Text Box: Cultural Contact and Cognition Minority status and the academic achievement gap: Assessment of the social, cognitive, and health markers of stereotype threat. The academic achievement gap between members of traditionally marginalized groups, e.g., ethnic minority group members, and majority group members has been shown to be both persistent and pervasive, existing at many levels of education (US Department of Education, 2005). Despite sanctions on overt structural barriers to achievement, subtle cues of marginalization (e.g., being a token minority student in a room of outgroup members) continue to persist in academic settings and have been shown to increase minority students’ stress levels (both psychological and physiological), undermine their feelings of belonging, comfort, and academic confidence, as well as directly interfere with performance and achievement. While existing research has demonstrated the impact of subtle cues of bias on the global assessment of performance of marginalized group members in stereotyped domains, little is known about the impact of social cues of marginalization on the process of learning. Further, converging lines of evidence also implicate the physiological mechanisms that may be involved in the psychological experience of threat for marginalized group members and the memory impairments associated with stress. Drawing from these lines of research, we will test whether individual cognitive processes are influenced by group dynamics at the cognitive, physiological and social levels of analysis. The findings of this research have implications for targeted interventions aimed at reducing the academic achievement gap. This research is funded by a Russell Sage Foundation (Cultural Contact) Grant awarded to Drs. Suparna Rajaram and Bonita London (Grant Years: 2007-2010). For additional information, please contact: Dr. Rajaram: suparna.rajaram@sunysb.edu Dr. London: bonita.london@sunysb.edu Suggested Readings Downey, G., Chatman, C., London, B., Cross, W., Hughes, D., Moje, E., Way, N., & Eccles, J. (2005). Navigating self and context in a diverse nation: How social identities matter. In G. Downey, J. Eccles, & C. Chatman, (Eds). Navigating the future: Social identity, coping, and life tasks. RSF Press: NY London, B., Downey, G., & Mace, S. (in press). Psychological Theories of Educational Engagement: A multi- method approach to studying individual engagement and institutional change. Vanderbilt Law Review. London, B., Downey, G., Bolger, N., & Velilla, E. (2005). A framework for studying social identity and coping with daily stress during the transition to college. In G. Downey, J. Eccles, & C. Chatman, (Eds). Navigating the future: Social identity, coping, and life tasks. RSF Press: NY Blumen, S., & Rajaram, S. (in press). Effects of Group Collaboration and Repeated Retrieval on Individual Recall. Memory: Special Issue on Collective Memory. Rajaram, S., & Barber, S. (in press). Retrieval processes in memory. Chapter to appear in H.L. Roediger, III (Volume Editor), Cognitive Psychology (in J.H. Bryne (Ed.), Learning and Memory – A Comprehensive Reference). Elsevier. Rajaram, S., & Pereira-Pasarin, L. (2007). Collaboration can improve individual recognition memory: Evidence from immediate and delayed tests. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 14, 95-100.