Gender biases in children's memory for expected and unexpected objects in real‐world settings

Abstract

Children's memory for unexpected and expected objects in real‐world settings were examined in three experiments. The setting of Expt 1 reflected male interests (a doctor's examination room), whereas the setting of Expt 2 was more compatible with female interests (a beauty salon). In both studies, 6‐ and 9‐year old boys and girls viewed objects that were consistent or inconsistent with expectations about each environment. The results of the experiments showed a consistency effect in that recognition memory for unexpected was better than that for expected objects for both age groups. However, the magnitude of the consistency effect interacted with age and gender, so that older boys, but not older girls, showed an absence of the consistency effect in the doctor's setting (Expt 1), whereas older girls showed a similar pattern in the beauty‐salon setting (Expt 2). Experiment 3 provided independent evidence for the assumption that the two settings induced gender‐related biases. The findings of the study indicate that the effects of expectancies on school‐age children's episodic remembering are sensitive to gender‐related biases, and that these schematic effects may be more complex and dynamic than proposed by the general schema‐theoretic formulations of the consistency effect.