Recall of related and unrelated gender-typed item pairs by young children

Aspects of 40 young children's (22 boys, 18 girls; mean age = 51.00 months) recall of related and unrelated item pairs were assessed. Children were primarily white and middle SES. Consistent with previous recall research, boys recalled significantly more pairs, and individual items from pairs, of related gender-typed items than pairs containing unrelated items. Girls recalled significantly more pairs, and individual items from pairs, of related animal items than any other types of related or unrelated pairings. Congruent with the component model of gender role knowledge development, girls showed significantly greater recall of pairs, and individual items from pairs, of same-sex feminine item pairs than other-sex masculine ones. Consistent with previous memory research examining young children's pair recall, boys demonstrated significantly better recall of pairs, and individual items from pairs, containing related same-sex masculine items than pairs with two unrelated items. These data suggest young children conceptualize gender roles as social categories to organize processing of social information.Completion of this project was partially facilitated by an Academic Challenge Award from the University of Toledo. This support is gratefully acknowledged. Special thanks to Narina Nightingale for her comments and suggestions of earlier drafts of this article, to Pamela Hassen, Kim Piper, Laura Underwood, and Shesna Power for data collection efforts, and to the faculty, children, and parents of the Loving Tree Preschool of Toledo, Ohio, and the Basic Beginnings Preschool of Laramie, Wyoming. A shorter version of this paper was presented at the meetings of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, Illinois, May 1991.