Improving memory for and production of singular they pronouns

Using singular they pronouns (e.g., Sami raised theiri hand) has become a common choice for people who want to be referred to with gender-neutral language. Although an increasing proportion of people consider singular they grammatical and know someone who uses they/them, errors are common, even among people who intend to be supportive. We argue that a substantial portion of this barrier comes from difficulty in learning to use specific singular they accurately and consistently, which little research has addressed. Experiment 1 investigated how people learn to associate pronouns with a specific person when their pronouns cannot be inferred and how this knowledge is linked to later language use. Participants were introduced to 12 characters, each of whom was associated with pronouns (he/him, she/her, they/them), a pet, and a job. We tested memory for pronouns in a multiple-choice recognition task and production of pronouns in a written sentence-completion task. Participants correctly responded that a character's pronouns were they/them in ∼50% of trials and correctly produced singular they in ∼33% of trials. Experiment 2 investigated whether two types of information-a public service announcement about gendered language and why it matters and seeing singular they modeled in fictional biographies-support learning to use singular they. We show that reading a brief public service announcement about gendered language increased the proportion of participants who produced singular they, as well as their accuracy when doing so. We discuss the relevance of these findings for linguistic theories of pronoun production, as well as informing evidence-based best practices for gender-inclusive environments. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).