In Fig. 1 a schematic display of one trial and the EEG measurement intervals are depicted. The presentation of the fixation cross (3 s) marked the beginning of each trial. After the 3 s, the stimulus presentation started (max. 8 s) and the participants had to respond as fast and accurately as possible. Each response was

followed by an inter-trial interval of 4 s. The time during the presentation of the fixation cross served as reference interval (3 s) for the TRP calculation. As activation interval the time window from the stimulus onset until the reaction (max. 8 s) was defined. For the TRP calculation Protein Tyrosine Kinase inhibitor only correctly solved trials were used. Task-related power at an electrode i was obtained by subtracting the BIBF1120 log-transformed power during the activation interval (POWi,activation) from the log-transformed power during the reference interval (POWi,reference) according to

the formula: TRP(i) = log(POWi,reference) − log(POWi,activation). Negative values therefore reflect increases in power from reference to activation (subsequently referred to as desynchronization), positive values reflect decreases (referred to as synchronization; cf. Pfurtscheller & Lopes da Silva, 1999). For further analysis, the TRP data was aggregated from different electrode positions in the following way (cf. Neubauer et al., 2005): frontal left (FP1, AF3, F3, F7), frontal right (FP2, AF4, F4, F8), frontocentral left (FC1, FC5, C3), frontocentral right (FC2, FC6, C4), centroparietal left (CP1, CP5, P3), and centroparietal right (CP2, CP6, P4), parietooccipital left (PO3, PO5, O1), parietooccipital right (PO4, PO6, O2), temporal left (T3, T5), and temporal right (T4, T6). The midline electrodes (FZ, CZ, PZ) were not included in the analyses as the hemispheric differences were of

interest. In order to examine possible group differences between girls and boys and between the stereotype exposure groups with respect to task performance, GBA3 a two-way ANOVA with SEX and STEREOTYPE EXPOSURE as between-subjects variables was computed. The average response time (for correct trials) was 4.02 s (SD = 0.78). There were neither significant group mean differences for SEX (F(1,54) = 1.20, p = .28), nor for the STEREOTYPE EXPOSURE condition (F(1,54) = .05, p = .82); the two-way interaction was also not significant (SEX ∗ STEREOTYPE EXPOSURE: F(1,54) = .01, p = .95; no-stereotype exposure condition: Mgirls = 4.04, SDgirls = 0.91; Mboys = 4.04, SDboys = 0.84; stereotype exposure condition: Mgirls = 3.86, SDgirls = 0.79; Mboys = 4.11, SDboys = 0.63). For the analysis of solution rates similar results were found. There were neither significant group mean differences for SEX (F(1,54) = 2.94, p = .09, partial η2 = .05), nor for the STEREOTYPE EXPOSURE condition (F(1,54) = 0.15, p = .70, partial η2 = .00).