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Memory for Gender‐Consistent and Gender‐Inconsistent Event Sequences by Twenty‐Five‐Month‐Old Children
Author(s) -
Bauer Patricia J.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8624.1993.tb02910.x
Subject(s) - psychology , developmental psychology , schema (genetic algorithms) , recall , gender schema theory , cognition , imitation , cognitive psychology , social psychology , machine learning , neuroscience , computer science
Gender‐schema theory predicts that, based on a rudimentary understanding of gender (e.g., self‐labeling), children will invoke gender schemata in the processing of information. In older children, one indication of schematic processing is differential memory for schema‐consistent versus schemainconsistent material. Due to a lack of appropriate measures, evidence of very early use of gender schemata has been limited. In the present study, elicited imitation was used to assess 25‐month‐old girls' and boys' immediate and delayed recall of sequences depicting femalestereotyped, male‐stereotyped, and gender‐neutral activities. At immediate and delayed testing, girls showed equivalent levels of recall of all 3 sequence types. Boys showed superior recall of male‐ relative to female‐stereotyped sequences; their recall of gender‐neutral sequences was equivalent to that of male‐stereotyped ones. Results indicate that, at least for boys, use of gender schemata is evident by 25 months of age. Possible explanations for the absence of a clear effect for girls are discussed.