Strategic Processing of Gender Stereotypes in Sentence Comprehension: An ERP Study

Gender stereotypes are often involved in language comprehension. This study investigated whether and to what extent their processing is under strategic control, by examining both proportion and order effects related to gender stereotypes for role nouns. We manipulated stereotypical gender consistencies, as in Li's daughter/son was a nurse horizontal ellipsis , the relative proportions of gender-consistent and gender-inconsistent sentences (80%:20% and 50%:50% for high-proportion and equal-proportion sessions, respectively), and a between-participant factor of session order (high-proportion sessions preceding equal-proportion sessions and a reversed order for the high-equal and equal-high groups, respectively). Linear mixed-effect models revealed a larger N400 and a larger late negativity for stereotypically inconsistent compared to consistent sentences for the high-equal group only. These results indicate that even if sentence contexts have already determined the gender of target role characters, gender stereotypes for role nouns are still activated when the first half of the experiment facilitates their activation. The analyses of trial-by-trial dynamics showed that the N400 effects gradually decreased throughout equal-proportion sessions for the equal-high group. Our findings suggest that the processing of gender stereotypes can be under strategic control. In addition, readers may develop other strategies based on sentence contexts, when the processing strategy based on cue validity is not available.

Automated summary

This study examined the strategic control in processing gender stereotypes in language comprehension. The results showed that high consistency and high proportion led to larger N400 and late negativity effects, while equal proportion resulted in a gradual reduction of N400 effects. This suggests that gender stereotypes can still be activated even when sentence contexts have determined the gender of target role characters, but readers may develop alternative strategies based on sentence contexts.