ReportsThreatened to distraction: Mind-wandering as a consequence of stereotype threat
Research Highlights
► Anticipating a stereotype-laden test leads to more task-unrelated thoughts. ► Mind-wandering mediates the impact of stereotype threat on performance. ► Stereotype threat may be ameliorated by targeted interventions focused on mind-wandering.
Section snippets
How stereotype threat affects attention and thought
Stereotype threat, defined as the risk of behaving in a way that substantiates a negative stereotype against one's group (Steele & Aronson, 1995), has emerged as a phenomenon of great theoretical and practical interest. Recent advances have revealed an integrated set of mechanisms that are responsible for these impairments (Schmader, Johns, & Forbes, 2008). These include an increased physiological stress response, more conscious monitoring of performance, and active regulation of negative
Mind-wandering under stereotype threat
Mind-wandering is defined as a decoupling of attention from the immediate task context toward unrelated concerns (Smallwood & Schooler, 2006). Previous research has indicated that mind-wandering can have detrimental effects on performance in several domains (e.g., Smallwood et al., 2008, Cheyne et al., 2009), and may play an important role in educational settings (Smallwood, Fishman, & Schooler, 2007). Moreover, just as situations of stereotype threat are most likely to impair performance on
Experimental overview
To test these hypotheses, two experiments were conducted employing methodological advances developed to measure mind-wandering. Study 1 tested the effect of stereotype threat on indirect performance markers of mind-wandering during the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART; Robertson, Manly, Andrade, Baddeley, & Yiend, 1997). Study 2 was designed to build on the first study by using thought sampling to directly measure task-unrelated mind-wandering during a demanding math test. These
Participants
43 female undergraduate students from the University of California Santa Barbara participated in exchange for course credit (mean age = 19.0, SD = 1.85).
Procedure
Study 1 was a between subjects design comparing the frequency of mind-wandering among women under stereotype threat to women in a control condition. Stereotype threat was induced by adapting a widely used manipulation to the specific task context of the present study (Schmader and Johns, 2003, Johns et al., 2005, Johns et al., 2008, Schmader et
Participants
72 female undergraduate students participated in exchange for course credit (mean age = 18.76, SD = .99).
Procedure
Study 2 manipulated stereotype threat in the same manner as Study 1. In Study 2, however, participants actually took a math test rather than the SART. The test contained 30 items from the quantitative portion of the Graduate Record Exam (GRE). In the stereotype threat condition, the cover page of the exam read “QUANTITATIVE EXAMINATION” in bold print, and required that participants indicate
General discussion
The present research demonstrated that stereotype threat can increase mind-wandering, and in doing so, impair performance on tasks requiring focused attention. Study 1 found that females anticipating a stereotype threat-laden task underperformed on the SART, demonstrating a robust increase on several widely accepted markers of mind-wandering. Study 2 built on this finding using thought sampling to more directly measure mind-wandering during a demanding math task. Once again, females
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