schmader et al. (2008) raised the crucial question of whether stigmatized individuals with a dispositionally high WM capacity resist stereotype threat. On the basis of the idea that WM involves an executive-control mechanism that is recruited to combat interference (Conway, Kane, & Engle, 2003), Schmader et al. (2008) suggested that high-WM individuals should therefore be better equipped to cope with stereotype threat than lowWM individuals are. Not only does this hypothesis remain untested, but it is challenged by research on “choking under pressure” (Beilock & Carr, 2005; Beilock & DeCaro, 2007; Gimmig, Huguet, Caverni, & Cury, 2006), in which suboptimal performance under strong evaluative pressure has been shown to be limited to high-WM individuals. It appears that pressure is likely to consume the resources that high-WM individuals rely on to achieve superior performance. To determine if stereotype threat is limited to either lowor high-WM individuals, we selected outstanding students in their last or second-to-last year (out of 5 years) at highly selective engineering schools. This selection criterion ensured that the participants’ identification with engineering and their intention to pursue an engineering career were unquestionable. In a pretest (consisting of self-assessments and importance ratings) on a group of students similar to those participating in the experiment, we confirmed that logical reasoning is an ability with which engineers identify strongly. Because women are typically assumed to reason less well than men (Davies, Spencer, Quinn, & Gerhardstein, 2002), we thought that women might experience stereotype threat in this domain. The question here is whether women with a high WM capacity are more able than their low-WM counterparts to resist stereotype threat.

Productivity Loss in Performance Groups: People Who See Themselves as Average Do Not Engage in'Social Loafing

The authors predicted that individuals who see themselves as average (e.g., who have a generalized belief in being no better or worse than others) do not engage in social loafing, unlike those who see themselves as generally superior to others. As expected, study participants who felt uniquely superior expended less effort when working collectively than when working coactively on an easy task, but they actually worked harder collectively than coactively on a more challenging task. Such effects did not occur in participants who perceived themselves as average. Taken together, these findings provide further support for S. J. Karau and K. D. Williamss (1993) collective effort model. They also suggest that what people come to believe about the relation between the self and others is a crucial factor in collective work contexts.

Performance feedback and self-focused attention in the classroom: When past and present interact

An experiment tested the impact of performance feedback on self-focused attention in high and low achievers. On the basis of previous research, which suggested that inconsistent feedback (i.e., feedback which contradicts ones performance history) receives considerable attention, it was predicted that such feedback would increase self-focus regardless of its valence (i.e., positive or negative). As predicted, high achievers were more self-focused when receiving failure feedback than when receiving success feedback or no feedback. The low achievers were more self-focused when receiving success feedback than when receiving failure feedback or no feedback. These findings are discussed in relation to Kluger and DeNisis (1996) Feedback intervention theory and the literature on self-focused attention.

Cognitive Control Under Social Influence in Baboons

From cockroaches to human beings, the presence of other members of the same species typically facilitates dominant (habitual/well-learned) responses regardless of their contextual relevance. This social facilitation requires special attention in animal species such as primates, given their evolved cognitive control mechanisms. Here we tested baboons who freely engaged in (computer-based) conflict response tasks requiring cognitive control for successful performance, and discovered that social presence does not only enhance dominant responses but also consumes cognitive control resources. Under social presence, the baboons experienced greater cognitive conflicts, were less able to inhibit a learned action in favor of a new one, and were also less able to take advantage of previous experience with response conflict, compared with isolation. These findings explain why inappropriate behaviors are not easily suppressed in primates acting in social contexts, and indicate a greater demand for cognitive control in social groups. This extra demand might represent a major evolutionary drive of human intelligence.

Effects of Socioeconomic Status (SES) Information on Cognitive Ability Inferences: When Low-SES Students Make Use of a Self-Threatening Stereotype

Two studies tested whether students socioeconomic status (SES) and academic achievement level moderate their use of the SES stereotype (i.e., the belief that the low-SES individuals are intellectually inferior to their high-SES counterparts). In Study 1, low versus high achievers with a low versus a high SES were given social class information (derived from a pilot study) about several targets and were then asked to infer these targets memory ability. In Study 2, participants were given memory performance information about several targets and were then asked to infer these targets possessions and cultural activities (i.e., SES indicators). In both studies, only the low-SES students generated stereotype-consistent inferences.

Different Sources of Threat on Math Performance for Girls and Boys: The Role of Stereotypic and Idiosyncratic Knowledge

For 20 years, the impact of stereotypical knowledge on math performance has been intensively investigated, especially within the framework of “stereotype threat” (Steele, 1997). Stereotype threat (ST) theory and research “do not focus on the internalization of inferiority images or their consequences. Instead, they focus on the immediate situational threat that derives from the broad dissemination of negative stereotypes about ones group—the threat of possibly being judged and treated stereotypically, or of possibly self-fulfilling such a stereotype” (Steele and Aronson, 1995, p. 798). Here, we distinguish between ST and another powerful yet relatively neglected factor in the determination of math performance: self-images of inferiority derived from personal history of failure. There is some evidence that such self-images of inferiority may also lead to under performance in math tests (hereafter referred to as idiosyncratic effects). One question that arises is whether and how ST and idiosyncratic effects interact with each other, which would offer a fuller picture combining the intervention of stereotypic and idiosyncratic knowledge in math performance.

WHEN COGNITIVE DISSONANCE IS ALSO MEMORY-BASED

In this experiment, 118 subjects were asked to recall personal behaviors which were inconsistent with one of their attitudes. Analysis showed that an attitude change in the direction of the recalled behavior occurred only when the behavior was specific (infrequent) and voluntary. Recall of summary behaviors (frequent) or involuntary behaviors did not modify the subjects attitude. The interpretation proposed is based on cognitive dissonance theory.

Apprentissages scolaires et technologies numériques : Une revue critique des méta-analyses

Resume Depuis les teaching machines developpees par Skinner jusqu’au developpement des techniques d’adaptive learning ou de realite virtuelle, les technologies educatives n’ont cesse de susciter de nouveaux espoirs pour individualiser et diversifier les enseignements, et renforcer ainsi les apprentissages. Alors que les usages numeriques se developpent dans les classes, les debats sur leur efficacite se font plus vifs. Depuis une quarantaine d’annees, de nombreux travaux ont tente d’en mesurer l’impact et de synthetiser les resultats obtenus sous la forme de meta-analyses. Notre article presente cette litterature meta-analytique avec un point de vue critique. L’objectif est d’eclairer le debat sur l’interet du developpement des usages numeriques a l’ecole et d’esquisser de nouvelles pistes de recherche susceptibles d’en preciser la portee et les limites.