Five-to-Nine-Year Old Children’s Preferential Attention To and Memory For Stereotypical Information about Social Status

Presenter

Delaney Lyn Sherman

Campus

UMass Amherst

Sponsor

Tara Marissa Mandalaywala, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, UMass Amherst

Schedule

Session 5, 3:30 PM - 4:15 PM [Schedule by Time][Poster Grid for Time/Location]

Location

Poster Board A78, Campus Center Auditorium, Row 4 (A61-A80) [Poster Location Map]

Abstract

Racial stereotypes regarding social status become apparent early in life. Many 3.5-year-olds believe that White people hold more prestigious occupations (Bigler et al., 2003) than Black people. To unpack the cognitive mechanisms that contribute to the maintenance of racial stereotypes in children ages 5-9, this ongoing study investigates whether children who express racial stereotypes pertaining to social status display confirmation bias, as represented by preferential attention and boosted memory for information that confirms these stereotypes. Five-to-nine-year-old participants (N = 101, expected N = 140, M_age = 7.79) engaged in three tasks. The first was a change detection task, where participants’ average reaction time (RT) to detect differences near stereotype-consistent versus stereotype-inconsistent stimuli were recorded; smaller RTs indicated preferential attention. The second task measured racial stereotype expression, and the third task assessed participants' memory for stereotype-consistent vs. inconsistent information . Preliminary analyses suggest that children (ages 5-7.67) who expressed greater racial stereotypes paid more attention to changes near stereotype-consistent information (SE = 0.25, p < .05), but displayed reduced memory for stereotype-consistent information (SE = 0.04, p < .05).  The discrepancy between attention and memory may be explained by the acknowledgement that these distinct systems do not necessarily operate in tandem. An understanding of how these systems tend to the expression and maintenance of racial stereotypes is necessary in order to develop effective intervention strategies that reduce the formation and strength of stereotypes across development.

Keywords

confirmation bias, racial stereotypes, cognitive development, social psychology

Research Area

Psychology and Behavioral Sciences

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