“You're overreacting!”: The ambiguity of Asian American microaggressions delegitimizes collective action

Asian Americans are lauded as the model minority who are intelligent and industrious. Simultaneously, they are deemed as perpetual foreigners. The current research examines how racial microaggressions expressed by a White American source toward an Asian American target affect perceptions of the perpetrator and target. White Americans and Asian Americans read about an interaction between two college students, where the racial microaggression made was either an ambiguous expression of the model minority myth (MMM; all studies), an ambiguous perpetual foreigner stereotype (all studies), an unambiguous MMM (all studies), or no racial bias (Studies 2 and 3). Findings indicate that both Whites and Asian Americans respond differently—when exposed to the aforementioned conditions—regarding perceived racism of the White perpetrator and appropriateness of response by the Asian American target; however, they respond similarly regarding perceived legitimacy of collective action by the target. Nevertheless, Whites and Asian Americans deemed the ambiguous microaggression against the target as a model minority not racist relative to unambiguous MMM. Our findings show that ambiguous forms of bias toward Asian Americans go “under the radar” of both Whites and Asian Americans as being racist and contribute to the maintenance of the racial status quo.     

Social factors influence solo and rat dyads exploration of an unfamiliar open field

Animal Cognition - Exploring new and unfamiliar environments is critical for survival, providing information on food, shelter, mates, and sources of danger. The open field paradigm is commonly used...     

A suit for protecting chronically implanted devices in monkeys

The plastic barrel suit provides complete protection of chronically implanted fistulas and electrical connectors. The lost time, expense, and the frustrations of having these devices damaged was avoided.     

Psychophysical parameters of the perception of orally-retained liquid bulk

Bulk of liquid held in the mouth may be judged on its subjective volume. Over the range I ml-31 ml, scaling by the constant method and by ratio estimation yielded a Weber fraction which was not constant and decreased with stimulus magnitudes and a psychophysical power function with an exponent of 0.96. A “negative threshold” effect is reported.     

Experimental design symbolization and model derivation

A method of design symbolization (DS) is given for a class of designs in which all factors are related by complete crossing or by nesting. Characterization of acceptable DS's, and logical relational properties are given. It is shown how the design model can be obtained from the DS.The preparation of this article was supported by NIH Grant GM-11128, and by grants to the Institute of Human Learning by NSF and NIH.     

The 3RT Test: Three reaction time tasks for IBM PC computers

The 3RT Test consists of a simple, a choice, and a conditional reaction time (RT) task. The three tasks involve comparable visual stimuli and require identical manual responses, but they differ in the complexity of cognitive processing required. The nonverbal stimuli convey commonly known meanings. Responses can be made either on the keyboard or on response keys connected to the computer’s serial port. The computer’s internal timer/counter is used for millisecond timing. The test administration program allows flexible setting of the test conditions. The data analysis program provides summary data not only for each RT task as a whole, but also for separate trial types within each task. Summary statistics include measures of variation and central value that are not affected by extreme scores. In addition to laboratory studies with normal adults, the 3RT Test is suitable for life-span developmental studies, cross-cultural comparisons, and other uses in various clinical settings.