A popular stereotype that boys are better at mathematics than girls undermines girls' math performance because it causes worrying that erodes the mental resources needed for problem solving, new research at the University of Chicago shows.
The scholars found that the worrying undermines women's working memory. Working memory is a short-term memory system involved in the control, regulation and active maintenance of limited information needed immediately to deal with problems at hand.
They also showed for the first time that this threat to performance caused by stereotyping can also hinder success in other academic areas because mental abilities do not immediately rebound after being compromised by mathematics anxiety.
"This may mean that if a girl takes a verbal portion of a standardized test after taking the mathematics portion, she may not do as well on the verbal portion as she might do if she had not been recently struggling with math-related worries and anxiety," said Sian Beilock, Assistant Professor in Psychology and lead investigator in the study.
"Likewise, our work suggests that if a girl has a mathematics class first thing in the morning and experiences math-related worries in this class, these worries may carry implications for her performance in the class she attends next," she added.
The results of the study appear in the paper "Stereotype Threat and Working Memory: Mechanisms, Alleviation, and Spill Over," published in the current issue of the[I] Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. Co-authors are Robert Rydell, a postdoctoral researcher in psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara and Allen McConnell, University Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Miami University.
Researchers have been aware that stereotypes can undermine achievement in schools in many ways, but little research has focused on the specific mental processes that prompt this response.
In order to examine those mental processes, the team selected a group of college women who performed well in mathematics. They were then randomly assigned to two groups, with one set of women being told that they were being tested to see why men generally do better on math than women, and the other group being told simply that they were part of an experiment on mathematics performance.
The information that men do better in mathematics than women undercut performance drastically. The accuracy of women exposed to the stereotype was reduced from nearly 90 percent in a pretest to about 80 percent after being told men do better in mathematics. Among women not receiving that message, performance actually improved slightly.
The researchers asked the women exposed to the stereotyping message what they were thinking during the tests and many of them reported being distracted by thoughts such as "I thought about how boys are usually better than girls at math so I was trying harder not to make mistakes" and "I was nervous in the last set because I found out that the study is to compare mathematical abilities of guys and girls." Women not exposed to stereotyping had fewer such thoughts of inferiority.
Further tests showed that the verbal portion of the working memory was the portion of the women's mental resources that was most strongly undermined by the anxiety. The researchers showed that women experiencing mathematics anxiety found it more difficult to do problems when they were written out horizontally than when they appeared vertically. Previous findings show that solving horizontal problems relies heavily on verbal resources.
In order to see if mathematics anxiety had any lasting impact on performance in the short term, the researchers again had women solve math problems, with half being told they were part of a test to determine why men generally do better in mathematics than women and the other half being told only that they were being tested for mathematics performance.
They then gave the women a standard memory test involving verbal information and found that the women did less well on that test if they were exposed to the mathematics stereotyping.
"We demonstrated that worries about confirming a negative group stereotype may not only impact performance in the stereotyped domain, but that this impact can spill over onto subsequent, unrelated tasks that depend on the same processing resource the stereotype-related worries consume," Beilock and her colleagues wrote.
A popular stereotype that boys are better at mathematics than girls undermines girls' math performance because it causes worrying that erodes the mental resources needed for problem solving, new research at the University of Chicago shows.
一种流行的思维定势是男孩在数学方面要比女孩好，而女孩的数学能力却因为对于数学的担忧焦虑，破坏了他们大脑对于解开数学题的能力，这是芝加哥大学新的研究所发现的。
The scholars found that the worrying undermines women's working memory. Working memory is a short-term memory system involved in the control, regulation and active maintenance of limited information needed immediately to deal with problems at hand.
学者们发现，焦虑会破坏女人的工作性记忆功能，工作性记忆功能是一种短视记忆功能，它包括立即将解决问题的有关信息控制、排序和保存。
They also showed for the first time that this threat to performance caused by stereotyping can also hinder success in other academic areas because mental abilities do not immediately rebound after being compromised by mathematics anxiety.
同时，学者们也第一次发现，这种焦虑能够在其他学科科目上能够使女孩的解决问题能力受损，因为在被数学所带来的焦虑影响后，女孩的精神不能马上恢复到正常状态。
"This may mean that if a girl takes a verbal portion of a standardized test after taking the mathematics portion, she may not do as well on the verbal portion as she might do if she had not been recently struggling with math-related worries and anxiety," said Sian Beilock, Assistant Professor in Psychology and lead investigator in the study.
"这可能意味着，如果一个女孩在参加了标准化考试的数学部分后，再参加标准化考试的口试部分，她最近如果受数学焦虑症困扰的话，可能没有办法在口试表现正常"，心理学助理教授，试验的主要工作人员Sian Beilock说。
"Likewise, our work suggests that if a girl has a mathematics class first thing in the morning and experiences math-related worries in this class, these worries may carry implications for her performance in the class she attends next," she added.
"同样的，我们的试验建议，如果一个女孩在一天的早上就上数学课，同时在课内收到了数学焦虑症的困扰，这种焦虑可能会对她后面课程的表现产生影响，"她补充说。
The results of the study appear in the paper "Stereotype Threat and Working Memory: Mechanisms, Alleviation, and Spill Over," published in the current issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. Co-authors are Robert Rydell, a postdoctoral researcher in psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara and Allen McConnell, University Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Miami University.
研究的结果"思维定势和工作性记忆:机械性，缓解度，和充满度,"刊登在最新出版的试验心理学期刊（通常版）。实验合著者是加利福尼亚大学心理学博士后Robert Rydell，和迈阿密大学著名心理学专家Santa Barbara and Allen McConnell。
Researchers have been aware that stereotypes can undermine achievement in schools in many ways, but little research has focused on the specific mental processes that prompt this response.
研究人员意识到，思维定势可以在学业很很多方面影响人，但是只有很少的研究将重点聚焦在这种特殊的精神疾病上。
In order to examine those mental processes, the team selected a group of college women who performed well in mathematics. They were then randomly assigned to two groups, with one set of women being told that they were being tested to see why men generally do better on math than women, and the other group being told simply that they were part of an experiment on mathematics performance.
为了测试这种精神意识过程，研究小组选择了一组在数学方面出色的大学女性，而后将她们随机分成两个小组，其中一组告诉他们他们会被测试一下是否女性的数学才能不如男性，而另一组则被告知仅仅是参加一个数学测试。
The information that men do better in mathematics than women undercut performance drastically. The accuracy of women exposed to the stereotype was reduced from nearly 90 percent in a pretest to about 80 percent after being told men do better in mathematics. Among women not receiving that message, performance actually improved slightly.
被告知男性数学才能高于女性的那一组女性，他们的表现大幅下降。这些受"男孩数学比女孩好"思维定势影响的女性中，在实验前受过预检的90%的女性，在实验后，80%的人的表现下降。而那些没有被告知这个信息的，她们的表现有细微的提高。
The researchers asked the women exposed to the stereotyping message what they were thinking during the tests and many of them reported being distracted by thoughts such as "I thought about how boys are usually better than girls at math so I was trying harder not to make mistakes" and "I was nervous in the last set because I found out that the study is to compare mathematical abilities of guys and girls." Women not exposed to stereotyping had fewer such thoughts of inferiority.
研究者要求这些受思维定势影响的女性表述一下他们在测试中到底想了些什么，她们中许多人说由于思维定势的影响分散了他们的注意力，比如想"我认为男孩数学一般总要比女孩好，因此我要避免在解题中出错""我测试时候十分紧张，因为它测试的是男孩跟女孩哪个数学更好"，而没有被告知这种信息的测试组内没有这些想法。
Further tests showed that the verbal portion of the working memory was the portion of the women's mental resources that was most strongly undermined by the anxiety. The researchers showed that women experiencing mathematics anxiety found it more difficult to do problems when they were written out horizontally than when they appeared vertically. Previous findings show that solving horizontal problems relies heavily on verbal resources.
更进一步的研究显示，工作性记忆的语言部分，是受到这种焦虑最为严重的部分。研究者们发现受数学焦虑症影响的女性在文字方面也受到了相当大的影响。比如要处理一些难度相当的但是要相当语言功底的问题。
In order to see if mathematics anxiety had any lasting impact on performance in the short term, the researchers again had women solve math problems, with half being told they were part of a test to determine why men generally do better in mathematics than women and the other half being told only that they were being tested for mathematics performance.
为了研究在短时期内数学焦虑症是否能够留下后遗症，研究者们再次找到实验样本来做数学题，试验的方法与先前一样。
They then gave the women a standard memory test involving verbal information and found that the women did less well on that test if they were exposed to the mathematics stereotyping.
接下来，研究者们给这些女性进行标准记忆测试，包括语言测试。测试发现，受"男孩数学比女孩好"思维定势影响的那些女性在语言测试的表现要比另一组弱。
"We demonstrated that worries about confirming a negative group stereotype may not only impact performance in the stereotyped domain, but that this impact can spill over onto subsequent, unrelated tasks that depend on the same processing resource the stereotype-related worries consume," Beilock and her colleagues wrote.
"我们证明了对于思维定势所产生的焦虑不仅会影响到思维定势涉及到的领域，也同时会影响到其他方面"Beilock和他的研究小组说。