This Minority Post-Doctoral Research and Training Fellowship contains four studies to elucidate a broader understanding of the psychological complexity between black Americans and black immigrants, and to measure a construct that may serve as a mediator underlying the group differences. Study 1 will measure the effects of situational threat and salient ethnic identification on performance in blacks. Black immigrant and black American participants will be primed with either an American identity or an immigrant identity, then will take a section of the verbal GRE (Graduate Record Examination). Study 2 will measure ethnic differences in the potential mediating factor of race schematicity, and will survey race schematicity and ethnic identity in whites, black Americans, first-generation black immigrants, and second-generation black immigrants. Race schematicity is the degree to which individuals use race to encode and process information (Runkle, 1999). Black Americans and second-generation immigrants are predicted to show different levels of race schematicity as a function of differential exposure to race-related experiences. Study 3 examines the impact of priming race schematicity in black immigrants and black Americans, and measures the effect of salient race-related experience on recall and reaction time to race-related words. Study 4 will explicitly test the potential for mediation of race schematicity in the relationship between ethnicity and performance by manipulating the construct and measuring the effects of the saliency of past race-related events on performance on a section of the verbal GRE. The Fellow will perform her research and training for two years under the guidance and mentorship of Dr. Kay Deaux at the City University of New York Graduate School and University Center.
