Gender Bias Produces Gender Gaps in STEM Engagement

We explored whether the existence of gender bias causes gender gaps in STEM engagement. In Experiment 1 (n?=?322), U.S. women projected less sense of belonging, positivity toward, and aspirations to participate in STEM than did men when exposed to the reality of STEM gender bias. These gender differences disappeared when participants were told that STEM exhibits gender equality, suggesting that gender bias produces STEM gender gaps. Experiment 2 (n?=?429) explored whether results generalized to a specific STEM department, and whether organizational efforts to mitigate gender bias might shrink gender gaps. U.S. women exposed to a biased chemistry department anticipated more discrimination and projected less sense of belonging, positive attitudes and trust and comfort than did men. These gender differences vanished when participants read about an unbiased department, again suggesting that gender bias promotes STEM gender gaps. Further, moderated mediation analyses suggested that in the presence of gender bias (but not gender equality), women projected less positive attitudes and trust and comfort than did men because they experienced less sense of belonging and anticipated more discrimination. Results were largely unaffected by whether departments completed a diversity training, suggesting that knowledge of diversity initiatives alone cannot close STEM gender gaps.     

Reducing gender identity bias through imagined intergroup contact

Transgender individuals face high levels of stereotyping, prejudice, discrimination, and violence. However, there is a paucity of research (particularly experimental work) investigating the magnitude of gender identity bias (GIB) targeting transgender individuals, as well as interventions designed to ameliorate it. To address this gap, we conducted experimental investigations of reactions to identical, highly qualified men or women job applicants described as either transgender or cisgender (Experiments 1a, 1b), and tested the efficacy of an imagined intergroup contact (IIC) intervention (relative to a control condition) in ameliorating GIB against transgender women (Experiment 2). As expected, all applicants were perceived as equally highly competent, adding to the literature suggesting that clearly demonstrating excellent qualifications can prevent biased judgments of candidate competence. However, revealing GIB, transgender men and women were rated as less likeable and hirable than the identical cisgender applicants, despite the fact that they were viewed as equally competent (Experiments 1a, 1b). Providing additional evidence of GIB, in the absence of IIC, participants rated a transgender female applicant as less likeable and hirable than the identical cisgender applicant, and also reported less self‐other overlap and perspective taking for the transgender applicant (Experiment 2). However, these target gender identity differences were reduced (for likeability) or fully eliminated (for the remaining outcomes) in the IIC condition. Put another way, while reactions to the cisgender applicant were unaffected by intervention condition, IIC elevated perceptions of the transgender applicant, suggesting that it may function as an effective GIB intervention.     

Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf? The interweaving of values and science

The role of values in the scientific process is widely debated. But evidence and values cannot be neatly separated. Instead, values infuse the entire scientific process, starting with the choice of research questions. Research avenues are selected based on prior beliefs about the workings of the world. In fact, informally assigned prior probabilities and normalizing constants play an essential role in distinguishing causes from correlations and ignoring irrelevant associations that would otherwise be suggested by raw data. But since these initial probabilities often have a heterogeneous pedigree – often not all that went into their formation is known or knowable – it becomes difficult to cleanly separate evidence from values. At the same time, this reality does not undermine science’s unique status in generating knowledge. This is because it is not the evidence per se generated by science, but rather the method by which science generates it, that justifies science’s privileged role.     

When Practice Does Not Make Perfect: Effects of Strategic Cognitive Processes on Errors During Skill Development

This study looked at the contribution of strategic cognitive processes such as frequency gambling and speed and accuracy trade‐off in the production of errors during skill development. We developed a novel psychomotor task and trained participants on the task. We predicted that practice would change the nature of errors and be driven by strategic processes, rather than just change the overall number of errors. The first experiment investigated the effects of frequency gambling on errors during skill development by manipulating stimulus probability. The second experiment tested the separate effects of speed versus accuracy instructions to clarify the strategic contribution of response‐criterion setting. The results of these two studies refute the widespread assumption that skill development invariably reduces errors. Rather, errors can be a strategic feature of skill acquisition (e.g. gambling on low probability events), which, although results in speedy performance, would be a dangerous practice in many real‐life contexts. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A systematic analysis of distressing near-death experience accounts

ABSTRACT

Near-death experiences (NDEs) are usually associated with positive affect, however, a small proportion are considered distressing. We aimed to look into the proportion of distressing NDEs in a sample of NDE narratives, categorise distressing narratives according to Greyson and Bush’s classification (inverse, void or hellish), and compare distressing and “classical” NDEs. Participants wrote down their experience, completed the Memory Characteristics Questionnaire (assessing the phenomenology of memories) and the Greyson scale (characterising content of NDEs). The proportion of suicidal attempts, content and intensity of distressing and classical NDEs were compared using frequentist and Bayesian statistics. Distressing NDEs represent 14% of our sample (n?=?123). We identified 8 inverse, 8 hellish and 1 void accounts. The proportion of suicide survivors is higher in distressing NDEs as compared to classical ones. Finally, memories of distressing NDEs appear as phenomenologically detailed as classical ones. Distressing NDEs deserve careful consideration to ensure their integration into experiencers’ identity.     

The synergetic principles of nonlinear thinking

In order to develop further the methods of scenario building and to facilitate the paths towards a desirable and sustainable future, we cannot do without a nonlinear evolutionary thinking. The theory of self‐organization of complex systems, called also synergetics, is a scientific basis for such a thinking, the main principles of which are under consideration in the paper. Synergetics provides us with the knowledge of constructive principles of coevolution of complex social systems, coevolution of countries and geopolitical regions being at different stages of development, integration of the East and the West, the North and the South.     

Spacing Unpredictability: Action as an Operating Tool in Richard Serra's Work

The paper deals with notions of complexity in art and architecture. On the basis of a recent sculp\tural work by Richard Serra, Torqued Ellipses (1997), the notion of complexity is investigated in terms of how it situates the viewer, and affects our sense of space and time. Serra's work is analyzed in terms of the artist's working method, the production of the work, and finally the ''external relations'' which connect it to the viewer and the context. In each of these steps, the notions of complexity and unpredictability are shown to have a formative role. This gives his work a relevance for several fields using working processes as methods. The relations between space and time, object and context, are redefined in Serra's work, which also gives it a more specific importance for architectural theory and practice.     

Visuo-Spatial Working Memory Span: A Sensitive Measure of Cognitive Deficits in Children With ADHD

Working memory (WM) has been hypothesised to be impaired in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, there are few studies reported on tests measuring visuo-spatial WM (VSWM) in ADHD. Some of these studies used paradigms including episodic memory, others only used low memory loads. In the present study we used a VSWM test that has not been used previously in ADHD research. The sensitivity of the VSWM test and a choice reaction time (CRT) test was evaluated in a pilot study by comparing them to two commonly used tests in ADHD-research; the Continuous Performance Test (CPT) and a Go/no-go test, in children with and without ADHD. The groups differed significantly in performance on the VSWM test (P<.01) and CRT (P<.05) but not on the CPT (P>.1) or on the Go/no-go test (P>.1). The results from the VSWM and CRT tests were replicated in a larger sample of participants (80 boys; 27 boys with ADHD and 53 controls, mean age 11.4 years). The difference between the groups was significant for both the VSWM test (P<.01) and the CRT test (P<.01). The effect size (ES) of the VSWM test was 1.34. There was a significant age-by-group interaction on the VSWM test, with larger group differences for the older children (P<.01). Our results show that the VSWM test is a sensitive measure of cognitive deficits in ADHD and it supports the hypothesis that deficits in VSWM is a major component of ADHD.     

Addressing the struggle to link form and understanding in fractions instruction

Background. Although making explicit links between procedures and concepts during instruction in mathematics is important, it is still unclear the precise moments during instruction when such links are best made. Aims. The objective was to test the effectiveness of a 3‐week classroom intervention on the fractions knowledge of grade 5/6 students. The instruction was based on a theory that specifies three sites during the learning process where concepts and symbols can be connected ( Hiebert, 1984 ): symbol interpretation, procedural execution, and solution evaluation. Sample. Seventy students from one grade 5/6 split and two grade 6 classrooms in two public elementary schools participated. Method. The students were randomly assigned to treatment and control. The treatment (Sites group) received instruction that incorporated specific connections between fractions concepts and procedures at each of the three sites specified by the Sites theory. Before and after the intervention, the students’ knowledge of concepts and procedures was assessed, and a random subsample of 30 students from both conditions were individually interviewed to measure their ability to make specific connections between concepts and symbols at each of the three sites. Results. While all students gained procedural skill (p < .001), the students in the Sites condition acquired significantly more knowledge of concepts than the control group (p < .01) and were also better able to connect fractions symbols to conceptual referents (p < .025). Conclusions. The current study contributes to the literature because it describes when it might be important to link concepts and procedures during fractions instruction.