Reducing stereotype threat on a standard mental rotation task

Reducing stereotype threat on a standard mental rotation task

Mental rotation -- Sex differences

Spatial ability -- Sex differences

Levi, Jason Glenn

2007

Goodwin, C. James

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One area in cognitive research that has, over the years, become a highly controversial topic concerns consistently documented sex differences in the area of spatial abilities. These differences have been observed in myriad studies, with the most reliable and robust differences found with mental rotation tasks (Linn & Peterson, 1985; Voyer, Voyer, & Bryden, 1995). Researchers have recently found that these large differences between mental rotation tasks and mathematics can be alleviated through the use of instructional modification (Johns, Schmader, & Martens, 2005; Sharps, Price, & Williams, 1994). These findings indicate that these differences may be due to more socio-environmental factors (Sharps, Price, & Williams, 1994) rather than from sole biological differences between men and women. This study was designed to replicate existing research that has found large sex differences on mental rotation tasks and to examine the possible effectiveness of teaching participants about the debilitating influence of stereotype threat on subsequent task performance. In addition, this study planned to further explore the mediating influence of anxiety and spatial self-efficacy on spatial task performance. One hundred and twenty students (sixty men and sixty women) from introductory psychology courses were recruited to participate. However, the data from two men were removed because their scores were considered to be outliers. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three instructional conditions. Each participant was required to listen to recorded instructions that included a stereotype, no stereotype, or a stereotype threat intervention, complete the Vandenberg and Kuse Tests of Mental Rotations, answer several demographic questions and rate their perceived levels of anxiety and self-efficacy. This study predicted an interaction effect, such that women would perform significantly lower than men on a mental rotation task when given instructions that included a stereotype about women 's task performance, lower in a task that did not include an elicit stereotype, but equally as well as men when given task instructions that included an explanation of stereotype threat. The effect of stereotype threat on women�s task performance was thought to be apparent by observed lower scores in the stereotype threat condition, but equitable performance to men when presented with a stereotype threat intervention. Moreover, the intervention was predicted to combat any anxiety or unwanted thoughts about confirming the stereotype that women may experience during the task and, therefore, providing evidence for a socio-environmental hypothesis for sex differences on mental rotation tasks. In addition, self-perceived ratings of anxiety and spatial self-efficacy were examined as possible mediators of stereotype threat and task performance. The results from this study did not find a significant interaction between task instructions and men's and women's task performance. Men's performance was found to be significantly higher than women's task performance across all three sets of instructions. Overall, this research does not support the notion that women's task performance can be manipulated through instructional modification, but rather these results do tend to support the notion that men are better able to perform on this particular spatial task. Additionally, this study attempted to further investigate participant anxiety and spatial self-efficacy while completing the mental rotation tasks. Inconsistent findings have been found with many of the factors possibly responsible for women having lower task performance compared to men, which include anxiety, evaluation apprehension, performance confidence, effort, self-handicapping, perceived test fairness, and feelings of self and task and gender identification (Smith, 2004). Participant anxiety and spatial self-efficacy ratings were examined and were found to significantly contribute to the variance found in spatial task performance. When these ratings were controlled in an analysis of covariance, the main effect favoring men continued to be present. Therefore, this study found that anxiety and spatial self-efficacy were not meaningful contributors to the sex differences observed. This finding is supported in previous research, in that these variables have not been found primarily responsible for observed sex differences. Further analysis of the ratings showed that women had higher ratings of anxiety than men and men had higher ratings of self-efficacy than women. However, one interesting finding from this analysis was that men and women did differ significantly when asked to rate their ability to perform spatial tasks related to object and location memory. This sex difference is consistent with previous research in this area (Crawford & Chaffin, 1997; Silverman & Eats, 1992; Voyer et at., 1995). Overall, these findings do not support recent research that was able to diminish the influence of stereotype threat on mental rotation task performance. Moreover, this research did find that anxiety and spatial self-efficacy were marginally responsible for the observed differences, but they are not considered to be primarily mediators of this phenomenon. Additionally, this research appears to support previous findings that men and women differ in their perceived experiences with anxiety and spatial self-efficacy when completing spatially oriented tasks (Silverman & Eats, 1992). These perceptions may be related to the observed societal phenomenon found among high school and college math classes and careers, such as engineering, where men have significantly outnumbered women. It may be possible for anxiety and spatial self-efficacy to contribute to the sex differences found with classes and careers that heavily rely on higher level math and spatial skills, but not as strong mediating forces operating under the title of stereotype threat when actual task performance is required.

2014-10-20

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