Stereotype Threat Alters the Subjective Experience of Memory

International audienceThere is now evidence that negative age-related stereotypes about memory reduce older adults’ memory performance, and inflate age differences in this domain. Here, we examine whether stereotype threat may also influence the basic feeling that one is more or less able to remember. Using the Remember/Know paradigm, we demonstrated that stereotype threat conducted older adults to a greater feeling of familiarity with events, while failing to retrieve any contextual detail. This finding indicates that stereotype threat alters older adults’ subjective experience of memory, and strengthens our understanding of the mechanisms underlying stereotype threat effects.Effet de menace du stéréotype chez les personnes âgées testées pour la mémoire. Etude impliquant procédure "Remember/Know

Alien Registration- Friolet, Marie L (Bath, Sagadahoc County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/9471/thumbnail.jp

Aging and memory in context : Cognitive underpinnings of stereotype threat and psychosocial intervention

L'influence des stéréotypes en vigueur dans nos sociétés fait depuis une vingtaine d'années l'objet de nombreux travaux expérimentaux permettant de rendre compte, au moins en partie, du maintien de certaines différences entre groupes sociaux, notamment en matière de performances cognitives. Les stéréotypes défavorables à certains groupes auraient pour effet de maintenir les individus qui en sont la cible à des niveaux de performance inférieurs à leur capacité réelle, contribuant ainsi aux différences observées. Précisément, la thèse défendue revient à considérer les différences souvent observées entre personnes jeunes et âgées en matière de performances mnésiques en référence à l'intervention de stéréotypes associés au vieillissement cognitif. Les quatre études rapportées non seulement nourrissent cette thèse, mais clarifient la nature des mécanismes sous-jacents à la menace exercée par les stéréotypes en question (impact sur les processus contrôles et automatiques d'accès à la mémoire), et livrent aussi des pistes pour en réduire l'influence (via l'écriture expressive) dans les situations de test. Au total, sans nier l'idée d'un vieillissement cognitif, nos résultats invitent donc à la fois à tenir compte des stéréotypes sociaux dans l'explication d'effets sinon attribués exclusivement à ce vieillissement et à poursuivre l'effort engage pour mieux comprendre comment combattre les stéréotypes au moment même de l'évaluation des performances mnésiques.The influence of salient stereotypes in our societies has intensively been examined in the past two decades using experiments demonstrating their role in the maintenance of certain differences between social groups, in the domain of cognitive performances among other things. Negative stereotypes about social groups would maintain stigmatized individuals' performances at a suboptimal level, thus contributing to the observed differences. Specifically, the differences frequently observed between younger and older people regarding memory performances are considered in our thesis in the light of the stereotypes associated with cognitive aging. Most of our results (four studies) are not only consistent with the present thesis, but clarify the nature of the mechanisms underlying stereotype threat in the older people (impact on controlled and automatic memory access) and also deliver ways to reduce this threat (via expressive writing) in test situations. Thus, without denying the idea of cognitive aging, our results therefore invite to consider the role of stereotype threat in group differences otherwise attributed solely to cognitive aging, and to continue the effort to better understand how to combat stereotypes in test situations where memory performances are assessed

Alien Registration- Friolet, Marie L (Bath, Sagadahoc County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/9471/thumbnail.jp

The Unexpected Relationship Between Retrieval Demands and Memory Performance When Older Adults Are Faced With Age-Related Stereotypes

International audienceObjectives: In two studies, we examined the effects of age-related stereotype threat on eyewitness memory using the misinformation paradigm to (a) examine stereotype threat in the context of a more ecologically valid memory task and (b) to determine the relationship between task difficulty and susceptibility to stereotype threat.Methods: After watching a video that depicted a crime, older and younger adult participants were presented with a written synopsis in which information consistent or inconsistent with the original event was presented. Half of the participants were then presented with information designed to activate negative stereotypes about aging. Finally, participants completed a memory test.Results: In Study 1, when participants were instructed to report information from either the video or the synopsis to complete the final memory test, older adults under high stereotype threat were less accurate than those under low threat. In Study 2, when participants were required to engage in more controlled processes at retrieval and respond with only video information, older adults under stereotype threat performed as well or better than those under low threat.Discussion: The results are consistent with the Regulatory Focus Model of Stereotype Threat

Understanding Older Adults' Memory Distortion in the Light of Stereotype Threat

International audienceNumerous studies have documented the detrimental impact of age-based stereotype threat (ABST) on older adults' cognitive performance and especially on veridical memory. However, far fewer studies have investigated the impact of ABST on older adults' memory distortion. Here, we review the subset of research examining memory distortion and provide evidence for the role of stereotype threat as a powerful socio-emotional factor that impacts age-related susceptibility to memory distortion. In this review we define memory distortion as errors in memory that are associated with gist-based errors or source misattributions. Whereas, some of the reviewed experiments support the conclusion that ABST should be considered in the context of age-related differences in memory distortion, others reported little or no impact of stereotype threat. These discrepancies suggest that the role of ABST, and socio-emotional processes generally, in age-related changes in memory distortion are less clear. In this review, we argue that ABST does play an important role in age-related changes in memory distortion. We present evidence suggesting that discrepancies in the reviewed literature may be reconciled when evaluated in the context of the leading theories about stereotype threat: the Executive Resource Depletion hypothesis and the Regulatory Focus theory. We also discuss how differences in methodology and participant characteristics can account for a priori contradictory results in the literature. Finally, we propose some recommendations for researchers and practitioners when assessing memory in older adults

Highlighting and Reducing the Impact of Negative Aging Stereotypes During Older Adults' Cognitive Testing

International audienceAs life expectancy increases, aging has become a major health challenge, resulting in a huge effort to better discriminate between normal and pathological cognitive decline. It is thus essential that cognitive tests and their administration are as fair as possible. However, an important source of bias during cognitive testing comes from negative aging stereotypes that can impair the memory performance of older adults and inflate age differences on cognitive tasks. The fear of confirming negative aging stereotypes creates an extra pressure among older adults which interferes with their intellectual functioning and leads them to perform below their true abilities. Here, we present a protocol that highlights simple but efficient interventions to alleviate this age-based stereotype threat effect. The first study showed that simply informing older participants about the presence of younger participants (threat condition) led older adults to underperform on a standardized memory test compared with younger participants, and that this performance difference was eliminated when the test was presented as age-fair (reduced-threat condition). The second study replicated these findings on short cognitive tests used to screen for predementia in clinical settings and showed that teaching older adults about stereotype threat inoculated them against its effects. These results provide useful recommendations about how to improve older adults' memory assessment both in Iab studies and in clinical settings

Le rapport au corps de travailleuses du sexe francophones néo-brunswickoises d’après leur regard et celui d’intervenantes

Dans cet article, les auteures abordent les multiples perceptions du rapport aucorps des travailleuses du sexe francophones néo-brunswickoises. Alimenté par desécrits féministes inscrivant le corps et le travail du sexe dans une dynamiqueperpétuelle entre assujettissement et subjectivation, les résultats présentés dans leurarticle reposent sur des données qualitatives recueillies auprès de dix travailleuses dusexe et de vingt-six intervenantes de différents milieux de pratique. Les auteuresdétailleront les moyens par lesquels le corps peut être perçu à partir de trois axes ayantémergé des entrevues : la dépendance et l’autonomie, la honte et la valorisation, puisenfin la dégradation et la transformation.In this article, the authors address the multiple perceptions of Francophone New Brunswick sex workers’ relationship with their body. Informed by feminist writings locating the relation between body and sex work in a perpetual struggle between agency and subjectification, the results presented in their article are based on qualitative data collected from ten sex workers and twenty-six stakeholders from different practice backgrounds. They will explore the ways in which the body can be perceived in various ways with three dimensions: dependence and autonomy; shame and value; then finally, degradation and transformation.En este artículo, las autoras abordan las múltiples percepciones de la relación con el cuerpo de las trabajadoras sexuales francófonas de Nuevo Brunswick. Alimentados por los escritos feministas que inscriben el cuerpo y el trabajo sexual en una dinámica perpetua entre la subyugación y la subjetivación, los resultados presentados en su artículo se basan en datos cualitativos recogidos de diez trabajadoras sexuales y veintiséis trabajadoras sociales de diferentes ámbitos de práctica. Las autoras detallarán formas de percibir el cuerpo a partir de tres ejes que surgieron de las entrevistas: dependencia y autonomía, vergüenza y valorización y, por último, degradación y transformación

Stereotype Threat Strengthens Automatic Recall and Undermines Controlled Processes in Older Adults

International audienceThe threat of being judged stereotypically (stereotype threat) may impair memory performance in older adults, thereby producing inflated age differences in memory tasks. However, the underlying mechanisms of stereotype threat in older adults or other stigmatized groups remain poorly understood. Here, we offer evidence that stereotype threat consumes working memory resources in older adults. More important, using a process-dissociation procedure, we found, for the first time, that stereotype threat undermines the controlled use of memory and simultaneously intensifies automatic response tendencies. These findings indicate that competing models of stereotype threat are actually compatible and offer further reasons for researchers and practitioners to pay special attention to age-related stereotypes during standardized neuropsychological testing