Sciam.com's "seminar blog" focuses on the sciences of the mind and brain. Each week, top researchers describe their disciplines' most significant new findings -- and what they, as fellow researchers, find most noteworthy in the research driving their fields.

This week the blog features research that was sponsored by the Nellie Mae Education Foundation. That research paper, entitled Reducing the Racial Achievement Gap: A Social-Psychological Intervention, which was originally published in Science magazine, details the findings of two rigorously structured field experiments that were designed to test the theory of "social identity and stereotype threat." The theory holds that, in certain "evaluative situations," when minority students are concerned that other students or teachers may hold negative stereotypes about their group’s abilities, their concern can impair their ability to perform well in those situations.

The intervention included a positive "affirmation exercise," which was designed to reduce the stress caused by this threat.

To visit - and contribute to - the blog on Scientific American's website, click here.