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Memory for gender-consistent and gender-inconsistent event sequences by twenty-five-month-old children
1Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis 55455-0345.
Child Development
|February 1, 1993
Summary
Young boys at 25 months demonstrate gender schema use by recalling male-stereotyped activities better than female-stereotyped ones. This suggests early gender-based information processing in children.
Area of Science:
- Child Development
- Cognitive Psychology
- Gender Studies
Background:
- Gender-schema theory posits that children use gender concepts to process information.
- Early evidence of gender schematic processing in children is limited due to measurement challenges.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the use of gender schemata in 25-month-old children.
- To assess immediate and delayed recall of gender-stereotyped and neutral activities.
Main Methods:
- Elicited imitation was used to assess recall in 25-month-old girls and boys.
- Children recalled sequences of female-stereotyped, male-stereotyped, and gender-neutral activities.
Main Results:
- Girls showed equivalent recall for all sequence types.
- Boys demonstrated superior recall for male-stereotyped sequences compared to female-stereotyped ones.
- Boys' recall of gender-neutral sequences was similar to male-stereotyped sequences.
Conclusions:
- Findings suggest that boys, by 25 months, utilize gender schemata in information processing.
- The study discusses potential reasons for the lack of a clear gender schematic effect in girls at this age.