Sex stereotype effects in children's picture recognition

Children performed a 2-option forced-choice picture recognition task in which the 2 pictures presented varied the sex of the person performing an activity. During acquisition the children had been presented with pictures in which the match between the activity and the performer was consistent with or inconsistent with sex stereotypes. Additional pictures involving stereotype neutral activities also were presented during acquisition and recognition. Half of the children received verbal labels along with the pictures. The labels were expected to facilitate recognition when the picture was consistent with the stereotype, but inhibit performance when the portrayal was inconsistent, since the labels described sex-stereotyped activities. There were equal numbers of female and male children in 2 age groups, and the children were selected based on a pretest to create 2 levels of adherence to sex stereotypes. The results indicated that the labels did inhibit performance on the sex stereotype inconsistent pictures, but produced no increases for stereotype consistent pictures. An interaction involving the sex of the person pictured, sex of child, and sex-stereotype consistency revealed that males responded differentially as a function of the sex of the person pictured, while females were unaffected by this variation. Overall, the results were taken as supportive of a gender schema view of sex-typing in children.