Gender-Linked Differences in the Incidental Memory of Children and Adults

• Published in: Journal of experimental child psychology Vol. 72; no. 4; pp. 305 - 328
• Main Authors: Cherney, Isabelle D., Ryalls, Brigette Oliver
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: San Diego, CA Elsevier Inc 01.04.1999; Elsevier; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Adult; Adults; Age Differences; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Child development; Child psychology; Child, Preschool; Children; Children & youth; Cognition & reasoning; Cognitive Development; Developmental psychology; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; gender differences; Gender Issues; Gender Schema Theory; Humans; hunter–gatherer theory; Incidental Memory; location memory; Male; Memory; Memory - physiology; memory development; object memory; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Schemata (Cognition); Sex Differences; Sex Factors; Sexes; Speech - physiology; Theories; location memory; object memory; hunter–gatherer theory; incidental memory; cognitive development; memory development; gender differences; gender-schema theory; Human; Preschool age; Incidental learning; Acquisition process; Memory; Sex; Adult; Cognitive development; Experimental study; Child; Spatial memory
• ISSN: 0022-0965; 1096-0457
• DOI: 10.1006/jecp.1999.2492

The hunter–gatherer theory (M. Eals & I. Silverman, 1994,Ethology and Sociobiology,15, 95–105) predicts that females should have better incidental memory for objects and locations than males. We tested this prediction with 3- to 6-year-old children (Study 1) and adults (Study 2). In Study 1, 80 children were asked to recognize 18 gender-stereotyped toys which they had previously seen in a playroom for 2 min. In Study 2, 40 adults were asked to recall the identity and location of 30 gender-stereotyped objects which they had previously seen in an office for 2 min. Analyses in both studies indicated that females and males remembered more toys or objects congruent with their own sex but that there was no overall advantage for females. Implications for the hunter–gatherer theory, gender-schema theory, and our understanding of the development of incidental memory are discussed.