A meta-analysis of children's memories for own-sex and other-sex information

Gender schema theories predict that memories will be biased toward information associated with one's own sex. Meta-analyses were performed on the association between a child's sex and memories for (1) items depicting stereotypically masculine and feminine actions, characteristics, or objects, and (2) male and female characters. Same-sex biases were evident in memories for masculine and feminine items, especially after a delay and when the memory task was recall, and in memories for male and female characters. The same-sex bias in memory for male characters was larger when the characters were not engaged in gender-stereotyped activities. The implications of these results for gender schema theories and for the preparation of educational materials are discussed.