Journal of Research in Childhood Education

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Gender Schema and Prejudicial Recall: How

Children Misremember, Fabricate, and Distort
Gendered Picture Book Information

Timothy J. Frawley

To cite this article: Timothy J. Frawley (2008) Gender Schema and Prejudicial Recall: How
Children Misremember, Fabricate, and Distort Gendered Picture Book Information, Journal of
Research in Childhood Education, 22:3, 291-303, DOI: 10.1080/02568540809594628

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Journal of Research in Childhood Education Copyright 2008 by the Association for
2008, Vol. 22, No. 3 Childhood Education International
0256-8543/08

Gender Schema and Prejudicial Recall:

How Children Misremember, Fabricate,
and Distort Gendered Picture Book Information

Timothy J. Frawley
Mercyhurst College

Abstract. Children’s perceptions of gender are greatly influenced by the illustra-

tions/text they encounter in picture books. While transacting with authentic
literature, children build gender schema that guide processing of subsequent
information. This knowledge can bias memory to a point where children misre-
member or distort information to make it fit their existing schema. Elementary
school children were presented two Caldecott Award-winning picture books and
asked to retell the stories and answer criterion-specific questions related to gen-
der-consistent/inconsistent information contained in each story. Responses were
qualitatively examined and revealed patterns of spurious recall. Children tended
to misremember or distort gender-inconsistent story information. Story retellings
included wrongful stereotyped interpretation of main character(s) behaviors and
emotions. Follow-up interview questions revealed rationales for any misremem-
brance and generated responses consistent with gender bias. The influence of
stereotypes and implications for teachers are discussed.

Picture books often provide very young
children with some of their earliest percep-
tions of gender, race, and class—creating a
stockpile of images for “children’s mental
museums.” And since they are read by those
held in high regard (i.e., parents and teach-
ers), these perceptions make “deep and last-
ing impressions” that are often unaffected by
later experience (Spitz, 1999). How children
view the world and their awareness about
gender are greatly influenced by stereo-
typed images and words they see and hear
in children’s literature. While stereotypes
are part of a mental schematic structure
that help children organize, process, and
understand their social environment in a
reliable and predictable manner, they can
also negatively impact how children perceive
their education, occupational, and social role
options in life (Hughes & Seta, 2003).
Early studies (Czaplinski, 1972; Nilsen,
1971; Weitzman, Eifler, Hokada, & Ross,
1972) of Caldecott Award-winning and other
award-winning children’s picture books
revealed substantial inequitable represen-
tation of the sexes, as well as more blatant
portrayals of gender stereotypes. While
more recent studies (Alp, 1996; Davis &
McDaniel, 1999; Dougherty & Engel, 1987;
Gooden & Gooden, 2001; Hamilton, Ander-
son, Broaddus, & Young, 2006; Prentice,
1986) demonstrate that while they are not
quite as prevalent, gender stereotypes do
still exist—and, as such, continue to mise-
ducate boys as well as girls.
But what they bring to the picture book
reading also influences how children obtain
meaning from it. One prevalent model of
describing this constructive process is that
of schema theory. Schemes or schemata
are “organizational frameworks” or “inter-
nalized social constructs” that change and
develop, based on one’s experiences, and that
affect the way an individual comprehends
the world (Peterson & Lach, 1990). Gender
schema theory proposes that gender stereo-

291
Frawley
types prejudice children’s memory and that
this cognitive bias serves to preserve their
stereotypes (Bigler & Liben, 1990; Susskind,
2003) and guides processing of subsequent
gender-related information (Wood, Groves,
Bruce, Willoughby, & Desmarais, 2003).
Knowledge about gender clearly sways mem-
ory such that children not only recall more
gender-consistent information compared to
gender-inconsistent information, but may
even misremember or distort gender-incon-
sistent information to make it conform to
their gender schemas. Accordingly, chil-
dren are not attending to information that
disconfirms or violates these stereotypes
(Golombok & Fivush, 1994).
Gender Schema Theory
The term “schema” has long been associ-
ated with psychological writing regarding
memory (Bartlett, 1932) and cognition
(Piaget, 1970), but it only began to become
integrated into gender role development
theory in works of the early 1980s (Bem,
1981; Liben & Signorella, 1980; Martin &
Halverson, 1981, 1983). The model put forth
by Martin and Halverson (1981) built on that
of Kohlberg (1966) to suggest that schemata
develop with age. Gender schemata have two
functions. They contain knowledge about
gender behaviors, clothes, activities, traits,
and roles, and about which are for girls and
which are for boys. Second, schemata involve
the degree to which this knowledge is used
to process information and guide behavior
(Stangor & Ruble, 1987).
This processing of information is inter-
pretive and constructive (Bem, 1981) as
well as dynamic and evolving (Bem, 1984),
in that what is perceived is a product of the
interaction between incoming stimuli and
the perceiver’s existing schemata. Thus,
gender schema theory incorporates both social
learning theory as well as cognitive theory as
schemas function to organize and interpret
new information based on prior learning
experiences. Ultimately, children come to
understand themselves in terms of gender
attributes they encounter in real life and, to
no lesser extent, through picture books.
292
Gender schema may indeed act to bias
judgment and memories of gender-related
information by facilitating the encoding
and retrieval of information relevant to
one’s own sex, therefore interfering with
information that is not consistent with one’s
own sex. Consequently, resulting selective
memory for sex-relevant information can
have important ramifications for children’s
processing of curricular materials (Cherney,
2005). These effects of stereotyped views
are often manifested through distorted or
erroneous recall, as children tend to convert
gender-inconsistent or atypical informa-
tion into knowledge that is more aligned
with their own strongly developed gender
schema. Cann and Newbern (1984) support
the gender schema-based model by saying
that subject to the influence of individual
stereotypical expectations, “Incoming
information that contradicts these expec-
tations is more likely to be either handled
less efficiently or distorted to fit the new
predicted category” (p. 1089).
Why Children Distort Gender Information
Children’s recollection of gendered story
information is often indistinct because as
their gender stereotypes become more firm-
ly ingrained in their belief systems, their
gender schema may interfere with accurate
recall of that information. The stronger
a child’s stereotyped attitude, the more
it will hamper recall of information that
is not consistent with gender stereotypes
(Bigler & Liben, 1992), and as retrieval
task difficulty increases, schema-consis-
tent responses are more prevalent. This
demonstrates that the more cognitively
burdensome the task of remembering, the
more children will rely on existing schema
to process that information (Signorella &
Liben, 1984).
Gender stereotypes also can act as process-
ing filters that may take away information
from memory as well as add false memories
(Lenton, Blair, & Hastie, 2001; Martin &
Ruble, 2004). Children often misremember
or reinterpret gender-inconsistent gender
information (Hughes & Seta, 2003) or distort
 Gender Schema and Prejudicial Recall
such information (Cann & Newburn, 1984;
Conkright, Flannagan, & Dykes, 2000;
Martin & Halverson, 1983) to make it more
consistent with gender stereotypes.
Furthermore, the stereotypic structure of
gender schema can so strongly bias memory
to a point that, even when gender-inconsis-
tent stereotypes are presented, children
maintain and reaffirm stereotypic beliefs
or even strengthen or exaggerate these
stereotype-confirming cognitive tendencies
(Huges & Seta, 2003; Lenton, Blair, & Has-
tie, 2001). Children also display as much
confidence for distorted picture recall as
they do for correct recall (Martin & Halver-
son, 1983). Cann and Newbern (1984) also
have found that children are fairly confident
that their spurious recollection for gendered
information is correct. This demonstrates
that children have a tendency to unknow-
ingly distort story information that is not
typical for either gender and that schemata,
as Martin and Halverson (1983) suggest,
truly serve as “illusory data bases.”
Description of the Study
This article describes the qualitative por-
tion of findings from a study investigat-
ing the effects of gender stereotypes on
children’s recall of story information. While
numerous studies in 1970s, 1980s, and
1990s have documented stereotyping in
children’s literature, few have investigated
their actual influence on children’s process-
ing and retention of sex-related information,
nor their effect on children’s reactions and
learning (Kropp & Halverson, 1983). The
purpose of the overall study was to examine
the effects of gender stereotypes depicted in
two specific Caldecott Medal Award-win-
ning books on elementary children’s recall
of story information. While the bulk of
the study was designed to quantitatively
determine elementary students’ recall of
gender-consistent and gender-inconsistent
information, the study also closely examined
how children misremembered or distorted
gender-specific information presented in
these two picture books, as well as their
rationales for such distortion.
293
Method
Sample
This research took place in a quiet area of
the libraries of two suburban elementary
schools in a school district located in Erie
County, in northwest Pennsylvania. The
race and socioeconomic status of the area
in which each elementary school is located
is mainly white, middle class. The sample
consisted of 36 first-graders and 36 fourth-
graders, for a total of 72 children, whose
parents consented. A combination of girls
(N = 33) and boys (N = 39) participated.
The cross-age comparison has been in-
cluded, because gender schema develops
as preschool children begin to progress
through the primary grades. Kohlberg
(1966) states that concepts of gender change
as children grow older, and influences cog-
nitive processing most at the point when a
child reaches gender constancy—by around
ages 6 to 7. Similarly, Stangor and Ruble
(1987) have shown that this development
of gender constancy (between ages 5 to 7)
takes on special importance, as children
may have difficulty remembering gender-
role inconsistent information and may actu-
ally distort counter stereotypic information
to be more gender consistent. Accordingly,
children ages 6 to 7 (1st grade) were selected
for this study because they were expected
to have attained gender constancy and have
well-developed gender schema.
Children ages 9 to 10 (4th grade) were
selected because research has shown that
considerable changes in stereotyped under-
standing and processing occur between the
ages of 6 and 9. As children mature, their
thinking becomes more flexible, and they
are better able to process gender-consistent
as well as gender-inconsistent information,
and are less likely to distort information
that does not agree with gender stereotypes
(Conkright, Flannagan, & Dykes, 2000).
Procedures
Children were presented two Caldecott
Award-winning books (Mirette on the High
Wire [McCully, 1992] and Peppe the Lamp-
lighter [Bartone, 1993, illustrated by Ted
Frawley
Lewin]) on two separate occasions at one-
to two-week intervals. Neither of these
selected books was included in the school
reading curriculum—greatly reducing any
threat that previous subject familiarity
with stories would impact the study.
At each meeting, the storybook was
presented as subjects listened to an audio-
taped reading of that story. The subjects
were asked to retell the story they had just
heard (immediately or one day later) in a
free recall, as well as answer criterion-
specific questions related to the story. An
audiotape recorder was used to record all
subjects’ responses for later transcrip-
tion. Following free recall, this researcher
restated any subject distortion or faulty
inclusion and asked follow-up interview
questions. This process was again followed
for any distortion related to answers to cri-
terion-specific questions as well. Because
distortions occurred equally under both
the immediate and delayed recall condi-
tions, they were not differentiated for this
analysis.
Results
Free recall and responses to criterion ques-
tions were analyzed, first to identify any
distortions and then to note any evident
patterns of misrepresentation, reinter-
pretation, or alteration as they related
specifically to gender-consistent and gen-
der-inconsistent story events. While some
distortions included errors in sequencing
of story events, mislabeling characters,
and misquoting characters, only those
directly related to gender-consistent and
gender-inconsistent story information, as
measured by the Czaplinski (1972) scales,
were selected for analysis.
Distortions included faulty inclusions,
fabrications, and misinterpretations, and
have been summarized by patterns that
emerged from each story presented. While
there were many similarities in distortions
generated by 1st-graders and 4th-graders,
they have been presented separately by
grade level, because different patterns also
became apparent.
294
Mirette on the High Wire
Jacket Cover Description
(Penguin Group (USA) Inc.)
One day, a mysterious stranger arrives at the
boardinghouse of the Widow Gateau—a sad-
faced stranger, who keeps to himself. When
the widow’s daughter, Mirette, discovers him
crossing the courtyard on air, she begs him
to teach her how he does it.
But Mirette doesn’t know that the stranger
was once the Great Bellini—master wire-
walker. Or that Bellini has been stopped by
a terrible fear. And it is she who must teach
him courage once again. Emily Arnold’s
sweeping watercolor paintings carry the
reader over the rooftops of nineteenth-cen-
tury Paris, and into an elegant, beautiful
world of acrobats, jugglers, mimes, actors,
and one gallant, resourceful little girl.
First Grade. The most prevalent distor-
tion from 1st-grade subjects was in response
to Criterion Question #7 (Why didn’t Bellini
ever want to take Mirette up onto the high
wire with him? Answer: Because he was
afraid. Once you have fear on the wire, it
never leaves.). An overwhelming majority
(72 percent: 26 of n = 36) of 1st-graders’
distorted responses indicate that they
believed the reason Bellini did not want to
take Mirette onto the high wire was because
it was too dangerous for Mirette or because
he was afraid she would fall and get hurt.
It appears as though many of these subjects
either failed to recognize or acknowledge
Bellini’s own fear, or transferred his per-
sonal fear of falling to fear that Mirette
might fall. Responses to follow-up interview
questions revealed that the majority of sub-
jects remained confident in their distortion
that Bellini was not afraid that he himself
would fall from the wire, and/or that he
actually told Mirette it was too dangerous.
While many recognized that Mirette was
not afraid in the story, some truly believed
that it was Mirette’s own fear that was
prohibiting Bellini from taking her onto
the high wire, or that her walking the high
wire, at the end of the story, would put them
 Gender Schema and Prejudicial Recall

both in danger of falling.
First-grade subjects also distorted story
information during free recall. Numerous
comments alluded to Bellini’s reluctance to
bring Mirette onto the high wire with him.
Some said that Mirette would get hurt (“But
he said, ‘No, you’ll get hurt’ ” and “That boy
thought she would get hurt”) or that it was
unsafe (“But it was Bellini’s worst fear to
bring Mirette to go with him. . . . I think
because she would die, maybe,” “She really
wanted to walk on the tightrope and the guy
said it was too dangerous. . . . He said that
you can’t go with me to go to that other state
because it’s too dangerous,” and “I want to
go on the wire. I want to do that. He said
‘No, it’s too dangerous.’ ”).
The next most common set of distortions
from 1st-grade subjects was in response to
Criterion Question #3 (When Mirette first
saw Bellini practicing on the wire in the
courtyard and she said, “I want to learn to
do that,” how did he answer her? Answer:
Bellini sighed, that would not be a good
Figure 1
idea; once you start, your feet are never
again happy on the ground. He shook his
head.). The significance of their comments,
such as “Because he didn’t want her to get
to the hospital or get hurt or get a little boo
boo like I got here” and “It’s much too dan-
gerous,” is that while Bellini’s response was
scaled as very gender consistent (showed a
mature understanding of self and others
and acted decisively, showing firmness
[Czaplinski, 1972]), subjects’ erroneous re-
sponses included some aspect of “danger.”
During free recall, a few 1st-grade sub-
jects had a distorted notion of why Bellini
had to go and could not take Mirette on the
high wire at the end of the story, stating
that he had to do it (“To make Mirette stop
crying,” “The guy said he was retired but
he wasn’t,” and “When they were going to
take him away . . . I think he was going to
jail.”). These statements clearly indicate
that subjects did not truly understand that
it was Bellini’s own fear that was keeping
him from the wire.

Figure 1 & 2 from MIRETTE ON THE HIGH WIRE by Emily Arnold McCully, copyright © 1992
by Emily Arnold McCully. Used by permission of G.P. Putnam’s Sons, A Division of Penguin
Young Readers Group, A Member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 345 Hudson Street, New York,
NY 10014. All rights reserved.
295
Frawley
Fourth Grade. Free recall also contained
distortions similar to that of 1st-grade
recall in regard to the “danger” aspect for
Mirette. While the older subjects’ rationale
for jeopardy did focus somewhat on Mirette’s
young age, they also mentioned her lack of
professional high wire experience as being
a contributing factor to Bellini’s reluctance
to allowing her onto the high wire. One
child responded, “She saw him walking on
a rope or a wire. She thought it’d be cool
to try it. And he said it wouldn’t be a good
idea because she’s just a little girl.” When
asked if it actually said that in the story, the
child responded, “No. But from the pictures
and from the way you said it in the tape,
it kind of like sounded like he thought she
was just too little to do it.”
By comparison to 1st-grade responses to
Criterion Question #7 (Why didn’t Bellini
ever want to take Mirette up onto the high
wire with him?), it was interesting to note
that while fewer 4th-graders (50 percent:
18 of n = 36) distorted story information
related in terms of it being “dangerous”
or Mirette getting hurt, they did generate
other scenarios that dismissed Bellini’s fear
outrightly (“Because he had fear in him but
he couldn’t get it out. . . . He wasn’t afraid
but he just got fear in him”) or they stated
that the reason was that Mirette was not
capable of going on the high wire (“Because
she didn’t get any practice in the beginning,
because she was just a mopper floorer and
she cleaned and he really didn’t want her
to do it because she needs to practice before
she does it,” and “Because he thought he’d
be embarrassed”). Surprisingly, free recall
responses even mentioned that Bellini was
scared or worried about what others would
think (“Because he was scared that every-
body might laugh at him,” “He is worried
that if he ever fell off in front of people and
um, he would be embarrassed in front of
that crowd,” and “He’d have messed up and
then they’d be thrown out on the streets.”).
Regarding the very ending of the story,
4th-grade students’ responses paralleled
those of 1st-grade students. When asked
Criterion Question #8 (At the end of the
296
story, when Bellini froze on the wire, why
did Mirette suddenly run up the stairs? An-
swer: Something was wrong. She knew at
once what it was), subjects said: “Because I
think she felt that she needed to because he
was all alone up there and he was probably
waiting for her to come and make his show
better. Probably he wanted to give her a hint
that she can come up and help him,” “Be-
cause she knew that he wanted her to walk
up on the high wire with him. Because he
felt sad, ’cause he told her he was afraid that
she couldn’t do it with him, so he changed
his mind and froze so he knew she would
come up.” Yet another student responded,
“So she could ask him why he was standing
there and ask him if he was like frightened
or anything.” When this last subject was
asked if Bellini was frightened in the story,
the respondent stated, “No, I think he just
saw her so he just stopped, because I think
he wanted it to be a surprise for her.”
Numerous 4th-graders distorted story
events via their response to Criterion Ques-
tion #6 (What did Mirette do right after
Bellini agreed to begin to teach her to walk
on the wire? Answer: She got up early to
finish her chores . . . the rest of the day
was for lessons and practice.). Rather than
pointing out that Mirette got up early every
day to ensure time to practice on the high
wire, they mentioned that she “Jump[ed]
with joy,” “She started running around
telling everybody,” “She thanked him,” “She
jumped off the wire. She said yippee and she
jumped off the wire,” and “She was happy.
. . . She was jumping for joy.”
On the other hand, the range of Mirette’s
emotions—happy, sad, conf ident, and
brave—were recalled correctly, for the
most part. Some responses, however, were
distorted to match the gender-consistent
female stereotype describing Mirette as
being afraid: “She was afraid at first, then
she found out that he was a little bit also,”
“She got scared on the high wire,” “Because
she got scared that she was going to fall,”
and “she wanted to do the same things like
him, but he was afraid she wouldn’t be able
to do it.”
 Gender Schema and Prejudicial Recall
Figure 2
Peppe the Lamplighter
Jacket Cover Description
(HarperCollins Publishers)
A long time ago when there was no electric-
ity and the streetlamps in Little Italy had to
be lit by hand, Peppe lived in a tenement on
Mulberry Street. His family was poor, and
so, though he was just a boy, he needed to
find work. But a job as a lamplighter was
not what his father had dreamed of for Peppe.
“Did I come to America for my son to light
the streetlamps?” he fumed—until, one night,
lighting the streetlamps became “the best job
in America.”
Elisa Bartone’s moving story and Ted
Lewin’s lamp-lit paintings combine to give
modern-day children a very special look at
America. From the bustle of turn-of-the-cen-
tury sidewalks of New York, to the struggle of
a brand new American family, to the hopes
that would build a country, they bring the
American dream to life.
First Grade. The most significant distor-
tion regarding story information emerged
when students were asked to identify how
297
Peppe felt or acted through criterion-specific
questions #5 (How did Peppe act right after
his father one night shouted, “You belong to
the streets”? Answer: He sat on the stoop
way past his bedtime, then cried himself to
sleep when no one would hear) and #6 (How
did Peppe feel or act after his father walked
out and slammed the door? Answer: He
hung his head and did not feel like smil-
ing). First-graders mistakenly identified
Peppe as being either happy or mad, as
shown in Table 1, rather than referring to
him as crying or hanging his head in sad-
ness. The significance of these responses
is that Peppe’s crying and sadness were
scaled as gender inconsistent in the story
(Expressing an emotional state nonverbally
and weakly—crying, moaning, pouting, etc.)
(Czaplinski, 1972).
While it was implied in the story that
Peppe’s father (sometimes mistakenly
thought of as “grandfather” or “uncle”)
was upset about his son’s new job, some
1st-graders’ free recall included erroneous
recollections of Papa’s actions and discus-
sions regarding the position of lamplighter.
Some of these distortions reflect perhaps
Frawley

an authoritative view of Papa: “And then
his grandpa said, You can do it when you
get older. . . . Because he was too young
. . . and I think he said, You might burn
yourself.” Other free recall statements, like
the following, reflect a more authoritarian
perspective of Papa: “He said that he didn’t
want him to have the job. . . . He said [he
couldn’t have the job] and he didn’t want him
to and he didn’t want to try”; “I’ll let you
be a lamplighter when you grow up”; “His
father thought it was a stupid job. But it
wasn’t,” and “But his father said no. . . . He
said no, then no again.” The significance of
this distortion is that although the father’s
display of anger is gender consistent, these
students interpreted it as an even stronger
male stereotyped response.
Fourth Grade. A somewhat similar pat-
tern to that of 1st-graders also developed
when 4th-graders were asked to identify
how Peppe felt or acted in criterion-specific
questions. As shown in Table 2, 4th-graders
also mistakenly, but not as often, identified
him as being either happy or mad, or quali-
fied his sadness or combined it with another
emotion, rather than just referring to him as
being sad.
While the number of distortions for these
two particular criterion-specific questions
(#5 and #6) were not as frequent as those of
1st-graders, it was expected that the older
students would have more accurate recall of
gender-inconsistent behavior, such as Peppe
hanging his head or crying. This pattern
led this researcher to ask these 4th-grade
subjects (n = 25) another direct interview
question: “Did Peppe cry in the story?”
Their responses are shown in Table 3. An
overwhelming majority, 64 percent (16 of 25),
of those questioned answered “No,” while
only 28 percent (7 of 25) correctly recalled
that Peppe did, in fact, cry himself to sleep
when no one would hear. Two out of the 25
students stated that they did not know.
This outright denial that Peppe cried in
the story was the strongest trend for 4th-

Table 1
First-Grade Happy or Mad Responses to Criterion Questions #5 & #6

Question #5

“Happy.”
“No. He said, ‘No.’ He was like ‘no.’ He was happy.”
“Good.”
“He said ‘I don’t. I’m not wrong.’ ”
“Happy.”
“Good. Because that was a good job.”
“Mad…. Because he wanted to stay with his father.”
“Happy.”
________________________________________________________________________

Question #6

“Kind of—mad….Because something that the dad said.”

“Very, very mad.”
“Peppe acts mad, sad, that kind of stuff. Because he really wanted to own a store so bad.”
“Mad. Because he was being mean to him and he shouted, ‘No.’ ”
“Hungry and cold.”
“Good.”
“Happy—I think.”
“Happy.”
“I think he felt a little frustrated and a little sad—like both mixed because . . . I think he was a
little mad, too, because his dad was acting all mad about it and slamming the door.”
298
 Gender Schema and Prejudicial Recall

Figure 3

Figure 3 & 4 from PEPPE THE LAMPLIGHTER by Elisa Bartone, Illustrated by Ted Lewin.
Illustrations copyright © 1993 by Ted Lewin. Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

Table 2
Fourth-Grade Happy or Mad Responses to Criterion Questions #5 & #6

Question #5

“Like he was just mad and he went up to his room and started crying about it—got mad.”
“Kind of didn’t respect his father because he knew he could do the street lamp job.”
________________________________________________________________________________

Question #6

“He felt mad. . . . He didn’t say anything, he just walked away.”

“He felt like, I should try and get a better job to make my dad happy.”
“Sort of mad, sort of sad. . . . It’s—he was sad or really mad at the kitchen table.”
“He was mostly sad in the story. It doesn’t say exactly, but you could think he’s mad ’cause he
didn’t get those jobs.”
“Like he didn’t care. Just the way he—the father didn’t care.”
“Sad. It was an exaggeration, I think. That he hung his head—real far down like that. And
his sister didn’t cheer him up, she tried. But she didn’t do a good job of it.”
“He felt terrible and bad and everything. . . . He was ashamed of himself.”

299
Frawley
Table 3
Fourth-Grade Responses to “Did Peppe Cry in the Story?”
[Yes] Answer
“Yeah.”
“I think he probably had one tear but that’s it. He didn’t cry a lot. He just cried a few tears,
but that’s it.”
“I think he did when his dad said that he felt ashamed and stuff and he went to his room.”
“Yeah.”
“I think they said that a tear went down on his cheek.”
“Yeah.”
“I think at one point, after his dad yelled at him and slammed the door, I think.”
________________________________________________________________________
[No] Answer
“No.”
“No.”
“No.”
“Um, I don’t think so. I think one of his sisters did.”
“No.”
“No.”
“No, but he felt really bad—he might have cried.”
“No.”
“No.”
“No.”
“No.”
“No.”
“No. . . . just got a little emotional but they didn’t cry.”
“No.”
“No.”
“No.”
________________________________________________________________________________
[Not Sure] Answer
“I don’t know.”
“I don’t know. I forget.”
Figure 4

300
 Gender Schema and Prejudicial Recall
graders’ responses. Some of the few who
did acknowledge that Peppe cried, qualified
their response, indicating that he only cried
a little. One also inaccurately noted (not
referenced in text or illustrations) that one of
his sisters, on the other hand, may have cried
in the story. Similarly, when asked criterion-
specific question #4 (What was Peppe’s little
sister doing when Peppe found her that dark
night? Answer: She was huddled against
the last streetlamp, unable to move for fear of
the dark), numerous 4th-graders answered
with similar fabrications: “Sitting by the
lamppost, crying,” “Sitting by a street lamp
crying,” “Tear was dripping down,” “Sleeping
or crying,” “She was like crying in the dark.”
Discussion
Subjects’ recollection of story events, as well
as responses to criterion-specific questions,
revealed a wave of distortion. This distortion
gives credence to the power of gender schema
to guide processing of gendered information.
Analysis of recall and responses revealed
unique patterns for each story, as well as
among and between grade levels.
The predominant distortion for Mirette
on the High Wire concerned the reason why
Bellini would not take Mirette up to perform
on the high wire. While the real reason, in
Bellini’s own words, “Once you have fear on
the wire, it never leaves,” simply reflects his
inner fear (a very atypical male stereotype)
to continue with his prior feats, a majority
of subjects distorted the true meaning be-
hind his statement. Seventy-two percent of
1st-graders and 50 percent of 4th-graders
warped or embellished his articulation of
fearfulness into a more stereotyped response
of “male protector,” and they even relied on
stereotypes of female behavior by suggest-
ing that Mirette’s (fabricated) fear was the
prohibiting force.
It was interesting to note that when asked
follow-up interview questions or asked to
explain their rationale, the subjects re-
mained confident, and wavered little from
their initial remarks. When asked, many of
those who stated that Bellini was afraid for
Mirette, quickly, clearly, and unequivocally
301
answered that Bellini himself manifested
no personal fear.
Other free recall distortion not only raised
the male persona, but actually diminished
that of the female. Mirette’s eagerness,
adventurousness, determination, insight-
fulness, and courage were all relegated to
the sidelines, yielding to more stereotyped
behaviors. Students viewed her desire to
walk the wire as a burden to Bellini rather
than as her willingness to take risks. Her
desire to practice long and hard was viewed
as simple girlish excitement. Her willing-
ness to help a friend in need was viewed as
manipulation. Her intellect and decisiveness
was viewed as a response to please others.
Analysis of recall and responses revealed
unique patterns for Peppe the Lamplighter
as well. A strong trend of distortion for this
story revolved around Peppe’s emotions.
First-graders, when describing how Peppe
felt, often perceived and described him
as either mad or content rather than sad;
the stereotypical male behavior would be
to inhibit emotions and not display them.
Subjects’ responses to Peppe physically ex-
pressing his feelings (i.e., slumping, lowering
his eyes, sitting quietly, and so on) distorted
his feelings to those of anger or even happi-
ness—as if nothing was wrong. The stron-
gest trend for older 4th-graders was their
outright denial that Peppe cried in the story.
When asked directly, many responded that
he had not. Some mistakenly stated that
the youngest sister had cried, when, in fact,
she had not. Other distortions were more
subtle in regard to revolving around “head of
household,” “in-charge,” or “controlling” male
stereotypes. In the subjects’ eyes, especially
the younger students, Papa was clearly the
dominant figure, even though he really has
little control over what happens.
Conclusions
This study demonstrates that children’s
recall of gendered story information is of-
ten imprecise because their gender schema
interferes with accurate recall of that in-
formation. Children often misremember
or reinterpret gender-inconsistent gender
Frawley
information (Hughes & Seta, 2003). Gender
schema may also impede children’s process-
ing to a point where they may not only forget
or add memories of story events or character
behaviors (Lenton, Blair, & Hastie, 2001;
Martin & Ruble, 2004), but actually distort
gendered information to make it more con-
sistent with gender stereotypes (Conkright,
Flannagan, & Dykes, 2000). Addition-
ally, children will maintain, and remain
confident, that their bogus recollection for
gendered information is completely correct
(Cann & Newbern, 1984).
Implications for Teachers
Children of different ages remember and
misremember gender stereotypes presented
in authentic children’s literature. Examina-
tion of children’s recall and rationale for that
recall reveals the saliency of gendered infor-
mation and the power that gender schema
has over memory. Although viewing picture
books through the eyes of a child may truly
be an impossible task, it is imperative to
attempt to gain a better understanding of
children’s perceptions of the picture books
they encounter. And because these books in-
fluence children’s beliefs and attitudes about
gender and gender roles, this material, at the
least, needs to be carefully previewed and
understood before presenting it to students.
It is also important to recognize that while
children do come to school with well-estab-
lished knowledge about social norms related
to gender, and because the act of reading is a
transactional two-way process, these beliefs
and schemas are inevitably changed by this
same and powerful transaction (Rosenblatt,
1982; Short, 2001).
By acknowledging the existence and power
of stereotypes in print, teachers can begin
to bring this to light for students, to make
them aware of these stereotypes, to make
them more cognizant of their own bias and
attitudes, to help them recognize their own
distorted views and misconceptions, and
to help themselves question stereotypes.
Schools should become places where all
gender stereotypes are challenged rather
than perpetuated—places were students and
302
teachers can together examine, discuss, and
have meaningful discussions that debunk
gender stereotypes.
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