Children's and adults' recall of sex‐stereotyped toy pictures: Effects of presentation and memory task

Gender schema theories predict a memory bias toward sex‐congruent information. The present study examined how presentation of stimuli and encoding conditions influence gender schematic processing in children and adults. One hundred and sixty 5‐ to 13‐year olds and adult males and females viewed 36 sex‐stereotyped toy pictures that were presented in a static and dynamical way. Half of the participants were asked to memorize the pictures (intentional memory) and half were not told that they would be expected to later recall the pictures (incidental memory). Weak gender schematic processing was observed only during the incidental memory task. Children and adults recalled more static than dynamic gender‐stereotyped pictures, and performance was superior in the intentional than in the incidental memory condition. Gender schematic processing was similar across the age groups. In addition, participants were more likely to recall male‐stereotyped toys. Implications for gender schema theories and education are discussed. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Preferences for and evaluation of self‐relevant information depending on the elaboration of the self‐schemata involved

Previous findings have shown that some reactions (e.g. satisfaction with feedback) are guided by self‐enhancement theory, whereas other reactions (e.g. perceived feedback accuracy) have been shown to follow predictions of self‐consistency theory. The Integrative Self‐Schema Model (ISSM) assumes that these effects should be moderated by the elaboration of the self‐schema involved: This assumption was tested in an experimental study: 72 participants received fictitious feedback on different personality dimensions allegedly based on an adjective checklist. This feedback was either consistent with self‐perceptions, more positive than expected, or more negative than expected, and addressed highly elaborated (schematic) or less elaborated (aschematic) personality dimensions. Satisfaction, feedback accuracy and interest in further information were analysed as dependent variables. The experimental results clearly confirmed the hypotheses derived from the ISSM for satisfaction and perceived feedback accuracy. A self‐consistency effect regarding perceived feedback accuracy was found only for feedback on schematic dimensions but was attenuated on aschematic dimensions. A self‐enhancement effect regarding satisfaction was found only on aschematic dimensions. This finding was reversed on schematic dimensions. Finally, interest in further information did not follow the predictions made by the ISSM. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The impact of gender schematic processing on the Self Directed Search responses of gifted and talented female adolescents

According to gender schema theory (S. L. Bem, Gender schema theory: A cognitive account of sex typing. Psychological Review, 1981, 88, 354–364), gender schematic processing not only restricts assimilation of information into the self-concept to that which is congruent with the gender schema but also restricts the individual's response patterns in that responses are based on gender schema congruence or incongruence rather than upon a complete memory search. As a result of such gender schematic processing, the response patterns of gifted and talented female adolescents on Holland's (1977) Self Directed Search (SDS) should vary as a function of their gender schema. Multivariate and univariate analyses of variance were conducted on the SDS responses of 284 gifted and talented female adolescents to test whether sex-typed female adolescents would score significantly higher on the gender congruent Social, Artistic, and Conventional dimensions while scoring significantly lower on the gender incongruent Investigative, Enterprising, and Realistic dimensions than did their cross sex-typed counterparts. The results indicated that while SDS total scores did vary significantly as a function of gender group, the direction of noted group differences failed to provide consistent support for predictions derived from gender schema theory. An alternative interpretation based on a generalization of Gottfredson's theory is discussed.     

Age-related schema reliance of judgments of learning in predicting source memory

Source memory refers to mental processes of encoding and making attributions to the origin of information. We investigated schematic effects on source attributions of younger and older adults for different schema-based types of items, and their schema-utilization of judgments of learning (JOLs) in estimating source memory. Participants studied statements presented by two speakers either as a doctor or a lawyer: those in the schema-after-encoding condition were informed their occupation only before retrieving, while those of schema-before-encoding were presented the schematic information prior to study. Immediately after learning every item, they made judgments of the likelihood for it to be correctly attributed to the original source later. In the test, they fulfilled a task of source attributing. The results showed a two-edged effect of schemas: schema reliance improved source memory for schema-consistent items while impaired that for schema-inconsistent items, even with schematic information presented prior to encoding. Compared with younger adults, older adults benefited more from schema-based compensatory mechanisms. Both younger and older adults could make JOLs based on before-encoding schematic information, and the schema-based JOLs were more accurate in predicting source memory than JOLs made without schema support. However, even in the schema-after-encoding condition, older adults were able to make metacognitive judgments as accurately as younger adults did, though they did have great impairments in source memory itself.     

Self-schemas and risk for depression: a prospective study

The role of depressive self-schemas in vulnerability to depression was explored in a longitudinal design. Five groups of subjects hypothesized to be at differential risk for depression according to a schema model were identified: depressed schematic, depressed nonschematic, nondepressed schematic, nondepressed nonschematic, and a psychopathology control. They were followed regularly for 4 months with self-report and clinical interview measures of depression. There was no evidence of risk for depression associated with schema status apart from initial mood and no interaction of life stress events and schemas. In a second experiment with the same subjects, it was shown that depressive self-schemas do not exert an ongoing, active influence on everyday information processing; instead current mood affected information processing. Remitted depressed persons resembled nondepressed rather than depressed ones. The results support Kuiper and colleagues' distinction between concomitant and vulnerability schemas, and help to clarify differences between cognitions that are symptoms or correlates of depression and those that may play a causal role under certain conditions.     

Neural activation patterns during retrieval of schema‐related memories: differences and commonalities between children and adults

Schemas represent stable properties of individuals’ experiences, and allow them to classify new events as being congruent or incongruent with existing knowledge. Research with adults indicates that the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is involved in memory retrieval of schema‐related information. However, developmental differences between children and adults in the neural correlates of schema‐related memories are not well understood. One reason for this is the inherent confound between schema‐relevant experience and maturation, as both are related to time. To overcome this limitation, we used a novel paradigm that experimentally induces, and then probes for, task‐relevant knowledge during encoding of new information. Thirty‐one children aged 8–12 years and 26 young adults participated in the experiment. While successfully retrieving schema‐congruent events, children showed less medial PFC activity than adults. In addition, medial PFC activity during successful retrieval correlated positively with children's age. While successfully retrieving schema‐incongruent events, children showed stronger hippocampus (HC) activation as well as weaker connectivity between the striatum and the dorsolateral PFC than adults. These findings were corroborated by an exploratory full‐factorial analysis investigating age differences in the retrieval of schema‐congruent versus schema‐incongruent events, comparing the two conditions directly. Consistent with the findings of the separate analyses, two clusters, one in the medial PFC, one in the HC, were identified that exhibited a memory × congruency × age group interaction. In line with the two‐component model of episodic memory development, the present findings point to an age‐related shift from a more HC‐bound processing to an increasing recruitment of prefrontal brain regions in the retrieval of schema‐related events.     

Cognitive advantage in sport: the nature of perceptual structures

To extend and clarify the nature of the perceptual processes used by sport experts to perceive schematic sport information, two experiments used schematic football diagrams that varied in structure (structured vs. unstructured) and complexity (complex vs. easy). The primary objective was to examine and characterize the nature of the perceptual structures (chunks) that are initially encoded, stored, and subsequently retrieved. In Experiment 1, compared with nonexperts, experts recalled larger perceptual structures following the initial stimulus presentation of structured stimuli only, replicating the recall findings of previous research in other skill domains. Experiment 2 used a long-term memory recognition task and a sorting task. Experts had superior recall and recognition of structured stimuli only, along with more discriminating sorting criteria of perceptual structures within long-term memory. This suggests that experts possess a highly refined semantic network or organized, structured schematic information. This research extends and clarifies the similarities between the perceptual processes of experts in sport (i.e., football) and experts in skill domains that require obvious cognitive involvement (i.e., chess). The results are discussed with reference to the perceptual and conceptual chunking hypotheses. It is proposed that sport experts' knowledge of a conceptual category enables them to retrieve elements using a "generate-and-test process."     

Associative storage and retrieval processes in person memory

In this article, a general associative storage and retrieval theory of person memory is proposed, and seven experiments that test various aspects of the theory are reported. Experiment 1 investigated memory for behavioral information that is congruent with, incongruent with, or irrelevant to a prior impression. The results indicated that incongruent events are best recalled and irrelevant events are most poorly recalled. Experiment 2 replicated this effect and demonstrated that there are systematic individual differences that are consistent with the general nomothetic model proposed. The results of Experiment 3 indicated that, relative to a baseline condition, adding incongruent items to the list increases the probability of recalling congruent items but has no effect on the recall of irrelevant items. Both effects are predicted by the model. Experiment 4 provided support for the retrieval assumptions of the theory by demonstrating that there is a systematic order in which various types of items are recalled, as well as consistent differences in interresponse times. Experiments 5 and 6 demonstrated that the model is relevant to situations in which data driven, as well as conceptually driven, processes are involved. Finally, Experiment 7 examined a special case in which the theory predicts greater recall of congruent than incongruent behavioral events. The results of all seven experiments provide converging evidence for a general theory of person memory, and they have implications for a number of issues related to the study of person memory and social judgment.     

Antimnemonic effects of schemas in young and older adults

Schema-consistent material that is aligned with an individual’s knowledge and experience is typically more memorable than abstract material. This effect is often more extreme in older adults and schema use can alleviate age deficits in memory. In three experiments, young and older adults completed memory tasks where the availability of schematic information was manipulated. Specifying nonobvious relations between to-be-remembered word pairs paradoxically hindered memory (Experiment 1). Highlighting relations within mixed lists of related and unrelated word pairs had no effect on memory for those pairs (Experiment 2). This occurred even though related word pairs were recalled better than unrelated word pairs, particularly for older adults. Revealing a schematic context in a memory task with abstract image segments also hindered memory performance, particularly for older adults (Experiment 3). The data show that processing schematic information can come with costs that offset mnemonic benefits associated with schema-consistent stimuli.     

A Comparison of Updating and Explanation as Causes of the Incongruity Effect on Person Memory

Abstract

Information that is incongruent with a prior expectancy is remembered better than congruent information. Two explanations were investigated: (a) people attempt to explain incongruent information to understand it, and (b) people use incongruent information to update their expectancies. The common assumption in these two accounts is that the additional cognitive processing stimulated by incongruent information is responsible for the incongruity effect. In this study, U.S. students were explicitly requested to engage in one or the other of these processes. Although both processes resulted in an incongruity effect, there was a positive correlation between recall of expectancy-congruent and expectancy-incongruent items in the impression-updating condition but not in the other condition; those in the impression-updating condition showed greater expectancy change.     

The influence of schemas,stimulus ambiguity,and interview schedule on eyewitness memory over time

The authors examined how a crime schema influenced the types of details witnesses recalled over multiple interviews that varied in delay before the initial interview and between subsequent interviews. Accuracy data showed that, in general, schema-irrelevant traces experienced greater decay than schema-consistent and schema-inconsistent traces after the initial interview and that delaying the initial interview negatively affected recall at the initial interview but led to less decay over subsequent interviews. Ambiguity of the crime stimulus was also manipulated. Witnesses used their schema to interpret ambiguous information and, as a result, made more schema-consistent intrusions and less correct responses and were more likely to report false memories that involved conscious recollection (using the remember-know paradigm).     

Picture memory: recognizing added and deleted details

When people are presented simple and complex pictures and then tested in a same-changed recognition test with a simple or complex form of each, d' is greater for the simple than the complex picture (Pezdek & Chen, 1982). The results of three experiments confirm the robustness of this "asymmetric confusability effect" and test a model of the processes underlying this effect. According to the model, pictures are schematically encoded such that the memory representation of both simple and complex pictures is similar to the simple form of each. In Experiment 1, a sentence was presented that described the central schema in the picture prior to subjects' viewing each picture. This manipulation exaggerated the asymmetric confusability effect; schematic processing thus underlies the effect. Results of Experiment 2 refute the hypothesis that the effect results from subjects erroneously anticipating a recall test rather than a recognition test. Furthermore, although some of the nonschematic elaborative information in complex pictures is stored in memory, it is difficult to retrieve to verify that something is missing when complex presentation pictures are changed to simple test pictures (Experiment 3). Thus, although people are able to distinguish large sets of old pictures from new distractor pictures, their ability to detect missing elaborative visual details is more limited.     

Reverse versus forward recall of script-based texts

Previous research has shown that witnesses who are instructed to recall a crime scenario in reverse order as well as in forward order retrieve more total information than witnesses who recall in forward order twice. The present experiment evaluated the hypothesis that forward recall consists of schema-based retrieval whereas reverse-order recall consists of more datadriven, non-schematic retrieval. It was predicted that more actions consistent with a scenario's schema would be recalled in forward order than in reverse order, more actions incidental to the schema would be recalled in reverse order than forward order, and more schema-based intrusions would be generated in forward order. The results confirmed these predictions. Implications for witness interviewing are discussed.     

Adult age effects of plausibility on memory: the role of time constraints during encoding.

We investigated the role of training-induced knowledge schemas and encoding time on adult age differences in recall. High-plausible (schema coherent) words were recalled better than low-plausible (schema discrepant) words in both age groups. This difference was larger for old adults than for young adults for presentation times ranging from 3 s to 11 s per word. After equating participants in overall recall (i.e., at 50% correct) by dynamic adjustment of presentation time, old adults again showed a stronger plausibility effect than young adults when recall was above criterion. In a second experiment with self-paced encoding, old adults used more time than young adults only for low-plausible pairs, yet they still remembered fewer of them. In a third experiment, both age groups preferred to imagine high- rather than low-plausible words, but this effect was more pronounced in old adults. The results indicate that, compared with young adults, old adults find it particularly difficult to form elaborative mental images of schema-discrepant information under a wide variety of time constraints during encoding. Results are discussed in relation to explanations based on age-related mental slowing.     

An experimental study of visual imagination and memory

It is shown that an irrelevant visual perception interferes more with verbal learning by means of imagery than does an irrelevant auditory perception. The relative interfering effects of these perceptions were reversed in a verbal learning task involving highly abstract materials. Such results implicate the existence of a true visual component in imaginal mediation. A theoretical model is presented in which a visual system and a verbal-auditory system are distinguished. The visual system controls visual perception and visual imagination. The verbal-auditory system controls auditory perception, auditory imagination, internal verbal representation, and speech. Attention can be more easily divided between the two systems than within either one taken by itself. Furthermore, the visual and verbal-auditory systems are functionally linked by information recoding operations. The application of mnemonic imagery appears to involve a recoding of initially verbal information into visual form, and then the encoding of a primarily visual schema into memory. During recall, the schema is decoded as a visual image, and then recoded once again into the verbal-auditory system. Evidence for such transformations is provided not only by the interference data, but also by an analysis of recall-errors made by Ss using mnemonic imagery.     

Reliance on schemas in source memory: age differences and similarity of schemas

The present study has examined the effects of source-schema-consistency, schematic distinctiveness and encoding time of schematic information on source memory of younger and older adults. Participants were administered a source memory test, in which two sources presented statements that were congruent with, incongruent with or irrelevant to sources' professions. Professions of sources were schematically similar or distinct, and they were revealed before or after the presentation of items. The results yielded that revelation of profession information before presentation of items enhanced source memory for incongruent items. Aging was associated with a general decrease in source monitoring processes. Participants who were assigned to similar-source condition and had their schemas activated before learning phase had higher source monitoring scores. Results are discussed in relation to source monitoring framework and aging of memory.     

Children's recall and recognition of sex role stereotyped and discrepant information

This research investigated the influence of differing levels of sex role stereotyped and discrepant information on immediate and delayed (one week) memory. Specifically, kindergarten and second-grade children's recall and recognition of stereotyped, moderately discrepant, and highly discrepant pictures were compared. In Study 1, a sorting procedure was utilized to determine the level of stereotyping of 34 toys. From this study 12 toys were selected as stimuli for Study 2. In Study 2, children's immediate and delayed recall and recognition was assessed. Results suggested significantly better recall of highly discrepant pictures than stereotyped or moderately discrepant pictures. In addition, immediate recall was better than delayed recall and second-grade recall was better than kindergarten recall. Similar trends emerged with the recognition task. Results were discussed with respect to the schematic processing model.This paper represents a joint collaborative effort on the part of the authors. The authors wish to thank the principals, teachers, and children who participated in the study; the child models; the student research assistants; the photographer, Martha Putt; and the statistical consultant, Joseph Kropp.     

Exhaustive and heuristic retrieval processes in person cognition: further tests of the TRAP model

The twofold retrieval by associative pathways (TRAP) model (L. Garcia-Marques & D. L. Hamilton, 1996) proposes that two distinct modes of retrieval typically underlie recall and frequency estimation. The model accounts for the simultaneous occurrence of greater recall of incongruent information and higher frequency estimation of congruent information. Three experiments provided further tests of the TRAP model. Experiment 1 manipulated cognitive load (at encoding and at retrieval) and the selectivity of the retrieval goal. Under either high load or a selective retrieval goal, incongruent items ceased to be better recalled. Experiment 2 manipulated the accessibility of expectancy-congruent, -incongruent, or -neutral episodes and found corresponding effects in frequency estimates. Finally, Experiment 3 showed that providing part-list retrieval cues inhibits recall but increases frequency estimates. The TRAP model predicted these results.     

Effects of background music on the remembering of filmed events

The use of background music within films provides a naturalistic setting in which to investigate certain issues of schematic processing. Here, the relative placement of music was manipulated such that music either accompanied a scene's outcome, and thereby accentuated its affective meaning, or foreshadowed the same scene, and thereby created expectancies about the future course of events. In addition, background music was either congruent or incongruent with the affect of an episode's outcome. When subjects were later asked to recall the series of filmed episodes, results showed that expectancy violations arising from mood-incongruent relations led to better memory in the foreshadowing condition, while mood-congruent relations led to better performance in the accompanying condition. Results from a recognition task further revealed that scenes unavailable for recall could be recognized when cued by background music. These overall findings are discussed in terms of selective-attending processes that are differentially directed as a function of background music.