Self-concept explains gender differences in mental rotation performance after stereotype activation.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Rahe M
PROVIDER: S-EPMC10226650 | biostudies-literature | 2023
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Self-concept explains gender differences in mental rotation performance after stereotype activation.
Rahe Martina M Schürmann Linda L Jansen Petra P
Frontiers in psychology 20230515
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Project description:A recent meta-synthesis study with a sample of >12 million participants revealed that the male advantage in mental rotation (MR) is the largest cognitive sex/gender difference found in psychological literature. MR requires test takers to mentally rotate three-dimensional cubic figures under time restrictions. Previous studies have investigated how biological and social factors contribute to cognitive sex/gender differences in tasks of this type. Spatial anxiety and self-confidence in MR tasks have received less attention. The present study investigated the contribution of these psychological factors to sex/gender differences in MR performance. Participants (n = 269) completed two MR tasks that differed in task difficulty. Participants also indicated their self-confidence (for each item) and spatial anxiety. The results revealed that pronounced sex/gender differences in spatial anxiety and self-confidence mediate sex/gender in MR performance, especially when task demands are high. The current findings suggest that task-irrelevant factors that are not spatial cognitive in nature contribute largely to the well-known medium to large sex/gender differences in MR. Future studies should further explore mechanisms underlying cognitive sex/gender differences within a biopsychosocial approach.
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Project description:A wide range of experimental studies have provided evidence that a night of sleep contributes to memory consolidation. Mental rotation (MR) skill is characterized by fundamental aspect of both cognitive and motor abilities which can be improved within practice sessions, but little is known about the effect of consolidation after MR practice. In the present study, we investigated the effect of MR training and the following corresponding day- and sleep-related time consolidations in taking into account the well-established gender difference in MR. Forty participants (20 women) practiced a computerized version of the Vandenberg and Kuse MR task. Performance was evaluated before MR training, as well as prior to, and after a night of sleep or a similar daytime interval. Data showed that while men outperformed women during the pre-training test, brief MR practice was sufficient for women to achieve equivalent performance. Only participants subjected to a night of sleep were found to enhance MR performance during the retest, independently of gender. These results provide first evidence that a night of sleep facilitates MR performance compared with spending a similar daytime interval, regardless gender of the participants. Since MR is known to involve motor processes, the present data might contribute to schedule relevant mental practice interventions for fruitful applications in rehabilitation and motor learning processes.
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Project description:Although academic self-concept plays a crucial role in promoting students' education, there is a paucity of studies simultaneously exploring the gender-moderated effects of academic self-concept. This study aimed to explore gender-moderated effects of academic self-concept on achievement, motivation, performance, and self-efficacy. With Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Protocol (PRISMA-P) and STARLITE criteria, this study screened and assessed the retrieved literature, finally including 53 studies. It was concluded that academic self-concept exerted a positive influence on improving achievement, enhancing motivation, ameliorating performance, and boosting self-efficacy. It should also be noted that interrelations between academic self-concept and other educational constructs may be much more complicated than expected since gender disparities may moderate the effects of academic self-concept. Gender discrepancies in academic self-concept could account for the gap between male students and female students in subject-specific achievement, motivation, performance, and self-efficacy, especially in STEM courses. Teaching interventions and educational policies should be taken to enhance female students' STEM courses self-concept. Future studies should promote educational equality, highlight academic self-concept of special groups, and enhance academic self-concept in online learning. Systematic review registration https://osf.io/uxjnv/?view_only=b10db44d34154d96a361c159ca15a5b5.
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Project description:While there is substantial evidence that adults who violate gender stereotypes often face backlash (i.e. social and economic penalties), less is known about the nature of gender stereotypes for young children, and the penalties that children may face for violating them. We conducted three experiments, with over 2000 adults from the US, to better understand the content and consequences of adults' gender stereotypes for young children. In Experiment 1, we tested which characteristics adults (N = 635) believed to be descriptive (i.e. typical), prescriptive (i.e. required), and proscriptive (i.e. forbidden) for preschool-aged boys and girls. Using the characteristics that were rated in Experiment 1, we then constructed vignettes that were either 'masculine' or 'feminine', and manipulated whether the vignettes were said to describe a boy or a girl. Experiment 2 (N = 697) revealed that adults rated stereotype-violating children as less likeable than their stereotype-conforming peers, and that this difference was more robust for boys than girls. Experiment 3 (N = 731) was a direct replication of Experiment 2, and revealed converging evidence of backlash against stereotype-violating children. In sum, our results suggest that even young children encounter backlash from adults for stereotype violations, and that these effects may be strongest for boys.
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Project description:It is a common belief that males have superior visuospatial abilities and that differences in this and other cognitive domains (e.g., math) contribute to the reduced interest and low representation of girls and women in STEM education and professions. However, previous studies show that gender-related implicit associations and explicit beliefs, as well as situational variables, might affect cognitive performance in those gender-stereotyped domains and produce between-gender spurious differences. Therefore, the present study aimed to provide information on when, how and who might be affected by the situational reactivation of stereotypic gender-science beliefs/associations while performing a 3D mental rotation chronometric task (3DMRT). More specifically, we assessed the explicit beliefs and implicit associations (by the Implicit Association Test) held by female and male students of humanities and STEM majors and compared their performance in a 3DMRT after receiving stereotype- congruent, incongruent and nullifying experimental instructions. Our results show that implicit stereotypic gender-science associations correlate with 3DMRT performance in both females and males, but that inter-gender differences emerge only under stereotype-reactivating conditions. We also found that changes in self-confidence mediate these instructions' effects and that academic specialization moderates them, hence promoting 3DMRT performance differences between male and female humanities, but not STEM, students. Taken together, these observations suggest that the common statement "males have superior mental rotation abilities" simplifies a much more complex reality and might promote stereotypes which, in turn, might induce artefactual performance differences between females and males in such tasks.
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