Detection of Gender-Related Categories by 1 O-Month-Old Infants

A category may be understood as a group of correlated features or attributes which are perceived as associated with one another (Younger & Cohen, 1986). Gender roles are categories of social information in which certain characteristics are perceived to be more strongly associated with a particular social group (Hamilton, 1981). The category “masculine items” might be conceptualized as articles which are highly correlated with males, whereas “feminine items” could be viewed as those features closely associated with females. Researchers have noted similarities between basic categorization processes in young children and stereotype development; notably gender role stereotypes (e.g., Martin & Halverson, 1987). In fact, basic cognitive processes similar to the those which underlie infants’ categorization of visual patterns have also been implicated in the formation and maintenance of social stereotypes in children and adults. For instance, Martin and Halverson (1987), and others, have discussed gender roles in terms of perceptions of correlated features among social information.