| It is called Stereotype threat effect that an individual experiences behavior performance decline and psychological separation,when he or she is doing domain-related tasks,facing his/her own or group stereotype threat.After suffering from stereotype threat,the individual tend to be restricted in other irrelevant tasks,which is called Spillover effect of stereotype threat.Previous studies have proved that the mechanism of stereotype threat effect——that is to say,stereotype threat diverts resources from individual’s cognitive resources and impair the executive function which is originally used to complete cognitive tasks,thus impacting individual’s task performance.Other studies also illustrate that executive function,as a high-level cognitive function,is a complex system with multiple sub-functions.The present research designed two experiments based on the integrated process model of stereotype threat effects and the research of the unity and diversity of executive functions to investigate the differences that the impact of different executive functions on stereotype effect and spillover effect.Both of the experiments use female undergraduates in science who experience the gender stereotype about math ability,which is in order to verify whether stereotype threat have impact on all three different executive functions(updating、inhibition and shifting)or not;At the same time,these two experiments explored the intermediating role played by three executive functions on stereotype threat effect and spillover effect separately.The results are as follows:(1)Compared with the control group,female subjects who experienced gender-math stereotype threat shows worse math performance and higher preference for risky behaviors,which might mean that stereotype threat effect and spillover effect do exist.(2)Stereotype threat has an impact on the updating and the inhibition ability of the subjects,while it does not affect the shifting ability of those subjects.(3)Only does the impaired updating ability explain the decline in women’s math performance;and only could the impaired inhibition ability could explain the increase in risk-taking behavior of women.Different executive sub-functions have different mediation functions on stereotype threat effect as well as spillover effect. |
