LEWISTON – A New York psychologist will be at Bates College today to discuss the social and psychological effects of stereotypes.

Joshua Aronson, an associate professor of applied psychology at the Steinhardt School of Education at New York University, has titled his lecture “Addressing Stereotype Threat.”

Among the topics he explores are ways to reduce the effects of stereotypes in the classroom.

His visit is part of a yearlong series of events at Bates, examining the legacy of the 1954 Supreme Court case outlawing segregation in public schools.

Aronson’s current work focuses on methods of boosting the learning and test performance of minority youth.

“Most of my work seeks to understand race and gender gaps in educational achievement and standardized test performance,” he said. Being targeted by stereotypes such as “blacks are unintelligent” or “girls can’t do math” can be very threatening, Aronson believes. His studies show that changing testing situations even subtly to reduce stereotype threat can dramatically improve test scores.

Aronson is the author of “Improving Academic Achievement: Impact of Psychological Factors on Education.”

For more information, call 786-6195.