Turning the gender tables: evidence of students’ awareness of a reversal in gender status between academic and occupational contexts

Social Psychology of Education - This study investigates young people’s awareness of gender differences in achievement and their reversal between educational and occupational contexts. Girls...     

Older and younger adults' strategies in approximate quantification

In two experiments, participants were asked to provide a quick and rough estimate of the number of items in collections of 4-79 items. In Experiment 1 verbal strategy reports and performance on each item were collected, and in Experiment 2 performance and eye movements were collected, while young and older participants were tested in strategy-instructed conditions. Results showed that: (a) participants used six different estimation strategies, (b) overall, young and older participants used the same set of strategies, but varied in how often they used each strategy, (c) older adults' strategy repertoire was smaller than young adults' (i.e., inter-individual differences in strategy repertoire), (d) strategy use, participants' performance, and eye movements varied as a function of numerosities and configurations of items, (e) in both the age groups, each strategy was associated with distinctive performance measures and eye movement patterns. These findings show that different processes are available for approximate quantification in both young and older adults and that aging is associated with strategic variations.     

Cognitive processing impairments in a supra-second temporal discrimination task in rats with cerebellar lesion

The role of interpositus nuclei (IN) in timing in the sub-second range is well supported in eyeblink conditioning studies. Timing impairments shown in the seconds range in patients with intermediate cerebellar lesion, and known intermediate cerebellar cortex projection to IN raise the question of a possible involvement of IN in timing in the supra-second range as well. To address this question, we tested rats (Sprague-Dawley) given bilateral lesions of IN with Colchicine in a 2- vs. 8-s temporal discrimination task, followed by three daily sessions of a temporal bisection tests with five added intermediate non-reinforced durations. IN lesioned rats showed normal acquisition of the temporal discrimination, but a transient impairment of temporal sensitivity during the bisection tests. In addition, their response latencies suggested a different behavioral strategy from that of control animals. Our results indicate that the IN of the cerebellum may not be critically involved in temporal processing in the 2–8 s range, but may play a role in the cognitive processes that access temporal information in the mediation of choice behavior.     

Culture, gender, and the self: variations and impact of social comparison processes

Psychological differences between women and men, far from being invariant as a biological explanation would suggest, fluctuate in magnitude across cultures. Moreover, contrary to the implications of some theoretical perspectives, gender differences in personality, values, and emotions are not smaller, but larger, in American and European cultures, in which greater progress has been made toward gender equality. This research on gender differences in self-construals involving 950 participants from 5 nations/cultures (France, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United States, and Malaysia) illustrates how variations in social comparison processes across cultures can explain why gender differences are stronger in Western cultures. Gender differences in the self are a product of self-stereotyping, which occurs when between-gender social comparisons are made. These social comparisons are more likely, and exert a greater impact, in Western nations. Both correlational and experimental evidence supports this explanation.     

Awareness of a gender stereotype,personal beliefs and self-perceptions regarding math ability: when boys do not surpass girls

The negative reputation of women in mathematics and its consequences on their self-perceptions have been extensively demonstrated. However, in France and other countries, the younger the students, the less pronounced these gender differences are. The focus of this study was to explore whether children of two age groups (fourth graders and seventh graders) are aware of a math-ability gender stereotype favorable to boys, and to determine their personal beliefs on mathematics ability. The link between this gender stereotype and self-perceptions was also examined. As expected, there was not a clear-cut awareness of a math-ability gender stereotype favorable to boys. More surprising, girls in both age groups and seventh-grade boys believed that girls do better than boys. Moreover, when their gender identity was made salient, the boys who believed in girl superiority perceived their own performance in mathematics as lower. The girls, on the other hand, regardless of their age and stereotype awareness or personal beliefs, perceived their performance in math as higher when their gender identity was made salient than when it was not.     

Projecting the self into the future in individuals with schizophrenia: a preliminary cross-sectional study

The ability to project oneself into the future contributes to development and maintenance of a coherent sense of identity. If recent research has revealed that schizophrenia is associated with difficulties envisioning the future, little is known about patients’ future self-representations. In this study, 27 participants with schizophrenia and 26 healthy controls were asked to simulate mental representations of plausible and highly significant future events (self-defining future projections, SDFPs) that they anticipate to happen in their personal future. Main results showed that schizophrenia patients had difficulties in reflecting on the broader meaning and implications of imagined future events. In addition, and contrary to our hypothesis, a large majority of SDFPs in schizophrenia patients were positive events, including achievements, relationship, and leisure contents. Interestingly, patients and controls did not differ on the perceived probability that these events will occur in the future. Our results suggest that schizophrenia patients have an exaggerated positive perception of their future selves. Together, these findings lend support to the idea that past and future self-defining representations have both similar and distinct characteristics in schizophrenia.     

The multiple neural networks of familiarity: A meta-analysis of functional imaging studies

Recent research has demonstrated the critical role of the feeling of familiarity in recognition memory. Various neuroimaging paradigms have been developed to identify the brain regions that sustain the processing of familiarity; however, there is still considerable controversy about the functional significance of each brain region implicated in familiarity-based retrieval. Here, we focused on the differences between paradigms that assess familiarity, with or without the encoding phase. We used the activation likelihood estimation (ALE) algorithm to conduct a whole-brain meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies that involved a familiarity task. Sixty-nine studies, performed in healthy subjects to determine the specific functions of the identified regions in familiarity processing, were finally selected. Distinct subanalyses were performed according to the experimental procedures used in the original studies. The ALE clusters that were highlighted revealed common activations for paradigms with and without encoding in the prefrontal cortex and in the parietal cortex. Additionally, supplementary activations related to specific familiarity (i.e., without the encoding phase) were observed in the limbic system (i.e., the amygdala, hippocampus, cingulate cortex, and insula) and in the associative sensory areas. The differences in the reported findings for different procedures are possibly due to differences in the concept of familiarity. To aid the exploration of the neural correlates of familiarity in future studies, the strengths and weaknesses of these experimental procedures are critically discussed.     

Associative learning in baboons (Papio papio) and humans (Homo sapiens): species differences in learned attention to visual features

We examined attention shifting in baboons and humans during the learning of visual categories. Within a conditional matching-to-sample task, participants of the two species sequentially learned two two-feature categories which shared a common feature. Results showed that humans encoded both features of the initially learned category, but predominantly only the distinctive feature of the subsequently learned category. Although baboons initially encoded both features of the first category, they ultimately retained only the distinctive features of each category. Empirical data from the two species were analyzed with the 1996 ADIT connectionist model of Kruschke. ADIT fits the baboon data when the attentional shift rate is zero, and the human data when the attentional shift rate is not zero. These empirical and modeling results suggest species differences in learned attention to visual features. Received: 30 May 1998 / Accepted after revision: 13 September 1998     

Impact of comparisons with out‐group members on women's self‐esteem: Role of the stereotypical connotation of the performance context

Although upward comparisons may threaten people's self‐esteem, research has argued that this is not the case if the comparison other is an out‐group member. To protect their self‐esteem individuals would dismiss upward comparison information involving out‐group members as not being self‐relevant. We suggest that use of this self‐protective strategy is dependent on the stereotypical connotation of the performance context. Women's self‐esteem would suffer from upward out‐group comparisons on a male‐labelled task but not on a female one because the assumed expertise of women in the latter domain would allow them to reject the comparison information. To test this hypothesis, female participants were led to believe that they were Z‐types group members in comparison with X‐types group members. After doing a test presumably designed to assess either their verbal‐spatial ability (male‐labelled task) or their sociorelational expressiveness (female‐labelled task), they were exposed to bogus information on the performance of three other individuals who were always described as X‐types group members (out‐group members). These out‐group members had performed either better (upward comparison) or worse (downward comparison) than the participants themselves. Supporting the hypothesis, women who had been confronted with the superior performance of out‐group members on the male‐labelled task reported lower self‐esteem than those confronted with the superior performance of out‐group members on the female‐labelled task. When women perform a stereotypically female task, upward comparisons with out‐group members do not decrease their self‐esteem, suggesting that women are in a position to protect their self‐esteem by dismissing the self‐relevance of such comparisons. The assumed expertise of women as a function of the stereotypical gender connotation of the performance context could explain such results. The influence of the social division of gender roles on women's social identity is discussed. La littérature suggère que les comparaisons ascendantes menacent L'estime de soi des individus, sauf lorsque ces comparaisons se déroulent avec des membres d'un exogroupe. En effet, les individus se protègeraient de telles comparaisons en ne les estimant pas pertinentes. Toutefois, nous suggérons que L'utilisation d'une telle stratégie d'auto‐protection dépend de la connotation stéréotypique du contexte de performance. Ainsi, L'estime de soi des femmes serait affaiblie par des comparaisons ascendantes avec des membres d'un exogroupe uniquement si ces dernières portent sur un domaine stéréotypiquement perçu comme masculin et non sur un domaine stéréotypiquement perçu comme féminin. Pour tester cette hypothèse, des participantes sont conduites à croire qu'en tant que membres du groupe des types‐Z elles vont être comparées aux membres du groupe des types‐X. Après avoir réalisé un test supposé évaluer soit leur capacité spatio‐verbale (tâche à connotation masculine) soit leur expressivité socio‐relationnelle (tâche à connotation féminine), elles reçoivent de L'information fictive sur la performance de trois autres individus, toujours présentés comme des membres du groupe des types‐X (exogroupe). Ces trois personnes ont soit mieux réussi (comparaisons ascendantes) soit moins bien réussi (comparaisons descendantes) que les participantes. Conformément à L'hypothèse, les femmes confrontées à de meilleures performances des membres de L'exogroupe présentent une estime de soi plus faible uniquement lorsqu'elles ont réalisé une tâche à connotation masculine. Quand les femmes réalisent une tâche stéréotypiquement féminine, les comparaisons ascendantes avec des membres de L'exogroupe ne diminuent pas leur estime de soi, ce qui suggère que les femmes sont alors capables de protéger leur estime de soi en rejetant ces comparaisons comme non‐pertinentes. L'expertise supposée des femmes en fonction de la connotation sexuelle stéréotypique du contexte de performance pourrait expliquer de tels résultats. La discussion porte ainsi sur L'influence de la division sociale des rôles de genre sur L'identité sociale des femmes. La literatura de investigación sugiere que las comparaciones ascendentes amenazan la auto estima de las personas, a menos que con quien se comparen no sea miembro de su mismo grupo. Para proteger su auto estima, los individuos rechazarían las comparaciones ascendentes con personas ajenas a su grupo por considerarlas irrelevantes para sí mismos. Se sugiere que el uso de esta estrategia de auto protección depende de la connotación estereotipada del contexto en el que se desempeñe la persona. La auto estima de las mujeres sufrirá sólo si se comparan ascendentemente contra alguien, perteneciente a un grupo ajeno al propio, que se desempeñe en un dominio percibido como masculino, pero no en dominios percibidos como femeninos. Para someter a prueba esta hipótesis, se hizo creer a las participantes que eran miembros de un grupo tipo Z que se comparaba con los miembros de un grupo tipo X. Una vez que se habían sometido a una prueba presuntamente diseñada para evaluar, ya fuera la habilidad verbal‐espacial (tarea percibida como masculina) o su expresividad en las relaciones sociales (tarea percibida como femenina), se expusieron a información falsa acerca del rendimiento de otros tres individuos a quienes se describía como miembros del grupo tipo X (grupo ajeno al propio). Estos miembros externos al grupo de la participante habían tenido un rendimiento, ya fuera mejor (comparación ascendente) o peor (comparación descendente) que ésta. La hipótesis recibió apoyo, las mujeres confrontadas con un rendimiento superior de miembros ajenos a su grupo en la tarea percibida como masculina manifestaron menor auto estima que aquéllas confrontadas con un rendimiento superior de miembros ajenos a su grupo en la tarea percibida como femenina. Cuando las mujeres desempeñan una tarea percibida como femenina, las comparaciones ascendentes con miembros de grupos ajenos no disminuyen su auto estima, lo que sugiere que se protegen al rechazar la importancia de tales comparaciones. La supuesta pericia de las mujeres en función de la connotación sexual estereotipada del contexto en el que se desempeñan podría explicar tales resultados. Se discute la influencia de la división social de los roles de género sobre la identidad social de las mujeres.