Recall and Reconstruction of Gender-Related Pictures: Effects of Attitude, Task Difficulty, and Age

SIGNORELLA, MARGARET L., and LIBEN, LYNN S. Recall and Reconstruction of Gender-related Pictures: Effects of Attitude, Task Difficulty, and Age. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1984, 55, 393405. 2 implications of Bartlett's constructive theory of memory-better memory for schemaconsistent material and alteration of schema-inconsistent material-were tested. In Study 1, kindergartners, second graders, and fourth graders with either more or less stereotyped attitudes were asked to recall gender-relevant pictures. At all ages, highly stereotyped children recalled more traditional than nontraditional pictures, while less stereotyped children recalled more nontraditional than traditional pictures. Most reconstructions transformed nontraditional items to traditional, with more of these reconstructions being produced by highly stereotyped children. In Study 2, an easier recall task was given to more and less stereotyped first graders. Again, highly stereotyped children recalled more traditional than nontraditional pictures, whereas less stereotyped children showed no differential memory for picture type. As before, nontraditionalto-traditional reconstructions were most common, although the difference between highly and less stereotyped children was not significant. These findings, combined with those of Liben and Signorella, suggest that as task difficulty increases, memory becomes more schema consistent.