Effects of group membership and identification on categorization and subtyping in memory

Abstract

A meta-analysis (N=229) was performed to test effects of group membership and identification on the use of (sub)categories across five of our own experiments. In each experiment a name matching paradigm was used to investigate the extent to which (sub)categories were used to organize social information in memory. Four subcategories (male students, female students, male teachers, female teachers) were available to categorize the stimulus persons, as a result of crossing sex and academic status. Comparing findings over studies yielded (a) a strong tendency to use subtypes to organize social information in memory; (b) no support for the prediction of stronger subtyping of ingroup members than of outgroup members; (c) support for the prediction that subjects high on identification with own-sex group would use subtypes within gender categories to a lesser extent than subjects low on identification with own-sex. (d) In addition, it appeared that sex and academic status were used as independent overall categorizations as well, although superordinate categorization effects were caused for a large part (75–87 per cent) by name-confusions within subcategories, which suggests a preference for the use of subtypes over superordinate categories. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.