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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 5, 2026

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

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

Published on: January 24, 2020

Emotion blocks the path to learning under stereotype threat.

Jennifer A Mangels¹, Catherine Good, Ronald C Whiteman

¹Department of Psychology, Baruch College, 55 Lexington Ave., NY, NY 10010, USA. jenimangels@gmail.com

Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience

|January 22, 2011

Summary

Stereotype threat hinders women's learning from math errors. Emotional responses to failure, not engagement with learning resources, predicted poor performance under threat.

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Published on: September 28, 2018

Area of Science:

Cognitive psychology
Neuroscience
Educational psychology

Background:

Gender stereotypes negatively impact women's math performance.
The effect of stereotype threat on learning from errors remains under-explored.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate how stereotype threat influences women's ability to learn from errors on math tests.
To examine the neural correlates of processing negative feedback and their relation to learning.

Main Methods:

Participants completed a math test with accuracy feedback, followed by an optional tutorial.
Event-related potentials (ERPs) measured neural responses to feedback (FRN, P3a, LPP).
Learning was assessed via a surprise retest 24 hours later.

Main Results:

Under non-threat, emotional responses to feedback did not impede tutor engagement, which predicted learning.
Under stereotype threat, heightened initial feedback salience (FRN) reduced tutor exploration.
Sustained attention to feedback (LPP) predicted poorer learning from explored material.

Conclusions:

Stereotype threat disrupts learning by increasing emotional reactivity to failure and reducing engagement with corrective resources.
Emotion regulation is crucial for stigmatized groups to overcome failure in stereotype-relevant situations.