Does a structured free recall intervention reduce the effect of stereotypes on performance ratings and by what cognitive mechanism?

The purpose of this article was to extend previous work on the effect of racial biases on performance ratings. The 1st of 2 studies examined whether a structured free recall intervention decreased the influence of negative racial biases on the performance ratings of Black men. Results indicated that without the intervention, raters who endorsed a negative stereotype of Black men as managers evaluated Black men more negatively. However, the structured free recall intervention successfully reduced these effects. The second study examined in more detail the cognitive mechanisms underlying the success of the intervention. Results are consistent with the assumption that the reduction of the influence of racial biases under structured free recall conditions is a consequence of a modified strength threshold for retrieval of behaviors from memory.     

Reducing the Effects of Performance Expectations on Behavioral Ratings

In this study, we develop and test two strategies for reducing the effects of performance expectations on behavioral ratings. A 3 × 3 experimental design (N = 169), manipulating preobservation performance cues (positive, negative, or none) and the type of intervention (halo error training, structured recall memory, or none), was conducted. The results of this study indicate that both interventions reduced the effects of performance expectations on behavioral ratings. However, analyses of rating accuracy and measures from both recognition memory and recall memory tests suggest that the structured recall memory intervention has distinct advantages. These analyses indicate that the structured recall intervention can reduce raters' reliance on heuristics and increase the correspondence between raters' memory and their subsequent ratings.     

Understanding and Removing the Effects of Performance Cues on Behavioral Ratings

Previous research has demonstrated that performance information (e.g., prior supervisor ratings) can bias behavioral ratings. However, research has not fully explored the effects of performance cues on raters' memory. In addition, no studies have attempted to eliminate this performance cue effect. This study addressed these deficiencies by collecting both free recall and recognition memory measures while testing an unstructured free recall intervention. Results indicate that performance cues do affect the recall of performance relevant behaviors from memory. Contrary to expectations, free recall did not prove to be an effective intervention. Implications of these findings for future attempts to remove the performance cue effect are discussed.     

The effectiveness of three strategies to reduce the influence of bias in evaluations of female leaders

This study tests the effectiveness of three strategies [structured free recall (SFR), source monitoring, and error management] to reduce the impact of raters' stereotypes on evaluations of female leaders. Results reveal several three‐way interactions indicating that that the strategies became more effective as raters' implicit bias decreased. Findings show that the source monitoring and SFR methods were more effective than the error management strategy. The results have implications for improving opportunities for women to advance through the leadership ranks. This study adds to the literature by comparing multiple strategies to reduce the influence of individuals' biases in evaluations of women in leadership positions and revealing the importance of considering raters' implicit gender biases in evaluations.     

ARE HIGHLY STRUCTURED JOB INTERVIEWS RESISTANT TO DEMOGRAPHIC SIMILARITY EFFECTS?

This study examines the extent to which highly structured job interviews are resistant to demographic similarity effects. The sample comprised nearly 20,000 applicants for a managerial-level position in a large organization. Findings were unequivocal: Main effects of applicant gender and race were not associated with interviewers’ ratings of applicant performance nor was applicant–interviewer similarity with regard to gender and race. These findings address past inconsistencies in research on demographic similarity effects in employment interviews and demonstrate the value of using highly structured interviews to minimize the potential influence of applicant demographic characteristics on selection decisions.     

Strength of Subordinates’ Upward Influence Tactics and Gender Congruency Effects1

An empirical investigation with 117 superior-subordinate dyads examines the moderating effects of subordinate gender on the relationships between the strength of upward influence tactics and three outcome variables: performance ratings, psychosocial mentoring functions, and career-related mentoring functions. The results support predictions that men who employ stronger upward influence tactics obtain higher performance ratings and more career-related mentoring functions, and women who employ weaker upward influence tactics obtain more psychosocial mentoring functions. Implications of the findings for theory, research, and practice are discussed.     

Simulating Memory Impairment for Child Sexual Abuse

The current study investigated effects of simulated memory impairment on recall of child sexual abuse (CSA) information. A total of 144 adults were tested for memory of a written CSA scenario in which they role-played as the victim. There were four experimental groups and two testing sessions. During Session 1, participants read a CSA story and recalled it truthfully (Genuine group), omitted CSA information (Omission group), exaggerated CSA information (Commission group), or did not recall the story at all (No Rehearsal group). One week later, at Session 2, all participants were told to recount the scenario truthfully, and their memory was then tested using free recall and cued recall questions. The Session 1 manipulation affected memory accuracy during Session 2. Specifically, compared with the Genuine group's performance, the Omission, Commission, or No Rehearsal groups' performance was characterized by increased omission and commission errors and decreased reporting of correct details. Victim blame ratings (i.e., victim responsibility and provocativeness) and participant gender predicted increased error and decreased accuracy, whereas perpetrator blame ratings predicted decreased error and increased accuracy. Findings are discussed in relation to factors that may affect memory for CSA information. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Walking before study enhances free recall but not judgement-of-learning magnitude

The authors investigated whether a brief bout of aerobic exercise can influence subsequent judgements of learning (JOLs) or memory performance. 80 college students (46 women and 34 men) completed 1 of 4 conditions using a 2×2 (encoding condition×retrieval condition) between-subjects factorial design. After a practice task, students either viewed an unrelated slide show while sedentary or completed a brisk 10-minute walk. Then, all students studied 30 English nouns and provided immediate JOLs. Finally, students again completed either the sedentary activity or exercised, followed by a free recall test. Exercise before encoding increased free recall scores by 25% compared with the sedentary condition; as a result, absolute metamemory accuracy also improved. Encoding condition did not influence mean JOLs, however, suggesting that students were unaware of the memory benefits from exercise. Overall, these results suggest that individuals can gain a memory advantage from a 10-minute walk before studying.     

Sex differences in memory estimates,revisited

207 undergraduate students (95 men and 112 women) representing all four years in college provided estimates of memory performance before and after a recall task involving 80 stimuli (41) pictures and 40 words). The study was intended as a replication of the work of Ionescu in 2000 wherein men underestimated their performance on the picture items and women underestimated their performance on the words. No sex differences were found for correct recall totals, recall for pictures, recall for words, and total prerecall performance estimates. Although both men and women underestimated their pre- and postrecall performance, women underestimated their postrecall performance more than men. More importantly, men underestimated their performance on recall of pictures, whereas women underestimated their performance on the word items, thereby validating prior results with a larger sample. The possible bases for this phenomenon are still not clear.     

College students' acceptance of potential treatments for ADHD

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the influence that the professional occupation of a consultant making a treatment recommendation may have on college students' (82 women and 52 men) acceptance of a proposed treatment for a child displaying characteristics of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Consultants were special education teachers, school psychologists, or physicians. The study also examined college students' ratings of treatment acceptability associated with three frequently implemented interventions of either nonspecific medication, token economy with response cost, or time-out for children with characteristics of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Analysis indicated college students found a token economy intervention was the least acceptable recommendation by a physician.     

The impact of gender ideology on the performance of gender-congruent citizenship behaviors

Because organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) performance contributes to overall performance ratings and failure to perform expected behaviors detracts from performance ratings, it is important to examine whether men and women perform OCBs in stereotypically expected ways. Published studies have evidenced both a presence and an absence of gender differences in OCB performance. With a view to explaining this ambiguity, this article reports the results of a study examining gender ideology as a moderator of the effects of gender on the performance of gender-congruent OCBs (i.e., helping for women and civic virtue for men). Survey data from participants and their coworkers across a wide range of jobs and organizations revealed that gender ideology moderated the effects of gender on the performance of gender-congruent OCBs.     

Relationships of Employment Status,Gender Role,Insult, and Gender with Use of Influence Tactics

Previous research indicates that men and womenuse different tactics to influence others. This paperexamines the worth of using personality andenvironmental variables to study phenomena that havebeen previously studied with gender as a variable.Study One examined the relationship between gender roleand choice of influence tactics for 31 male and 103female, mostly Caucasian college students. Study Two examined the role of traditional versusprofessional employment status on 104 female collegegraduates' choices of influence tactics. Consistent withthe hypothesis that gendered personality variables and environments would act in much the same wayas gender itself, students demonstrating masculinegender role characteristics and women employed intraditionally male settings reported a greaterlikelihood of using stereotypically male patterns ofinfluence. Students demonstrating feminine gender rolecharacteristics and women employed in traditionallyfemale settings reported a greater likelihood of using stereotypically female patterns of influence.The importance of studying personality and environmentalvariables relative to gender is discussed.     

What is preexisting strength? Predicting free association probabilities,similarity ratings,and cued recall probabilities

Measuring lexical knowledge poses a challenge to the study of the influence of preexisting knowledge on the retrieval of new memories. Many tasks focus on word pairs, but words are embedded in associative networks, so how should preexisting pair strength be measured? It has been measured by free association, similarity ratings, and co-occurrence statistics. Researchers interpret free association response probabilities as unbiased estimates of forward cue-to-target strength. In Study 1, analyses of large free association and extralist cued recall databases indicate that this interpretation is incorrect. Competitor and backward strengths bias free association probabilities, and as with other recall tasks, preexisting strength is described by a ratio rule. In Study 2, associative similarity ratings are predicted by forward and backward, but not by competitor, strength. Preexisting strength is not a unitary construct, because its measurement varies with method. Furthermore, free association probabilities predict extralist cued recall better than do ratings and co-occurrence statistics. The measure that most closely matches the criterion task may provide the best estimate of the identity of preexisting strength.     

Sex bias in evaluating nontraditional job applicants: reactions to women and men's interrupted college attendance

Two studies indicated that being a nontraditional job applicant due to voluntary interruption of college attendance had detrimental consequences for employment evaluation. These negative reactions were more severe for women than for men. Women with interrupted attendance received the most negative responses (Studies 1 and 2). Choosing to interrupt college attendance increased perceived instability and also positively affected perceived flexibility, and these characterizations were related to evaluative outcomes (Study 2). Moreover, both instability and flexibility characterizations contributed to the gender‐discrepant consequences of interrupted college attendance. Female applicants were rated more negatively on flexibility characterizations than were male applicants. Furthermore, although there were no gender differences in ratings of instability, instability ratings were found to negatively impact evaluations of female applicants, but not male applicants.     

Selection of gender‐incongruent applicants: No gender bias with structured interviews

Research suggests that the use of structured interviews can reduce gender bias in hiring. However, studies have been limited to gender‐neutral professions or laboratory simulations. The current study evaluated two components of the structured interview in a field sample of 691 applicants interviewing for a male‐dominated position of public transit operator. Multilevel modeling results show no significant differences in ratings across applicant gender with this highly structured interview. This relation was found in individual interviewer ratings and consensus panel ratings, as well as irrespective of interviewer gender and interviewer participation in comprehensive versus minimal training in structured interviewing. This study provided a conservative test in a male‐dominated profession to further validate the value of the structured interview for promoting equal hiring practices.     

The Importance of Contraceptive Attributes Among College Students

This study assessed how ratings of the importance of contraceptive attributes varied with gender, age, relationship status, and contraceptive method usually used. In a classroom setting, 210 male and 217 female university students completed the 55-item Contraceptive Attribute Questionnaire (CAQ). Significant differences on importance ratings were found between women and men, age groups, women using barrier methods and women using the pill, and by relationship status. The underlying dimensions of the CAQ were investigated through factor analysis, and somewhat different factors emerged for men and women. Implications for the provision of family planning services to college students are discussed.     

The Effect of Sexual Programme Content on the Recall of Foreign Sexual and Non‐sexual Advertisements

This study explored the effect of programme content (sexual and non‐sexual) on the recall of sexual and non‐sexual advertisements. Seventy‐eight participants were allocated randomly to four different groups and viewed either a sexual or non‐sexual programme with either sexual or non‐sexual advertisements placed within. Free recall and cued recall of the advertisements were assessed. The sexual content of programmes impaired advertisement recall, for both free recall and cued recall. Furthermore, advertisements that were of a sexual nature were remembered better than neutral advertisements. There was also an interaction between advertisement type and gender; women remembered more sexual than non‐sexual advertisements, but this was not the case for men. Finally, there was an interaction between programme type and gender, with a marked tendency for men to recall fewer advertisements embedded in the sexual programme than women. Limitations and implications of this research are discussed.Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

When fit is fundamental: performance evaluations and promotions of upper-level female and male managers

Using archival organizational data, the authors examined relationships of gender and type of position (i.e., line or staff) to performance evaluations of 448 upper-level managers, and relationships of performance evaluations to promotions during the subsequent 2 years. Consistent with the idea that there is a greater perceived lack of fit between stereotypical attributes of women and requirements of line jobs than staff jobs, women in line jobs received lower performance ratings than women in staff jobs or men in either line or staff jobs. Moreover, promoted women had received higher performance ratings than promoted men and performance ratings were more strongly related to promotions for women than men, suggesting that women were held to stricter standards for promotion.     

What is acceptable for women may not be for men: The effect of family conflicts with work on job‐performance ratings

We conducted a laboratory study examining the effect of a family conflict with work on performance appraisal ratings given to men and women. Overall, the experience of a family conflict was associated with lower performance ratings, and ratee sex moderated this relationship. Men who experienced a family conflict received lower overall performance ratings and lower reward recommendations than men who did not, whereas ratings of women were unaffected by the experience of a family conflict. The sex bias was not evident when performance was evaluated on the more specific dimension of planning. Neither rater gender nor work‐family role attitudes moderated the sex bias. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.