The activation of stereotypical knowledge

The effects of stereotypical knowledge on behaviors and beliefs have been widely examined in psychology. Early work examined the conscious, explicit expression of stereotypes. However, it has become increasingly difficult to use explicit tasks to measure stereotypical beliefs because participants often censor their beliefs so that their responses appear socially desirable. Implicit measures that indirectly measure stereotypical knowledge have recently been used as an alternative. The goal of the experiments presented in this dissertation was to assess the presence of stereotypical knowledge through an implicit measure of reading comprehension that does not reflect social desirability. Across several experiments, participants read passages in which it was likely that stereotypical knowledge would become activated. The goal of Experiments 1 and 3 was to test for activation of stereotypical knowledge. Participants read passages about protagonists described in situations in which stereotypical knowledge was likely to become activated. Following the descriptions, target sentences were presented that were either consistent or inconsistent with stereotypical knowledge assumed to be activated earlier in text. Reading times were slower on target sentences that contained information inconsistent with stereotypes compared to reading times on target sentences that contained information consistent with stereotypes. This suggests that stereotypical knowledge was activated and affected comprehension of inconsistent target sentences. In Experiments 2 and 4, a qualification sentence was added to the inconsistent elaboration section of the passages used in Experiments 1 and 3, respectively. This qualification served to explain why the protagonist would behave in a manner that was inconsistent with stereotypes. With the addition of the qualification sentence to the passages, the slowed reading times on target sentences found in Experiments 1 and 3 were eliminated. This result demonstrates that activation of stereotypical knowledge can be lessened over time and can generalize to explain how stereotypes change with experience. Results are discussed in terms of a cognitive perspective of knowledge activation in which stereotypical knowledge has no special status and becomes active under the same basic processes that govern any memory structure; that is, stereotypical information is activated due to low-level priming through a resonance process

2018 Scholars at Work Conference Program

Program for the 2018 Scholars at Work Conference at Minnesota State University, Mankato on March 30, 2018

2019 Scholars at Work Conference Program

Program for the 2019 Scholars at Work Conference at Minnesota State University, Mankato on March 29, 2019

Politics, Personality, and Poor Decision-Making? Psychological Variables’ Impact on Changing False Knowledge

We live in an era where media provide easy access to incorrect information on scientific and psychological issues that perpetuates misconceptions (e.g., autism is caused by vaccines, we only use 10% of our brain, or global warming is not influenced by humans). A theory called conceptual change has been widely used to design methods to revise misconceptions. This presentation will research of how political beliefs, the personality trait open-mindedness, and need for cognition interact with changing knowledge for false. A theory of memory will be presented and experimental results from a reading task explained that assist in changing knowledge for false, scientific, information. Audience members will find the theoretical work about knowledge change compelling and gain insight about the difficulty in presenting factual information in our current political and cultural climate

LEARN : Developing a Cognitive-based Program for College Student Success

The LEARN method stands for a series of modules that will educate MSU students to learn and apply knowledge about Listening (attention), Elaboration, Association, Retrieval, and Night (outside class time) to their college work. I am currently investigating how to best engage students in this method. Research outcomes on students at MSU, Mankato as well as a plan to administer the LEARN method will be discussed. Participants will also be encouraged to apply the LEARN method to their own teaching

Psychological Myths, Mistruths, and Misconceptions: Curriculum-Based Strategies for Knowledge Change

https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/university-archives-msu-authors/1440/thumbnail.jp

Building Communication Skills Through Hands-On Museum Demonstrations of Psychological Science

This poster presents a course activity from the Psychology department focused on building a broad array of communication skills through having students design and present demonstrations of psychological concepts to children and adults at a local children’s museum. Descriptions of the project, outcomes, and recommendations for instructors will be included

Using the Contradiction Paradigm to Assess Ageism

Ageism is an important topic in our society, considering the burgeoning older adult population. Ageism is often measured using explicit questionnaires; however, given the impact of social desirability, implicit measures of ageism have been developed. In this study, the contradiction paradigm, an implicit measure of stereotypes (Lassonde, under review) was used to measure age-related stereotypes in passages describing older adults. Participants read passages with target sentences more slowly when these sentences described behaviors that were inconsistent rather than consistent with age-related stereotypes. Participants also completed a series of self-report questionnaires measuring ageism. Results demonstrated that reading times using the contradiction paradigm were not related to outcomes on the self-report questionnaires. A comparison of the contradiction paradigm to a social desirability scale revealed that it was not vulnerable to social desirability. This confirms the contradiction paradigm\u27s use as an implicit measure of age-related stereotypes. Although there is no clear relation between the contradiction paradigm and popular explicit measures, a next important step would be to determine the point in which implicit knowledge and intentional behavioral responses interact