2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

An experimental study of the influence of stereotype on mnemonic strategies

Research Project

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Project/Area Number	18K18700
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Review Section	Medium-sized Section 10:Psychology and related fields
Research Institution	University of the Sacred Heart
Principal Investigator	TAKAHASHI MASANOBU 聖心女子大学, 現代教養学部, 教授 (10206849)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	清水寛之神戸学院大学, 心理学部, 教授 (30202112) 齊藤智京都大学, 教育学研究科, 教授 (70253242)
Project Period (FY)	2018-06-29 – 2023-03-31
Keywords	ステレオタイプ / 記憶
Outline of Final Research Achievements	The stereotype threat refers to the phenomenon in which individual task performance decreases when a relevant stereotype is salient during the performance. For example, women have more negative beliefs about memory for cars than men, and such gender stereotypes might impair performance. We investigated how stereotype threat effects are mediated. It has been suggested that stereotype threat reduces working memory capacity that focuses attention on a goal-relevant task while suppressing task-irrelevant thoughts, and as a result diminishes task performance. To test this theory, we first attempted to directly manipulate the stereotype threat by varying how the test was characterized either as showing gender differences or not. These results suggest that individual differences in working memory capacity did not mediate the observed stereotype threat effect in women. The results are discussed in terms of the optimal mnemonic strategy in addition to some methodological problems.
Free Research Field	認知心理学
Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements	我々の社会には種々の固定観念すなわちステレオタイプ（たとえば、「一般に、女性は男性に比較して自動車の記憶力が悪い」）が蔓延している。これらのステレオタイプが自分に当てはまるかどうかを誰もが敏感に察知すると同時に、自分に当てはまるステレオタイプと一致した行動を示すかどうかについても、常に他者から観察され、評価されるという不安に直面し、自らの潜在的パフォーマンスの発現を妨げている。本研究では、実験参加者を女性だけに限定した上で、このようなステレオタイプを実験的に除去することにより、各自が最大限のパフォーマンスを発揮できる可能性のあることを明らかにした。