Educating the Educator: Applying a Growth Mindset Approach to Prepare Educators for Major Changes in Occupational Therapy Education

Several necessary shifts have been proposed in occupational therapy education, including antiracist pedagogies, inclusive teaching, competency-based education, and holistic admissions. These shifts are intended to prepare competent practitioners who serve diverse groups of clients and advocate for themselves and the profession. This shift may also call for significant changes to curriculum designs and instructional methods. Such changes require not only time, effort, and resources, but also a mindset open to change. Educators may resist this change for various reasons, including personal views on the proposed changes, limited time and resources, professional obligations, and lack of training necessary for successful implementation of change. Fostering a growth mindset for educators may facilitate accepting, implementing, or transitioning to new educational practices. Here, we propose an eight-step model for implementing change while following Kotter's model for implementing major changes. The model provides a road map for implementing major changes at various levels of systems that shape occupational therapy education.

A single-session growth mindset intervention among Chinese junior secondary school students

Brief, low-cost growth mindset interventions improving academic-related outcomes can be valuable. However, less is known regarding their effectiveness on learning motivation, behaviors, and academic performance in non-Western cultures like China. This study aimed to examine the effects of a single-session growth mindset intervention on Chinese junior secondary students during the COVID-19 pandemic. We recruited 618 Chinese junior secondary school students from two schools and cluster-randomly assigned them to be the intervention school (n = 311) or the control school (n = 307). Data was collected during the fall semester of 2019 and the spring semester of 2020. Compared with the control school, students in the intervention school reported stronger growth mindset (partial η2 = 0.02, p < .001), academic self-efficacy (partial η2 = 0.02, p < .001), study engagement (partial η2 = 0.01, p = .041), and improved Chinese performance (partial η2 = 0.07, p < .001), with lower helpless attributions (partial η2 = 0.03, p < .001) over time. The intervention had direct and indirect effects (i.e., via the growth mindset) on helpless attributions and academic self-efficacy, with an indirect effect on study engagement.The results support the effectiveness of the brief growth mindset intervention.

Do Performance Goals and Fixed Mindset Explicate the Relations Between Stereotype Threat and Achievement? Examining Differences Between Racially Marginalized and White Students in STEM

This study examined whether performance goal orientations and mindset beliefs explicate the negative relation of ethnic stereotype threat with achievement and whether these processes vary depending on students' membership in a historically minoritized group. Multigroup analyses of undergraduate chemistry students (N = 1,376) indicated that perceived ethnic stereotype threat was associated with lower achievement regardless of whether students were from underrepresented minority groups (URM). For URM students, compared to White students, ethnic stereotype threat more strongly predicted performance-avoidance goals. Further, fixed mindset beliefs moderated the relation of ethnic stereotype threat with performance goals for White students only. The relations of stereotype threat with performance goals were stronger for White students with a greater fixed mindset. Findings imply that while ethnic stereotype threat has the potential to detrimentally impact both URM and White students, motivational beliefs may exert somewhat distinct influences within each group, shaping the outcomes of stereotype threat.

Students Who Perceive Instructors to Have a Fixed Mindset Report a Greater Sense of Academic Misfit That Leads to Lower Chemistry Grades

Student mindset beliefs about the malleability of intelligence have been linked to student outcomes. However, recent meta-analyses showed mixed findings on how student mindset impacts their outcomes depending on the environment and context, such as the mindset that the instructor projects in the classroom. The current work utilizes Social Cognitive Theory to elucidate the relationship among student perceptions of faculty mindset, affective factors (belonging, self-efficacy, and utility value), and behavioral factors (course grade) using a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) lens within the chemistry context at a demographically diverse institution. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) path analysis revealed that student perceptions of the instructor mindset did not directly predict chemistry course grades. However, a significant indirect effect, mediated by students' sense of academic misfit, was detected. The more students perceived instructors to endorse a fixed mindset, the more academic misfits they reported in their courses, which led to lower chemistry grades. ACT math scores (indicators of prior preparation) unsurprisingly had significant direct and indirect impact on chemistry course grades. Additionally, multigroup moderation analysis revealed that regression pathways did not differ based on race, gender, or age group. While this work highlights the benefit of instructors promoting a healthy learning environment that projects a growth mindset to students, this must be coupled with institutional support to help build foundational knowledge to prepare students for the rigor of chemistry courses and increase the chance of success for all students.

Effects of a Parent-Child Single-Session Growth Mindset Intervention on Adolescent Depression and Anxiety Symptoms: Protocol of a 3-Arm Waitlist Randomized Controlled Trial

BACKGROUND

Depression and anxiety are common mental health problems among adolescents worldwide. Extant research has found that intelligence, emotion, and failure-is-debilitating beliefs (fixed mindsets) are closely related to more depression and anxiety symptoms, hopelessness, and suicidality. Recent research also points to the importance of parental mindset, which can strongly influence children's affect, behavior, and mental health. However, the effects of parent-child mindset interventions on a child's internalizing problems have not yet been empirically examined. As recent evidence has shown the promise of single-session interventions in reducing and preventing youth internalizing problems, this study develops and examines a parent and child single-session intervention on mindsets of intelligence, failure, and emotion (PC-SMILE) to tackle depression and anxiety in young people.

OBJECTIVE

Using a 3-arm randomized controlled trial, this study will examine the effectiveness of PC-SMILE in reducing depression and anxiety symptoms among children. We hypothesize that compared to the waitlist control group, the PC-SMILE group and child single-session intervention on mindsets of intelligence, failure, and emotion (C-SMILE) group will significantly improve child depression and anxiety (primary outcome) and significantly improve secondary outcomes, including children's academic self-efficacy, hopelessness, psychological well-being, and parent-child interactions and relationships, and the PC-SMILE is more effective than the C-SMILE.

METHODS

A total of 549 parent-child dyads will be recruited from 8 secondary schools and randomly assigned to either the PC-SMILE intervention group, the C-SMILE intervention group, or the no-intervention waitlist control group. The 45-minute interventions include parent-version and child-version. Both parents and students in the PC-SMILE group receive the intervention. Students in C-SMILE group receive intervention and their parents will receive intervention after all follow-up ends. Students in 3 groups will be assessed at 3 time points, baseline before intervention, 2 weeks post intervention, and 3 months post intervention, and parents will be assessed in baseline and 3-month follow-up. The intention-to-treat principle and linear-regression-based maximum likelihood multilevel models will be used for data analysis.

RESULTS

Recruitment started in September 2023. The first cohort of data collection is expected to begin in May 2024 and the second cohort will begin in September 2024. The final wave of data is expected to be collected by the end of the first quarter of 2025. The results are expected to demonstrate improved anxiety and depression among students assigned to the intervention condition, as well as the secondary outcomes compared to those in the control group. The efficacy and effectiveness of the intervention will be discussed.

CONCLUSIONS

This study is the first attempt to develop a web-based single-session intervention for students and their parents to enhance their well-being in Hong Kong and beyond, which potentially contributes to providing evidence-based recommendations for the implementation of brief digital parent-child interventions.

INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID)

PRR1-10.2196/63220.

Mindsets, contexts, and college enrollment: Taking the long view on growth mindset beliefs at the transition to high school

Socioeconomic disparities in academic progress have persisted throughout the history of the United States, and growth mindset interventions-which shift beliefs about the malleability of intelligence-have shown promise in reducing these disparities. Both the study of such disparities and how to remedy them can benefit from taking the "long view" on adolescent development, following the tradition of John Schulenberg. To do so, this study focuses on the role of growth mindsets in short-term academic progress during the transition to high school as a contributor to longer-term educational attainment. Guided by the Mindset × Context perspective, we analyzed new follow-up data to a one-year nationally representative study of ninth graders (National Study of Learning Mindsets, n = 10,013; 50% female; 53% white; 63% from lower-SES backgrounds). A conservative Bayesian analysis revealed that adolescents' growth mindset beliefs at the beginning of ninth grade predicted their enrollment in college 4 years later. These patterns were stronger for adolescents from lower-SES backgrounds, and there was some evidence that the ninth-grade math teacher's support for the growth mindset moderated student mindset effects. Thus, a time-specific combination of student and teacher might alter long-term trajectories by enabling adolescents to develop and use beliefs at a critical transition point that supports a cumulative pathway of course-taking and achievement into college. Notably, growth mindset became less predictive of college enrollment after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which occurred in the second year of college and introduced structural barriers to college persistence.

Applying a synergistic mindsets intervention to an esports context

Affective responses during stressful, high-stakes situations can play an important role in shaping performance. For example, feeling shaky and nervous at a job interview can undermine performance, whereas feeling excited during that same interview can optimize performance. Thus, affect regulation-the way people influence their affective responses-might play a key role in determining high-stakes outcomes. To test this idea, we adapted a synergistic mindsets intervention (SMI) (Yeager et al. 2022 Nature 607, 512-520 (doi:10.1038/s41586-022-04907-7)) to a high-stakes esports context. Our approach was motivated by the idea that (i) mindsets both about situations and one's stress responses to situations can be shaped to help optimize stress responses, and (ii) challenge versus threat stress responses will be associated with improved outcomes. After a baseline performance task, we randomly assigned gamers (n = 300) either to SMI or a control condition in which they learned brain facts. After two weeks of daily gaming, gamers competed in a cash-prize tournament. We measured affective experiences before the matches and cardiovascular responses before and throughout the matches. Contrary to predictions, gamers did not experience negative affect (including feeling stressed), thus limiting the capacity for the intervention to regulate physiological responses and optimize performance. Compared with the control participants, synergistic mindsets participants did not show greater challenge responses or improved performance outcomes. Though our adaptation of Yeager et al.'s SMI did not optimize esports performance, our findings point to important considerations regarding the suitability of an intervention such as this to different performance contexts of varying degrees of stressfulness.

Helping students to face academic failures: Evaluation of a growth mindset intervention among primary school students in China

Students commonly struggle with academic failure. Innovative interventions aimed at improving the essential components of academic success are therefore needed. The aim of this study was to test whether teaching a growth mindset of intelligence (the belief that intelligence is malleable and can be developed) could improve students' attitudes towards failure and academic outcomes. In particular, we explored whether students' perceived parental beliefs about failure influenced the effect of a growth mindset intervention. We tested the 8-session growth mindset intervention in a sample of 1766 Chinese primary school students (age M = 10.61; SD = .99). Measures of mindset of intelligence, failure belief, positive strategies, and academic achievement were completed at baseline (T1) and 3-month follow-up (T2). In comparison to the control group, students in the intervention group reported a stronger growth mindset of intelligence at 3-month follow-up, which in turn indirectly increased their positive failure belief and inclinations of positive strategies when facing failures. Moreover, these beneficial effects of the growth mindset intervention were sustained only when students perceived relatively more supportive parental beliefs about failure. Additionally, the growth mindset intervention to some extent protected students' academic achievement from a downward trajectory at follow-up. Collectively, the findings highlight the promising effects of a growth mindset intervention on students' academic-related outcomes.

Stereotype Threat and Gender Bias in Internal Medicine Residency: It is Still Hard to be in Charge

BACKGROUND

Despite similar numbers of women and men in internal medicine (IM) residency, women face unique challenges. Stereotype threat is hypothesized to contribute to underrepresentation of women in academic leadership, and exploring how it manifests in residency may provide insight into forces that perpetuate gender disparities.

OBJECTIVE

To quantify the prevalence of stereotype threat in IM residency and explore experiences contributing to that stereotype threat.

DESIGN

We used a mixed methods study design. First, we surveyed IM residents using the Stereotype Vulnerability Scale (SVS) to screen for stereotype threat. Second, we conducted focus groups with women who scored high on the SVS to understand experiences that led to stereotype threat.

PARTICIPANTS

The survey was sent to all IM residents at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), in September-November 2019. Focus groups were conducted at UCSF in Spring 2020.

APPROACH

The survey included an adapted version of the SVS. For focus groups, we developed a focus group guide informed by literature on stereotype threat. We used a thematic approach to data analysis. The mixed methods design enabled us to draw metainferences by integrating the two data sources.

KEY RESULTS

Survey response rate was 61% (110/181). Women were significantly more likely than men to have a score indicating stereotype threat vulnerability (77% vs 0%, p < 0.001). Four themes from focus groups characterized women's experiences of gender bias and stereotype threat: gender norm tension, microaggressions and sexual harassment, authority questioned, and support and allyship.

CONCLUSIONS

Gender-based stereotype threat is highly prevalent among women IM residents. This phenomenon poses a threat to confidence and ability to execute patient care responsibilities, detracting from well-being and professional development. These findings indicate that, despite robust representation of women in IM training, further attention is needed to address gendered experiences and contributors to women's vulnerability to stereotype threat.

Enhancing mental wellbeing by changing mindsets? Results from two randomized controlled trials

Improving mental wellbeing is often targeted with behavioral interventions, while mindset interventions might be more appealing as they require less time and effort. In addition to recent experimental studies demonstrating that attributional beliefs can be changed to improve emotional wellbeing and performance, the current study examines whether a positive change in people's beliefs about stress and life philosophy enhances emotional, social and psychological wellbeing using brief educational interventions. Two parallel double-blind randomized controlled trials were conducted. Study 1 (N = 106; 62.3% female, mean age 36.0) compared an educational video about the benefits of a stress-is-enhancing mindset versus an active control video. In Study 2 (N = 136; 57.4% female, mean age 35.7), educational texts about the benefits of a stress-is-enhancing mindset and holding a life-is-long-and-easy mindset were compared to an active control text. Results of multilevel growth curve modeling showed that a stress mindset could be significantly changed using an educational video or text, while the change in the philosophies of life mindset did not significantly differ between conditions. Furthermore, none of the manipulations were able to sustain the positive change in mindset which might explain why there was no significant increase in mental wellbeing compared to control. To have a lasting effect on people's mental wellbeing, a change in mindset might need to be embodied in everyday life. Future research should investigate simple versus intensive interventions with longer follow-up time to examine whether and how a mindset can be sustainably changed to promote flourishing mental health in the general population.

Positive math attitudes are associated with greater frontal activation among children from higher socio-economic status families

Math learning is explained by the interaction between cognitive, affective, and social factors. However, studies rarely investigate how these factors interact with one another to explain math performance. This study aims to fill this gap in the literature by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to understand the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying the interaction between parental socioeconomic status (SES) and children's math attitudes. To this aim, 57 children solved multiplication problems inside the scanner. We measured parental SES by creating two groups based on parents' occupations and measured children's math attitudes using a questionnaire. We ran a cluster-wise regression analysis examining the interaction between these two variables while controlling for the main effects of SES, math attitudes, and full IQ. The analysis revealed a cluster in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), which was due to children with positive math attitudes from high socio-economic status families showing greater IFG activation when solving large multiplication problems as compared to their negative attitudes high SES peers, suggesting that they exhibited more retrieval effort to solve large multiplication problems. We discuss how this may be because they were the only ones who fully engaged in math opportunities provided by their environment.

Effectiveness of Self-Affirmation Interventions in Educational Settings: A Meta-Analysis

School and university can be stressful contexts that can become an important source of identity threats when social prejudices or stereotypes come into play. Self-affirmation interventions are key strategies for mitigating the negative consequences of identity threat. This meta-analysis aims to provide an overview of the effectiveness of self-affirmation interventions in educational settings. A peer-reviewed article search was conducted in January 2023. A total of 144 experimental studies that tested the effect of self-affirmation interventions in educational contexts among high school and university students from different social and cultural backgrounds were considered. The average effect of self-affirmation interventions was of low magnitude (dIG+ = 0.41, z = 16.01, p < 0.00), with a 95% confidence interval whose values tended to lie between 0.36 and 0.45 (SE = 0.0253). In addition, moderators such as identity threat, participants' age, and intervention procedure were found. Through a meta-analysis of the impact of self-affirmation interventions in educational contexts, this study suggests that interventions are effective, resulting in a small mean effect size. Thus, self-affirmation interventions can be considered useful, brief, and inexpensive strategies to improve general well-being and performance in educational settings.

Long-Term Effects of a Real-World Multi-Skill Intervention on Older Adults' Growth Mindset

Although there have been interventions to increase growth mindset, little is known about their effectiveness over a longer period, especially for older adults. This study with older adults investigated the long-term effects of a learning intervention that included growth mindset lectures and discussions on growth mindset. In Study 1 (n = 27), participants were tracked for one year after a 12-week intervention. We found that an increased growth mindset did not last beyond the intervention. In Study 2 (n = 71), the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted the intervention after only two months. Participants were followed up for two years, and their growth mindset at one year was greater than at the pretest (Week 0) but declined from the 1- to 2-year follow-up. Taken together, interventions incorporating growth mindset messages can increase growth mindset in the short term but may require booster sessions to retain effects, especially during disruptive life events.

Shifting the mindset culture to address global educational disparities

Educational outcomes remain highly unequal within and across nations. Students' mindsets-their beliefs about whether intellectual abilities can be developed-have been identified as a potential lever for making adolescents' academic outcomes more equitable. Recent research, however, suggests that intervention programs aimed at changing students' mindsets should be supplemented by programs aimed at the changing the mindset culture, which is defined as the shared set of beliefs about learning in a school or classroom. This paper reviews the theoretical and empirical origin of the mindset culture and examines its potential to reduce group-based inequalities in education. In particular, experiments have identified two broad ways the mindset culture is communicated by teachers: via informal messages about growth (e.g., that all students will be helped to learn and succeed), and formal opportunities to improve (e.g., learning-focused grading policies and opportunities to revise and earn credit). New field experiments, applying techniques from behavioral science, have also revealed effective ways to influence teachers' culture-creating behaviors. This paper describes recent breakthroughs in the U.S. educational context and discusses how lessons from these studies might be applied in future, global collaborations with researchers and practitioners.

Age-based stereotype threat and neuropsychological performance in older adults

The current study investigated the effects of age-based stereotype threat on neuropsychological assessment outcomes in an older adult population. Community volunteers (n = 49) age 65 and older were screened for cognitive impairment, depression, and anticholinergic medication use. Screened individuals were randomly stratified into either an ABST or a Control group. All participants were administered a broad range of neuropsychological measures of cognition as well as a self-rating measure assessing subjective concern about cognitive ability. A main effect of ABST on subjective concern about cognitive ability was supported. Specifically, individuals in the ABST group were significantly more likely to attribute their memory errors to the onset of dementia (F(1,41) = 5.334, p = .026). However, results showed no significant difference between groups on objective neuropsychological performance measures. The current study discusses the importance of considering ABST effects in the context of neuropsychological assessment in older adult populations.

Perceptions of Gender Stereotypes among Women Residents in Surgical and Nonsurgical Specialties

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this study was to determine whether and to what degree residents experience stereotype perception by gender and specialty type (surgical vs nonsurgical).

METHODS

A cross-sectional survey was sent to resident physicians across all specialties at a single academic institution in February 2021. The survey items asked whether participants believe residents, faculty, and the public expect men or women to be better physicians on a numerical scale from 1 to 7. A χ² test compared the calculated mean and standard error for each survey item. This study took place at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, a large academic tertiary care center.

RESULTS

A total of 411 (46% of total) residents participated; 13 were excluded because of nonbinary gender or missing demographic information, for a final sample of 398. Participants perceived all three groups to expect men to be better physicians than women. Regression analysis showed a significant effect of gender on stereotype perception, with women reporting stronger stereotype perceptions than men. There were no significant differences in stereotype perceptions by specialty type.

CONCLUSIONS

Women resident physicians in both surgical and nonsurgical fields reported higher levels of gender stereotype perception compared with men, making it imperative that graduate medical education leadership support changes to the current learning environment.

Social identity and racial disparities in science literacy

Research on African-Americans' relationship with science, while relatively sparse, in general suggests higher levels of alienation than among their White counterparts, whether in the form of less positive attitudes to science, or lower scientific literacy. In this article, we leverage social identity theory to examine the role of racial social identity and ingroup evaluation as putative mechanisms that produce these disparities. We use data from the General Social Survey, pooled over three waves, as the basis for our investigation. The results of the analysis indicate that, when controlling for other covariates, there is no statistically significant difference in the effect of racial self-identification on science knowledge among African-Americans and Whites. However, we provide evidence that the effect of favourable ingroup evaluation on science knowledge differs in these two groups, being more positive for African-Americans compared to Whites.

Race, academic achievement and the issue of inequitable motivational payoff

As racial inequities continue to pervade school systems around the world, further research is necessary to understand the factors undergirding this pressing issue. Here across three studies conducted in the United States (N = 8,293), we provide evidence that race-based differences in student achievement do not stem from a lack of motivation among Black, Latinx and Indigenous (BLI) students, but a lack of equitable motivational payoff. Even when BLI and non-BLI students have the same levels of motivation, BLI students still receive maths grades that are an average of 9% lower than those of their non-BLI peers (95% confidence interval 7 to 11%). This pattern was not explained by differences in students' aptitude, effort or prior achievement but was instead linked to teachers' diminished expectations for their BLI students' academic futures. We conclude by discussing statistical power limitations and the implications of the current findings for how researchers consider the sources of, and solutions for, educational inequity.

A Pre-Implementation Enhancement Strategy to Increase the Yield of Training and Consultation for School-Based Behavioral Preventive Practices: a Triple-Blind Randomized Controlled Trial

As the most common setting where youth access behavioral healthcare, the education sector frequently employs training and follow-up consultation as cornerstone implementation strategies to promote the implementation of evidence-based practices (EBPs). However, these strategies alone are not sufficient to promote desirable implementation (e.g., intervention fidelity) and youth behavioral outcomes (e.g., mitigated externalizing behaviors). Theory-informed pragmatic pre-implementation enhancement strategies (PIES) are needed to prevent the lackluster outcomes of training and consultation. Specifically, social cognitive theory explicates principles that inform the design of PIES content and specify mechanisms of behavior change (e.g., "intentions to implement" (ITI)) to target increasing providers' responsiveness to training and consultation. This triple-blind parallel randomized controlled trial preliminarily examined the efficacy of a pragmatic PIES based on social cognitive theories (SC-PIES) to improve implementation and youth behavioral outcomes from universal preventive EBPs in the education sector. Teachers from a diverse urban district were recruited and randomly assigned to the treatment (SC-PIES; ntreatment = 22) or active control condition (administrative meeting; ncontrol = 21). Based on the condition assigned, teachers received the SC-PIES or met with administrators before their EBP training. We assessed teachers' ITI, intervention fidelity, and youth behavioral outcome (academic engagement as an incompatible behavior to externalizing disorders) at baseline, immediately after training, and 6 weeks afterward. A series of ANCOVAs detected sizeable effects of SC-PIES, where teachers who received SC-PIES demonstrated significantly larger improvement in their ITI, intervention fidelity, and youth behaviors as compared to the control. Conditional analyses indicated that teachers' ITI partially mediated the effect of SC-PIES on intervention fidelity, which in turn led to improved youth behaviors. Findings suggest that theory-informed pragmatic PIES targeting providers' ITI can boost their responsiveness to implementation strategies, as reflected in improved implementation behaviors and youth behavioral outcomes. The results have implications for targeting motivational mechanisms of behavior change and situating preventive implementation strategies at the intersection between the preparation and active implementation stages of an implementation process. Limitations and implications for research and practice are discussed. Clinicaltrials.gov: NCT05240222. Registered on: 2/14/2022. Retrospectively registered.  https://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT05240222.

Evading Race: STEM Faculty Struggle to Acknowledge Racialized Classroom Events

Undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) classrooms are not race-neutral spaces, and instructors have the power to center racial equity and inclusion in their instructional practices. Yet how instructors think about race and racism can impact whether and how they adopt inclusive practices. We examined how 39 undergraduate STEM instructors noticed anti-Black racialized events that were experienced by students in classroom narratives. We created narrative cases that described multiple common, harmful anti-Black racialized experiences based on extant research and guidance from an expert advisory board. Instructors responded to cases by describing the problems they noticed. Using frameworks of racial noticing and color-evasive racial ideology, we conducted qualitative content analysis of instructor responses. Color-evasive racial ideology was pervasive, with most responses (54%) avoiding any discussion of race, and few responses acknowledging race or racism in more than one event (10%). We characterized six forms of color-evasiveness. This study adds to a growing body of literature indicating that color-evasion is pervasive in STEM culture. Instructors would benefit from professional development that specifically aims to counter color-evasiveness and anti-Blackness in teaching. Furthermore, STEM disciplines must pursue systemic change so that our organizations value, expect, promote, and reward the development and enactment of a critical racial consciousness.

Can an Aging Leopard Change Its Spots? The Role of Mindset of Aging on Implicit and Explicit Attitudes in Older Adults

Growth mindset of aging (MA) refers to the belief that aging processes are malleable, while fixed MA is the belief that how one ages is predetermined and unchangeable. Using experimental methods, we manipulated MA and explored its impact on implicit old-age attitudes and self-perceptions of aging. Eighty-six older adults were randomly placed into a growth or fixed MA condition. Next, we assessed implicit old-age attitudes and self-perceptions of aging. The experimental manipulation was successful in that group MA scores differed, but MA did not significantly influence implicit old-age attitudes or self-perceptions of aging. However, a regression analysis revealed a novel finding: More growth MA was related to less negative implicit old-age attitudes and more positive self-perceptions of aging. These findings are an important contribution to the MA literature, which is in its infancy.

Getting into the university track: Parents’ implicit theories about ability predict which type of secondary school their children are tracked into

The few studies about whether parents’ implicit theories about ability (ITs) predict their children’s academic success and relevant parental behavior have produced mixed results. In response, research suggested that parents’ ITs might be more important in contexts that make children’s intellectual potential salient. Therefore, we investigated the role of parents’ ITs in such a situation: After fourth grade in Bavaria, Germany, students are tracked into one of three secondary school types (one university-track and two non-university-track) depending on their grades (in mathematics, German, and basic science). First, we examined if parents’ ITs predicted whether their children achieved the required grade average for a university-track school (that requires the highest grades). Second, because not all parents whose children achieved this threshold sent them to university-track schools, we investigated among the parents whose children had achieved the university-track threshold grade average whether parents’ ITs predict their track choice. Participants were 578 fourth-graders and their parents. Parents’ educational level was controlled for in all analyses. As expected, children of parents with a more incremental theory were more likely to achieve the university-track threshold grade average. For those children who achieved that threshold, parents with a more incremental theory were more likely to actually send their children to university-track schools. This effect was moderated by grade average. These results suggest that parents’ ITs may indeed be more important in contexts that make children’s intellectual potential salient, such as tracking decisions—especially if children’s achievement raises even slight doubts about whether they will succeed.

Introducing an attitude-based approach to emotional intelligence

Emotional intelligence (EI) was originally conceived as an ability, followed soon after by mixed, competency and trait theoretical models, broadly described as emotional efficacies (EE). Several models have attempted to integrate both approaches, with different views on whether EI and EE operate in sequence or parallel. One reason for this may be that EE constructs are given the same ontological status whether they represent underlying attitudes, such as self-regard, or behavioral competencies, such as assertiveness. In this paper, it is proposed that attitudes may predominantly act as underlying antecedents of ability-EI and behavioral-EE. Five benefits of this approach are drawn out that help to address some key concerns with current models and measures of EI and EE. First, the inclusion of implicit and explicit attitudes within integrated models of EI/EE would support the dual-processing of conscious and automated processes. From this, an attitude-based dual-processing framework for EI/EE is recommended. Second, the concept of Unconditional Positive Regard (UPR) for self and others, is identified as a potential attitude that may underpin the two core pillars of intrapersonal and interpersonal EI/EE. Third, UPR attitudes would provide an ethical basis for EI/EE that may support ethical and prosocial behavior. Fourth, UPR attitudes may differentiate between the optimal and sub-optimal elements of EI/EE. Fifth, an attitude-based approach to EI/EE may be more aligned with EI/EE being developmental than are the more static ability or trait-based models of EI/EE.

Regional Gray Matter Volume Is Associated with Growth Mindset: A Voxel-Based Morphometry Study

A growth mindset refers to an individual's beliefs about the malleable nature of intelligence. It plays an important role in motivation and achievement. However, few studies have examined the brain mechanisms involved in the growth mindset. In this study, voxel-based morphometry was used to investigate the relationship between growth mindset and gray matter volume (GMV) in healthy adults' sample from 114 men and 275 women who completed the Growth Mindset Inventory and intelligence test and underwent an anatomical magnetic resonance imaging scan. Whole-brain correlation analyses showed a positive relationship between growth mindset scores and regional GMV of the medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC) after controlling for age, sex, and total intracranial volume. This result was robust after controlling for intelligence quotient. The mOFC was primarily related to reward processing, supporting the social-cognitive theory of motivation on growth mindset.

Autonomy matters: Influences of causality orientations on Chinese adolescents’ growth mindset

Growth mindset research has received global attention. However, the psychological antecedents of growth mindset remain under-explored. We propose that autonomous orientation would foster growth mindset, whereas controlled and impersonal orientations would impede it. We found support for this proposition in two studies. In a laboratory experiment (Study 1), Chinese sixth-graders primed with the autonomous orientation scored significantly higher on growth-mindset measures than those in the control group, whereas students primed with the controlled and impersonal orientations scored significantly lower. Furthermore, in a classroom intervention experiment (Study 2), using a newly designed autonomy orientation intervention, students in the treatment group showed stronger growth mindset than those in the control group, and the effect lasted for at least three months. Overall, our findings suggest that autonomy orientation is an antecedent of growth mindset and can be used to improve growth mindset among adolescents.

Testing the effects of group-affirmation in active conflict: Ukrainians' trust toward Russia

How can states with a history of recent armed conflict trust one another? Political psychology offers two competing approaches to increase trust between the publics of different countries: appealing to an overarching, common identity above the national level vs. affirming a sense of national identity. This study aims to examine the scope conditions of group-affirmation effects on trust in active conflicts by testing which group-affirmation approach increases trust towards Russia among the Ukrainian public. Distrust between Ukraine and Russia aggravates security fears and limits hope for a meaningful resolution of the bloodiest armed conflict in Europe since 1994. Hostility levels have risen dramatically between the populations of Ukraine and Russia after the events of 2013-2015. The study employs a survey experiment (between-subjects design) to evaluate these competing approaches. The survey was fielded in late May-June 2020 by a reputable public opinion research firm, the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS), based in Ukraine. The results suggest that in areas where conflict is salient, national identity affirmation can increase trust in subsamples that hold preexisting baseline levels of affinity toward the outgroup. When combined with the more anti-Russian Ukrainians however, this positive effect was cancelled out. In contrast, emphasis on an overarching, common ingroup identity did not raise trust in any subgroups. Examining the disparate effects of national identity affirmation in anti-Russian and pro-Russian regional subsamples helps specify the scope conditions of which group-affirmation can be most effective.

Explore your brain: A randomized controlled trial into the effectiveness of a growth mindset intervention with psychosocial and psychophysiological components

BACKGROUND

Although past research demonstrated growth mindset interventions to improve school outcomes, effects were small. This may be due to the theoretical nature of psychosocial techniques (e.g., reading about brain plasticity), which may not be optimally convincing for students.

AIMS

To address this issue and improve effectiveness, we developed a growth mindset intervention, which combined psychosocial and psychophysiological components. The latter adds a convincing experience of influencing one's own brain activity, using mobile electroencephalography (EEG) neurofeedback, emphasizing the controllable and malleable nature of one's brain.

SAMPLE

In this randomized controlled trial (RCT), twenty high-school classes (N = 439) were randomized to either the active control condition (no mindset messaging) or our newly developed growth mindset intervention condition (4 × 50 min).

METHODS

School outcomes (pre, post, 1-year follow-up) were analysed with Linear Mixed Models (LMM: variable-oriented) and Latent Transition Analysis (LTA: person-oriented).

RESULTS

LMM: students in the growth mindset intervention reported increased growth mindset directly after the intervention (post, d = .38) and at 1-year follow-up (d = .25) and demonstrated a protective effect against deterioration of math grades at 1-year follow-up (d = .36), compared to controls. LTA: we identified three mindset profiles (Fixed, Growth competitive, Growth non-competitive), with more frequent transitions from fixed to one of the growth mindset profiles at 1-year follow-up for students in the growth mindset intervention compared to controls (OR 2.58-2.68).

CONCLUSIONS

Compared to previous studies, we found relatively large effects of our intervention on growth mindset and math grades, which may be attributable to synergetic effects of psychosocial and psychophysiological (neurofeedback) components. The person-oriented approach demonstrated more holistic effects, involving multiple motivational constructs.

Empirical model of teachers' neuroplasticity knowledge, mindset, and epistemological belief system

Educational research has shown that teachers' knowledge and beliefs are two important variables that significantly affect their pedagogical practice and decisions. Relying on the premise that knowledge is superior to beliefs in a pure epistemic dimension and rooted in the previous empirical studies, we examined the hypothesis that teachers' knowledge of neuroplasticity affects their epistemological belief system mediated by mindset. Using a survey consisting of established scales about these variables, we collected data from a sample of 345 teachers. Structural equation modeling was performed to test the hypothesis. Results showed that the path coefficients (direct effects) from teachers' knowledge of neuroplasticity to their mindset and epistemological belief system were statistically significant. In other words, we found that teachers with a higher score in the knowledge of neuroplasticity had a growth mindset and a sophisticated epistemological belief system. Teachers' knowledge of neuroplasticity also had an indirect effect on their epistemological belief system mediated by mindset. This result has a conceptual contribution to the literature because it suggests that teachers' knowledge of neuroplasticity is a predicting variable for mindset and epistemological belief system. In practice, it provides us with a tool for developing teachers' growth mindset and sophisticated epistemological beliefs.

Peer-Modeled Mindsets: An Approach to Customizing Life Sciences Studying Interventions

Mindset interventions, which shift students' beliefs about classroom experiences, have shown promise for promoting diversity in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Psychologists have emphasized the importance of customizing these interventions to specific courses, but there is not yet a protocol for doing so. We developed a protocol for creating customized "peer-modeled" mindset interventions that elicit advice from former students in videotaped interviews. In intervention activities, clips from these interviews, in which the former students' stories model the changes in thinking about challenge and struggle that helped them succeed in a specific course, are provided to incoming life sciences students. Using this protocol, we developed a customized intervention for three sections of Introductory Biology I at a large university and tested it in a randomized controlled trial (N = 917). The intervention shifted students' attributions for struggle in the class away from a lack of potential to succeed and toward the need to develop a better approach to studying. The intervention also improved students' approaches to studying and sense of belonging and had promising effects on performance and persistence in biology. Effects were pronounced among first-generation college students and underrepresented racial/ethnic minority students, who have been historically underrepresented in the STEM fields.

A perspective on computational research support programs in the library: More than 20 years of data from Stanford University Libraries

Presentation of data is a major component to academic research. However, programming languages, computational tools, and methods for exploring and analyzing data can be time consuming and frustrating to learn and finding help with these stages of the broader research process can be daunting. In this work, we highlight the impacts that computational research support programs housed in library contexts can have for fulfilling gaps in student, staff, and faculty research needs. The archival history of one such organization, Software and Services for Data Science (SSDS) in the Stanford University Cecil H. Green Library, is used to outline challenges faced by social sciences and humanities researchers from the 1980s to the present day. To compliment this history, participation metrics from consulting services (1999–2021) and workshops (2000–2021) are presented along with updated workshop participant feedback forms ( n = 99) and further illustrate the profound impacts that these services can have for helping researchers succeed. Consulting and workshop metrics indicate that SSDS has supported at least 27,031 researchers between 1999 and 2021 (average of more than 1175 per year). A t-test on the feedback form data indicates that participant knowledge in workshops statistically significantly increased more than one scale point from workshop start to completion. Results also indicate that despite our successes, many past challenges continue to present barriers regardless of exponential advances in computing, teaching, and learning—specifically around learning to access data and learning the software and tools to use it. We hope that our story helps other institutions understand how indispensable computational research support is within the library.

The online mindset intervention 'The Growth Factory' for adolescents with intellectual disabilities: moderators and mediators

BACKGROUND

The online mindset intervention The Growth Factory (TGF) has shown promising effects-increasing growth mindsets and perseverance and decreasing mental health problems among youth with intellectual disabilities (ID). Studying moderators and mediators of intervention effects is essential to elucidate for whom and why TGF works. Using a randomised controlled trial design, we examined youth's baseline mindset, gender, age, level of ID and intervention satisfaction as moderators of TGF effects and examined whether the intervention effects of TGF on improvements in mental health were mediated by perseverance.

METHODS

The sample consisted of 119 participants with mild to borderline ID (Mage  = 15.83; SD = 2.23), randomly assigned to the intervention (n = 60) or passive control group (n = 59). Participants reported mindsets, perseverance, internalising, externalising, attention and total mental health problems at pre-test, at post-test and at 3-month follow-up. Additionally, youth in the intervention group graded their satisfaction with a score at the end of each session.

RESULTS

Findings indicated that the effectiveness of TGF was not affected by participants' baseline mindsets, age and ID level. TGF was more effective in reducing internalising problems in girls and increasing perseverance in boys. In addition, in the intervention group TGF was more effective in improving internalising, externalising and total mental health problems for youth who reported higher levels of intervention satisfaction at post-test. Finally, TGF indirectly decreased internalising and externalising problems at follow-up through improvements in perseverance reported at post-test.

CONCLUSIONS

TGF offers a universal, 'add-on' mindset intervention complementing usual care programmes. It improves mindsets, perseverance and mental health in youth with ID. Both practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

The Impact of Self-Disclosure and Strategies for Communication Competence on Professors' Perceptions and Evaluations of Students Who Do and Do Not Stutter

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of self-disclosure and strategies for communication competence on perceptual ratings and performance evaluations of undergraduate students who do and do not stutter by professors who require oral presentations.

METHOD

Two hundred thirty-eight college instructors who require oral presentations in their classes participated in this study. Each participant viewed one video of six possible randomized conditions varying according to the presence and disclosure of stuttering (i.e., fluent, stuttering, stuttering + disclosure) and level of communication competence (i.e., high vs. low). Participants evaluated public speaking performance against a standardized rubric and rated the student along 16 personality traits.

RESULTS

Results of separate 2 × 3 analyses of variance revealed that professors perceived a student who disclosed stuttering, compared to the identical video without disclosure, more positively overall. Significant interactions between fluency (i.e., presence vs. absence of stuttering vs. disclosure of stuttering) and communication competence (i.e., high vs. low) were found for overall performance evaluation scores. The video during which the student disclosed stuttering and presented with low communication competence was given a higher score than the identical video without disclosure.

CONCLUSIONS

Professors respond positively to both strategies for high communication competence and self-disclosure. High communication competence behaviors mitigate positive feedback bias. Disclosure results in improved positive perceptions across levels of communication competence. For students presenting with low communication competence, disclosure may improve evaluation of performance in oral presentations. The greatest perceptual and evaluative benefits were achieved with the combination of the two strategies.

Why Students Struggle in Undergraduate Biology: Sources and Solutions

Students' perceptions of challenges in biology influence performance outcomes, experiences, and persistence in science. Identifying sources of student struggle can assist efforts to support students as they overcome challenges in their undergraduate educations. In this study, we characterized student experiences of struggle by 1) quantifying which external factors relate to perceptions of encountering and overcoming struggle in introductory biology and 2) identifying factors to which students attribute their struggle in biology. We found a significant effect of Course, Instructor, and Incoming Preparation on student struggle, in which students with lower Incoming Preparation were more likely to report struggle and the inability to overcome struggle. We also observed significant differences in performance outcomes between students who did and did not encounter struggle and between students who did and did not overcome their struggle. Using inductive coding, we categorized student responses outlining causes of struggle, and using axial coding, we further categorized these as internally or externally attributed factors. External sources (i.e., Prior Biology, COVID-19, External Resources, Classroom Factors) were more commonly cited as the reason(s) students did or did not struggle. We conclude with recommendations for instructors, highlighting equitable teaching strategies and practices.

A synergistic mindsets intervention protects adolescents from stress

Social-evaluative stressors-experiences in which people feel they could be judged negatively-pose a major threat to adolescent mental health1-3 and can cause young people to disengage from stressful pursuits, resulting in missed opportunities to acquire valuable skills. Here we show that replicable benefits for the stress responses of adolescents can be achieved with a short (around 30-min), scalable 'synergistic mindsets' intervention. This intervention, which is a self-administered online training module, synergistically targets both growth mindsets4 (the idea that intelligence can be developed) and stress-can-be-enhancing mindsets5 (the idea that one's physiological stress response can fuel optimal performance). In six double-blind, randomized, controlled experiments that were conducted with secondary and post-secondary students in the United States, the synergistic mindsets intervention improved stress-related cognitions (study 1, n = 2,717; study 2, n = 755), cardiovascular reactivity (study 3, n = 160; study 4, n = 200), daily cortisol levels (study 5, n = 118 students, n = 1,213 observations), psychological well-being (studies 4 and 5), academic success (study 5) and anxiety symptoms during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdowns (study 6, n = 341). Heterogeneity analyses (studies 3, 5 and 6) and a four-cell experiment (study 4) showed that the benefits of the intervention depended on addressing both mindsets-growth and stress-synergistically. Confidence in these conclusions comes from a conservative, Bayesian machine-learning statistical method for detecting heterogeneous effects6. Thus, our research has identified a treatment for adolescent stress that could, in principle, be scaled nationally at low cost.

Critical Faculty and Peer Instructor Development: Core Components for Building Inclusive STEM Programs in Higher Education

First-generation college students and those from ethnic groups such as African Americans, Latinx, Native Americans, or Indigenous Peoples in the United States are less likely to pursue STEM-related professions. How might we develop conceptual and methodological approaches to understand instructional differences between various undergraduate STEM programs that contribute to racial and social class disparities in psychological indicators of academic success such as learning orientations and engagement? Within social psychology, research has focused mainly on student-level mechanisms surrounding threat, motivation, and identity. A largely parallel literature in sociology, meanwhile, has taken a more institutional and critical approach to inequalities in STEM education, pointing to the macro level historical, cultural, and structural roots of those inequalities. In this paper, we bridge these two perspectives by focusing on critical faculty and peer instructor development as targets for inclusive STEM education. These practices, especially when deployed together, have the potential to disrupt the unseen but powerful historical forces that perpetuate STEM inequalities, while also positively affecting student-level proximate factors, especially for historically marginalized students.

Fixed Intelligence Mindset, Self-Esteem, and Failure-Related Negative Emotions: A Cross-Cultural Mediation Model

A growing body of literature supports that fixed intelligence mindset promotes the emergence of maladaptive emotional reactions, especially when self-threat is imminent. Previous studies have confirmed that in adverse academic situations, students endorsing fixed intelligence mindset experience higher levels of negative emotions, although little is known about the mechanisms through which fixed intelligence mindset exerts its influence. Thus, the present study (N_total = 398) proposed to investigate self-esteem as a mediator of this relationship in two different cultural contexts, in Hungary and the United States. Structural equation modeling revealed that self-esteem fully mediated the relationship between fixed intelligence mindset and negative emotions. Furthermore, results of the invariance testing conferred preliminary evidence for the cross-cultural validity of the mediation model. These findings suggest that, students adhering to fixed intelligence beliefs tend to experience greater self-esteem loss when experiencing academic failure, which leads to higher levels of negative emotions.

Alien Intelligence Research Institute: a Perspective-Taking Activity for a Nuanced View on Traits and a Growth Mindset

Instructors can foster equitable learning environments when they communicate that they value growth and diversity and by providing opportunities for students to reflect and to engage in cross-group interactions with diverse others. Additionally, perspective-taking activities engage empathy and have been used to reduce racial bias. An activity was introduced at the start of the semester to promote a more scientifically informed view of traits and intelligence, while also encouraging creativity, evidence-based thinking, and teamwork in an introductory biology course that was taught in an online synchronous format due to the COVID pandemic. Student groups worked in breakout rooms to create a slide in a shared file describing a research plan to test for human intelligence from the perspective of an alien life form. Students had the freedom to choose their alien to have whatever abilities and intelligence they wanted. The activity was highly student-centered, with students showing through their work that an understanding of intelligence is closely linked to the methods used to measure it. In this way, the activity promoted a more nuanced understanding of traits. This COVID-era invention resulted in a successful strategy that can be used in a variety of course delivery formats to support the teaching of content, as well as to promote a growth learning mindset and inclusive education.

Why Is Murat’s Achievement So Low? Causal Attributions and Implicit Attitudes Toward Ethnic Minority Students Predict Preservice Teachers’ Judgments About Achievement

In many educational systems, ethnic minority students score lower in their academic achievement, and consequently, teachers develop low expectations regarding this student group. Relatedly, teachers’ implicit attitudes, explicit expectations, and causal attributions also differ between ethnic minority and ethnic majority students—all in a disadvantageous way for ethnic minority students. However, what is not known so far, is how attitudes and causal attributions contribute together to teachers’ judgments. In the current study, we explored how implicit attitudes and causal attributions contribute to preservice teachers’ judgments of the low educational success of an ethnic minority student. Results showed that both implicit attitudes and causal attributions predicted language proficiency and intelligence judgments. Negative implicit attitudes, assessed with the IRAP, and internal stable causal attributions led to lower judgments of language proficiency, whereas lower judgments of intelligence were predicted by positive implicit attitudes and higher judgments of intelligence by external stable attributions. Substantial differences in the prediction of judgments could be found between the IRAP and BIAT as measures of implicit attitudes.

What Characterises an Effective Mindset Intervention in Enhancing Students’ Learning? A Systematic Literature Review

In recent years, increasing attention has been paid to interventions designed to enhance individuals’ sustainable development in learning by priming a growth mindset. The current study systematically explored the characteristics of message transformation in growth mindset interventions from the perspective of teaching and learning. According to a three-phase literature search (database, prominent researchers, and backtracking references), thirty-eight empirical studies investigating the efficacy of mindset interventions for adolescents of school age constitute the sample for the current literature review. The results indicate that a supportive but not-completely-saturated learning environment paves the way to implementing a mindset intervention. The three pedagogical characteristics that ensure successful interventions are: (1) Mutual interaction among the person, the context, and the theory to generate the message; (2) Iterative processes to ensure the message is delivered; and (3) a persuasive yet stealthy approach to facilitating its internalization. The findings inspire educators to design effective mindset interventions to enhance students’ learning. Theoretical and practical implications, limitations, and future directions are discussed.

Persisting in Physics and the Physics Olympiad — Impact of Gender Identification and Sense of Belonging on Expectancy-Value Outcomes

The German Physics Olympiad is an extracurricular science contest for students. Here, they have the opportunity to compete against other talented students, can do physics outside of school, and take a first step to more engagement in the domain. Yet, female students participate in the competition in fewer numbers and are disproportionally more likely to drop out of the contest earlier than the male students.

The present study hence explored the question to which extent the German Physics Olympiad provides a threatening environment for female contestants’ intentions of persisting in physics. A total of 298 participants (28% female) were surveyed with respect to stereotype and social identity threat, as well as gender identification and sense of belonging as predictors of success expectations for and value of choosing to study physics. Success expectations and value of choosing to study physics were used as a measure for career intentions within the expectancy-value model.

The results support the conclusion that the contest presents an equally supporting environment for female and male participants. We found no gender differences in success expectations for and value of studying physics. Sense of belonging and gender identification significantly predicted success expectations but not value of choosing to study physics. Female participants in the German Physics Olympiad were also neither affected by stereotype threat nor by social identity threat in their sense of belonging or gender identification.

Empirical benchmarks for changes in social and emotional skills over time

This study provides empirical benchmarks that quantify typical changes in students' reports of social and emotional skills in a large, diverse sample. Data come from six cohorts of students (N = 361,815; 6% Asian, 8% Black, 68% White, 75% Latinx, 50% Female) who responded to the CORE survey from 2015 to 2018 and help quantify typical gains/declines in growth mindset, self-efficacy, self-management, and social awareness. Results show fluctuations in skills between 4th and 12th grade (changes ranging from -.33 to .23 standard deviations). Growth mindset increases in fourth grade, declines in fifth to seventh grade, then mostly increases. Self-efficacy, self-management, and social awareness decline in sixth to eighth grade. Self-management and social awareness, but not self-efficacy, show increases in 10th to 12th grade.

Components of engagement in saying-is-believing exercises

The saying-is-believing effect is an important step for changing students' attitudes and beliefs in a wise intervention. However, most studies have not closely examined the process of the saying-is-believing effect when individuals are engaged in the activity. Using a qualitative approach, the present study uses an engagement framework to investigate (a) components of engagement in the saying-is-believing effect; and (b) how differently students may engage in a saying-is-believing exercise. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 undergraduates in a scholarship program for low-income transfer students from community college. Analysis using inductive and deductive approaches found that students varied on the extent to which they experienced the effectiveness of the saying-is-believing effect through affective, cognitive, and behavioral experiences. The study offers examples of how people can indeed differ in the extent to which they experience the saying-is-believing effect, and the implications for designing more effective interventions. Specifically, students' positive affective experiences from seeing the larger goal of creating videos may be important components for the saying-is-believing effect to work. Behavioral experiences, such as learning soft skills, academic skills learned indirectly from the intervention, and academic skills learned directly from the intervention were accompanied by both positive affective and cognitive experiences. Findings show the importance of students' differential engagement in saying-is-believing exercises both for building more effective wise interventions and interpreting heterogeneity in intervention effectiveness.

A scoping review of stereotype threat for BIPOC: Cognitive effects and intervention strategies for the field of neuropsychology

OBJECTIVE

Abundant evidence documents stereotype threat's (ST) detrimental effect on test performance across identities and contexts (i.e., eliciting underperformance). Review of the literature shows varied aspects of both stereotyped identities and cognition are inconsistently explored across studies. Only a portion of the literature focuses on ST's impact on Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). It is important to understand and learn to mitigate ST, particularly for historically marginalized and systemically oppressed BIPOC patients. Relevance exists for neuropsychologists, who engage in activities (i.e., assessments) that may activate ST, and should be aware of additional factors impacting testing results and clinical decision making.

METHOD

Using scoping review criteria (Peters et al., 2015) and Preferred Reporting Item for Systemic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines, we reviewed literature across multiple databases (Google Scholar, PubMed, PsychINFO) on ST and cognition with a focus on BIPOC.

RESULTS

The current literature suggests that race-based ST may be implicated in underperformance for executive functioning and separately working memory. There is limited research on the effects of ST for memory, language, attention, and visuospatial skills.

CONCLUSION

Research on ST requires additional attention to establish interventions to mitigate negative effects in practice. These results provide 1) an overview of the cognitive implications of ST, 2) address the scope of this impact for BIPOC, and 3) provide possible intervention and training strategies for neuropsychologists and other clinicians to work to mitigate the effects of ST on BIPOC.