Retrieval of Typical and Atypical Category Members

Myron Rothbart, N. Sriram, & Carene Davis-Stitt

Four studies tested the hypothesis that category labels are more likely to prime retrieval of typical than atypical category members, an assumption critical to Rothbart and Johns (1985) view of stereotype change. The first two experiments examined the use of a category mane to retrieve category members in both laboratory and field setting.

In Experiment 1, subjects first learned to associate the names of stimulus persons to one of four social categories. They learned to new information about each group member that was either consistent with, inconsistent with, or irrelevant to the group’s stereotype. It was predicted and found that a categories ability to retrieve an exemplar was proportional to the exemplars goodness-of-fit to the stereotype.

In Experiment 2, members of one fraternity recalled the members of a rival fraternity and afterward rated all members on typicality, familiarity, and liking. Consistent with the prediction, the typical members of the target fraternity were recalled more often than the atypical members of the fraternity with familiarity and liking controlled. The second two experiments examined the retrievability of information associated with typical and atypical category members.

In Experiment 3, subjects learned stereotypically neutral information about men and women who were either teachers or scientists and, when given a gender or occupational retrieval cue, found it easier to retrieve information associated with typical (male scientists, female teachers) than atypical (male teachers, female scientists) category members.

A fourth experiment replicated the third experiment with increased cognitive load, and found similar results. These findings have paradoxical implications for stereotype change (Rothbart & John, 1985; Rothbart & Lewis, 1988). Although information is most likely to become part of the stereotype when attached to a typical member, the effect of pairing disconfirming information with a category member is to reduce that member’s typicality.

Rothbart, M., Sriram, N., & Davis-Stitt, C. (1996). The retrieval of typical and atypical category members. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 32, 1-29.