Lynn S. Liben

Developmental Intergroup Theory: Explaining and Reducing Children's Social Stereotyping and Prejudice

Social stereotyping and prejudice are intriguing phenomena from the standpoint of theory and, in addition, constitute pressing societal problems. Because stereotyping and prejudice emerge in early childhood, developmental research on causal mechanisms is critical for understanding and controlling stereotyping and prejudice. Such work forms the basis of a new theoretical model, developmental intergroup theory (DIT), which addresses the causal ingredients of stereotyping and prejudice. The work suggests that biases may be largely under environmental control and thus might be shaped via educational, social, and legal policies.

A Sex Difference in Mental Rotation in Young Infants

Three- to 4-month-old female and male human infants were administered a two-dimensional mental-rotation task similar to those given to older children and adults. Infants were familiarized with the number 1 (or its mirror image) in seven different rotations between 0° and 360°, and then preference-tested with a novel rotation of the familiar stimulus paired with its mirror image. Male infants displayed a novelty preference for the mirror-image stimulus over the novel rotation of the familiar stimulus, whereas females divided attention between the two test stimuli. The results point toward an early emergence of a sex difference in mental rotation.

Understanding maps as symbols: the development of map concepts in children.

We expect that many readers encountered this article with the beliefs that maps are highly specialized devices primarily used for wayfinding; that they represent the spatial world in a single, correct form; that they are readily transparent; and that their sole contribution to psychology is their role in externalizing environmental cognition. By discussing the myriad functions and forms of maps, by highlighting their symbolic nature, and by considering some of the misconceptions about maps, we have attempted to demonstrate the value of maps for addressing a wide range of developmental questions. Our review of past research literature suggests that research conducted within individual disciplines has both strengths and limitations. Work in the psychological tradition is characterized by attention to important subject characteristics and to carefully described and implemented research designs, procedures, coding, and analyses. At the same time, this work reveals, at best, highly restricted views about maps, and at worst, fundamental misconceptions about maps. Work in the geographic and environmental traditions, in contrast, samples a broader range of map forms and functions, but it suffers from inattention to procedural details that makes the conclusions less compelling than they might otherwise be. A conventional wisdom is emerging from the work in both traditions: That childrens map understanding occurs extremely early and extremely easily. The limitations of both research traditions, however, suggest the need for caution in accepting this view. Developmental and cartographic theories provide a compelling reason to reexamine the early and easy view and suggest the need for alternative conceptual and empirical approaches. We have argued that future work should integrate the traditions of psychology and geography. Illustrative data from an interdisciplinary program of research were presented. We described work demonstrating the gradual and difficult process of mastering the representational and geometric correspondences that link the map to its referent in the world. Our data suggest that there are significant achievements in map conceptualization (the understanding of the concept of a map), map identification (understanding the formal components of a map), and map utilization (the ability to use maps). Our data support the view that maps are not transparent and that childrens abilities to understand, use, and create maps are linked to their developing representational and spatial skills. In concluding, we should acknowledge that we have deliberately pushed interpretations about understanding maps as symbolic representations to the extreme. The reason for this strategy is simple: We believe that work on maps--both in the public schools and in academia--is assumed to be an expendable and irrelevant luxury.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Understanding person-space-map relations: cartographic and developmental perspectives

Drawing from cognitive-developmental and cartographic theory, we tested childrens understanding of person-map-space relations. After introducing maps of the classroom, an adult moved to different positions in the room and pointed straight ahead. Five- to 12-year-old children (N= 259) placed colored arrow stickers on the map to show the persons location and heading, once when the map was aligned with the room and once when rotated 180°. Performance was better on the aligned condition and when headings were parallel to the nearby wall; most younger children failed to understand point of view; and sex differences favored boys. Data from 168 children given additional spatial tasks were consistent with the hypothesized importance of projective spatial concepts for mapping

Differing Levels of Gender Salience in Preschool Classrooms: Effects on Children’s Gender Attitudes and Intergroup Bias

Developmental intergroup theory posits that when environments make social-group membership salient, children will be particularly likely to apply categorization processes to social groups, thereby increasing stereotypes and prejudices. To test the predicted impact of environmental gender salience, 3- to 5-year-old children (N = 57) completed gender attitude, intergroup bias, and personal preference measures at the beginning and end of a 2-week period during which teachers either did or did not make gender salient. Observations of peer play were also made at both times. After 2 weeks, children in the high- (but not low-) salience condition showed significantly increased gender stereotypes, less positive ratings of other-sex peers, and decreased play with other-sex peers. Childrens own activity and occupational preferences, however, remained unaffected.

How Geoscientists Think and Learn

Decades ago, pioneering petroleum geologist Wallace Pratt pointed out that oil is first found in the human mind. His insight remains true today: Across geoscience specialties, the human mind is arguably the geoscientists most important tool. It is the mind that converts colors and textures of dirt, or blotches on a satellite image, or wiggles on a seismogram, into explanatory narratives about the formation and migration of oil, the rise and fall of mountain ranges, the opening and closing of oceans. Improved understanding of how humans think and learn about the Earth can help geoscientists and geoscience educators do their jobs better, and can highlight the strengths that geoscience expertise brings to interdisciplinary problem solving.

Recall and Reconstruction of Gender-related Pictures: Effects of Attitude, Task Difficulty, and Age.

SIGNORELLA, MARGARET L., and LIBEN, LYNN S. Recall and Reconstruction of Gender-related Pictures: Effects of Attitude, Task Difficulty, and Age. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1984, 55, 393405. 2 implications of Bartletts constructive theory of memory-better memory for schemaconsistent material and alteration of schema-inconsistent material-were tested. In Study 1, kindergartners, second graders, and fourth graders with either more or less stereotyped attitudes were asked to recall gender-relevant pictures. At all ages, highly stereotyped children recalled more traditional than nontraditional pictures, while less stereotyped children recalled more nontraditional than traditional pictures. Most reconstructions transformed nontraditional items to traditional, with more of these reconstructions being produced by highly stereotyped children. In Study 2, an easier recall task was given to more and less stereotyped first graders. Again, highly stereotyped children recalled more traditional than nontraditional pictures, whereas less stereotyped children showed no differential memory for picture type. As before, nontraditionalto-traditional reconstructions were most common, although the difference between highly and less stereotyped children was not significant. These findings, combined with those of Liben and Signorella, suggest that as task difficulty increases, memory becomes more schema consistent.

Language at work: Children's gendered interpretations of occupational titles

A large literature has shown that childrens beliefs and aspirations about occupations reflect cultural gender stereotypes. One channel that may create or sustain occupational stereotypes is language. Two studies were designed to examine whether children interpret occupational titles as gender specific or gender neutral. In Study 1, children (6- to 11-year-olds, N = 64) were asked directly if various job titles could be used for both men and women doing the job. In Study 2, children (6- to 10-year-olds, N = 51) were shown pictures of men and women engaged in job activities and asked which one(s) showed someone who could be called a(n)__. Titles were linguistically unmarked for gender (e.g., doctor), strongly marked (e.g., policeman), or weakly marked (e.g., postmaster). Marked titles were given in masculine and feminine forms. Findings reinforced past work showing that marked titles are exclusionary, revealed that some children harbor confusions about even unmarked titles, and demonstrated the mediating role of individual differences in attitudes. Implications for the changing lexicon and for educational programs are discussed.

Developing an understanding of graphic representations in children and adults: The case of GEO-graphics☆

Abstract Graphic representations are important for symbolic thought and communication. Here we provide a general definition of graphic representations and discuss some similarities and differences to more commonly studied linguistic representations. We then focus on characteristics of one particular type of graphic representation—those that represent the world or “geo” and hence, “GEO-graphics.” Through the use of models from cartography, we highlight qualities of representational and geometric correspondences between the referent space and the GEO-graphic representation, and suggest that an understanding of these graphics rests on the childs developing representational and spatial skills more generally. Empirical data on elementary-school childrens interpretations of GEO-graphics illustrate the emergence of understanding in this domain. Finally, we suggest that the development of childrens understanding of representation may be characterized as progressing from syncretism, to syncretic representation, to naive conventional representation, and finally to meta-representation.

Development and Learning : Conflict Or Congruence?

This volume juxtaposes two different domains of developmental theory: the Piagetian approach and the information-processing approach. Articles by experts in both fields discuss how concepts of development and learning, traditionally approached through cognitive-developmental theories such as Piagets, are analyzed from the perspective of a task analytic, information-processing approach.