Accuracy or Stereotypes? Children’s Memory Recall for Traits Attributed to Native American and Caucasian Characters

Intergroup relations are often undermined by stereotypes. Memory for traits stereotypically associated or not associated with Native Americans was studied among 57 white elementary students in or near areas disputed in the Oneida Indian land claim. Participants were presented with two stories detailing an interaction among characters of different races. After each story, children were instructed to identify adjectives used in the story. It was predicted that children would remember more stereotypes than non-stereotypes for Native American characters and more stereotypes for Native American than white characters. Results did not confirm predictions, in that children remembered more stereotypic information for whites than Native American characters. It was also predicted that children would remember more positive traits for white than Native American characters. Results supported this prediction in that children remembered more positive than negative traits attributed to white rather than Native American characters. Results were consistent with previous research on recognition tasks in adults, which show that inconsistent stereotypic information takes precedence over consistent information on recognition but not on recall tasks. Future studies should examine the role of both recognition and recall developmentally in terms of stereotypes.