1998 |
Ambady, Nalini |
R03Activity Code Description: To provide research support specifically limited in time and amount for studies in categorical program areas. Small grants provide flexibility for initiating studies which are generally for preliminary short-term projects and are non-renewable. |
Differential Identities and Performance
The goal of this proposal is to expand the work on the powerful effects of automatic and implicit activation of stereotypes by examining whether the implicit activation of differential social identities can affect academic as well as athletic performances. In doing so, we consider both positive as well as negative stereotypes associated with different social identities coexisting within an individual. In the first study, we predict that Asian women should do better on a mathematics test when their Asian identity is activated in contrast to their gender identity. The second study will examine the prediction that Asian women will do better on a verbal task when their gender as opposed to their Asian identity is activated. The next two studies will examine a sample of Asian women ia a culture in which there is no positive stereotype for Asian proficiency at mathematics or verbal tasks. The fourth study will examine whether athletes display more physical prowess when their athletic identity as opposed to their student identity is activated. The final set of studies examine whether the effects of activating differential identities on verbal and quantitative performance can be found for samples of elementary, middle, and high school Asian girls. Taken together, these studies should make important contributions to our knowledge of how subtle activation of self-stereotypes can help or hinder performance.
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0.966 |
1998 — 2005 |
Ambady, Nalini |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Pecase: Accuracy of Thin Slice Judgements
The research in this CAREER proposal is directed towards improving our fundamental understanding of the accuracy of perceptual judgments based on very minimal information - brief `thin slices` or glimpses of behavior (such as 2-second silent video clips). Recent research suggests that people can make surprisingly accurate judgments from such slices. For example, judgments of thin slices of behavior have been found to predict important outcome variables in social and clinical psychology as accurately as judgments of thicker slices. The goal of the proposed research is to advance the field by elucidating some of the mechanisms that affect the real-life accuracy of perceptual appraisals, evaluations, and personality judgments from minimal information. The proposed work will integrate theoretical and empirical approaches from the areas of perception, cognitive science, education, communication, social cognition, ecological, cultural, and personality psychology. Specifically, the research program will explore (a) potential cognitive mechanisms that might be related to the accuracy of thin slice judgments; (b) potential affective mechanisms that might be related to the accuracy of thin slice judgments; (c) the automaticity of such judgments, (d) the efficacy and accuracy of such judgments in relation to judgments based on thick slices with considerably more information; (e) the stability of such judgments over time and across situations; and (f) the stability and generalizability of such judgments across cultures. Accuracy will be evaluated in relation to criteria that have considerable importance and ecological validity, such as indices of teacher effectiveness. The methods used to examine these mechanisms are diverse and include experimental, correlational, and meta-analytic techniques. The educational objectives of this CAREER proposal are (a) to develop courses to actively engage graduate and undergraduate students in research on interpersonal perception and communication using thin slices; (b) to design and conduct workshops to train educational and healthcare professionals in communication and interpersonal skills, and (c) to develop new assessment tools using multimedia technology.
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1 |
2001 — 2007 |
Ambady, Nalini Deldin, Patricia |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
The Cognitive Basis of Stereotype Susceptibility: a Multi-Component Erp Investigation
The categories that people use to organize their social world are known as stereotypes. Research over the past 50 years has shown that stereotypes can have a powerful influence on cognition and behavior. Even the subtle activation of a person's gender or ethnic identity can produce reliable cognitive and behavioral effects. When negative or unfavorable stereotypes are activated in memory, performance can be hindered on a variety of behavioral and cognitive tasks. In contrast, the activation of positive or favorable stereotypes can improve performance. This effect is termed "stereotype susceptibility." Although these effects have been clearly documented, not much is known about the mechanisms underlying them. This project is designed to test key theoretical propositions regarding possible mediators of the relationship between stereotype susceptibility and behavioral effects. It is proposed that stereotype activation alters flexible aspects of cognitive processing, especially attentional resources, task orientation, and working memory. To test these propositions, psychophysiological correlates manifested in tasks involving attention, expectations, working memory and orienting to particular stimuli will be examined with regard to their potential roles in stereotype susceptibility. Several ERP components, obtained by averaging the EEG activity across repeated presentations of a particular stimulus type, will be analyzed. The main objective is to integrate current social psychology and psychophysiology theory and research to gain insight into the cognitive processes that may mediate the relationship between stereotype susceptibility and behavior. The research should have important practical consequences and applications in the areas of education and public policy.
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1 |
2005 |
Ambady, Nalini |
R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. |
Nonlinguistic Dialects: Behavioral and Neural Correlates @ Tufts University Medford
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overarching goal of this application is to test a theory regarding nonlinguistic dialects. 6 sets of studies are proposed to test the hypotheses that nonlinguistic emotional dialects are (a) acquired through cultural exposure and (b) provide cues as to cultural identity. Further, (c) emotional dialects of majority group members are understood more accurately by minority group members than vice-versa; (d) emotional dialects are associated with distinct neural patterns of activation; (e) emotional dialect acquisition shows a similar early developmental trajectory to linguistic dialect acquisition, and, (f) bicultural individual is fluent in different emotional dialects will code-switch between dialects in response to subtle primes. The 12 proposed studies are designed to examine emotional communication by members of diverse cultural and ethnic groups, from Japan, India, and the United States. Within these groups, both majority as well as minority group members will be examined. Both the results and the stimuli collected for these studies involving emotions expressed in 3 different channels (the face, body, and voice) from diverse cultural and ethnic groups will be shared and disseminated to other scientists to enhance research and knowledge in this area. The proposed research should have important implications for mental health and inter-group relations. Being less able to understand the emotions being communicated by members of other ethnic or cultural groups probably contributes heavily to a lack of empathy and understanding of less familiar others as well as to inter-group prejudice and discrimination. This work has implications for diverse interactions such as in the client-provider relationships, in which members of diverse ethnic and cultural groups have to interact and sustain relationships.
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1 |
2006 — 2009 |
Ambady, Nalini |
R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. |
Communication of Emotion: Behavioral and Neural Correlates @ Tufts University Medford
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overarching goal of this application is to test a theory regarding nonlinguistic dialects. 6 sets of studies are proposed to test the hypotheses that nonlinguistic emotional dialects are (a) acquired through cultural exposure and (b) provide cues as to cultural identity. Further, (c) emotional dialects of majority group members are understood more accurately by minority group members than vice-versa; (d) emotional dialects are associated with distinct neural patterns of activation; (e) emotional dialect acquisition shows a similar early developmental trajectory to linguistic dialect acquisition, and, (f) bicultural individual is fluent in different emotional dialects will code-switch between dialects in response to subtle primes. The 12 proposed studies are designed to examine emotional communication by members of diverse cultural and ethnic groups, from Japan, India, and the United States. Within these groups, both majority as well as minority group members will be examined. Both the results and the stimuli collected for these studies involving emotions expressed in 3 different channels (the face, body, and voice) from diverse cultural and ethnic groups will be shared and disseminated to other scientists to enhance research and knowledge in this area. The proposed research should have important implications for mental health and inter-group relations. Being less able to understand the emotions being communicated by members of other ethnic or cultural groups probably contributes heavily to a lack of empathy and understanding of less familiar others as well as to inter-group prejudice and discrimination. This work has implications for diverse interactions such as in the client-provider relationships, in which members of diverse ethnic and cultural groups have to interact and sustain relationships.
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1 |
2007 — 2013 |
Ambady, Nalini |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Neural Substrates of Perceiving Status and Solidarity
Representations and impressions of relationships function as cognitive maps that allow for the successful navigation of the social world. At the most basic level, these representations and impressions include information about others' roles, status, kinship and affiliative relationships. Given the ubiquity of these judgments in day-to-day social interaction, it is important to examine the neural underpinnings of the perception of status and solidarity cues in order to better understand how the mind processes this form of social information. The central goal of the proposed work is to investigate the neural structures associated with the perception and representation of status and affiliation. In particular, commonalities and differences with other social perceptual domains will be examined. These domains include: the perception of emotions (e.g., fear vs. anger) and the non-social perceptual domain of facial symmetry. Importantly, the proposed experiments also contrast the processing of status with those of solidarity and affiliation. Five functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies will test specific hypotheses related to the perception and representation of status and solidarity. Three of these studies will examine the perception of dominance and status across sensory modalities. The remaining two studies will examine perceptions of solidarity relationships involving affiliation. Two additional studies including a behavioral and ERP study will be run to bolster the brain imaging experiments with behavioral and physiological data. Hypotheses regarding the activation of specific brain areas will be examined. This research will advance understanding of how core interpersonal relationships are perceived and represented in the human brain. In addition, this work will provide scientific training to students in an interdisciplinary field.
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1 |