Gender Schema Influence Analogical Gender Schema Influence Analogical Problem Solving Problem Solving

and Memory in Preschool-Aged Children.and Memory in Preschool-Aged Children.

Gender Schema Influence Analogical Gender Schema Influence Analogical Problem Solving Problem Solving

and Memory in Preschool-Aged Children.and Memory in Preschool-Aged Children.

INTRODUCTIONINTRODUCTION

Gender Schema Theory predicts that individuals should dedicate greater attention to gender-consistent than gender-inconsistent information. Previous research has found that some children show preferential recall for gender-consistent information by the age of two years (Bauer, 1993). To date, there has not been an examination of the extent to which schematic processing might affect other areas of cognition. The current work examines the effects of gender schema on analogical problem-solving and memory in 3- and 4-year-old children. We hypothesized that children would produce more analogies and show better recall in response to gender-consistent problems (e.g., a boy solving a stereotypically male problem) than gender-inconsistent problems (e.g., a boy solving a stereotypically female problem).

METHOD

Participants

12 3-year-olds (5 girls) and 14 4-year-olds (6 girls)

Materials

Stereotypically masculine and feminine versions of 4 analogy problems were created such that each problem had a male and female version.

Gender Consistent = boys solving masculine problems

Gender Inconsistent = boys solving feminine problems

Children saw and imitated solutions to 2 masculine and 2 feminine base problems.

Children were tested 3 times by different experimenters who were blind to the child’s previous exposure.

Analogy Test: Immediately after the demonstration and imitation of each base problem children were tested for spontaneous and prompted analogical transfer to relationally similar target problems.

MASCULINE PROBLEM FEMININE PROBLEM

BASE TARGET BASE TARGET

Karen Singer-Freeman & Ashley AliceaKaren.Singer-Freeman@Purchase.edu

Base Memory Test: 2 weeks after the analogy test children were provided with both masculine and feminine versions of each base problem (they previously saw either the masculine or feminine version) and asked to demonstrate. Only correct actions on correct objects were scored as correct.

Target Memory Test: 3 months after the analogy test children were provided with the masculine and feminine version of each prop used in the target problems and asked 3 questions:

Which would you like to use this time? (object preference).

Which did you use last time? (object memory)

“Show me how to play this game.” (action memory).

RESULTS Analogical Reasoning

4-year-olds produced more analogies than 3-year-olds spontaneously (80% vs. 55%) and after prompting (93% vs. 66%). After prompting, girls produced more analogies in response to gender-consistent problems than gender-inconsistent problems. Boys did not show effects of schematization in the analogy task

Base Memory TaskBase Memory Task In response to the base memory task, girls produced fewer

correct actions using correct props in response to gender-inconsistent problems than gender-consistent problems. Boys responded similarly regardless of problem consistency.

Target Memory TaskTarget Memory Task4-year-olds showed a stronger preference for gender-consistent objects (87% of choices) than 3-year-olds (60% of choices). All children showed stronger recall for objects that had been presented in gender-consistent problems than those presented in gender-inconsistent problems. Surprisingly, children demonstrated stronger recall for actions presented in gender-inconsistent problems than those presented in gender-consistent problems.

DISCUSSIONDISCUSSIONGender schema influence both analogical reasoning and object memory in 3- to 4-year-olds. We believe this is the first work to establish the effects of gender schema on analogical reasoning in children. Only girls showed schematized responses to the analogy task. This may reflect the fact that the analogies all required spatial reasoning which is stereotypically seen as a male activity. Preferential recall for actions presented in gender-inconsistent problems may reflect children’s greater interest in gender-consistent objects. When presented with gender-consistent objects, children were less likely to reproduce the demonstrated actions because they chose to play with these objects in a different fashion.

Per

cent

Boys Girls

Spontaneous Transfer

Gender-Consistent Gender-Inconsitent

Per

cent

Boys Girls

Prompted Transfer

Gender-Consistent Gender-Inconsitent

Per

cent

Boys Girls

Correct Actions on Correct Objects

Gender-Consistent Gender-Inconsitent

Per

cent

Boys Girls

Correct Objects

Gender-Consistent Gender-Inconsitent

Per

cent

Boys Girls

Correct Action

Gender-Consistent Gender-Inconsitent