How gender-expectancy affects the processing of “them”

Doherty, Alice; Conklin, Kathy

Abstract

How sensitive is pronoun processing to expectancies based on real-world knowledge and language usage? The current study links research on the integration of gender stereotypes and number-mismatch to explore this question. It focuses on the use of them to refer to antecedents of different levels of gender-expectancy (low–cyclist, high–mechanic, known–spokeswoman). In a rating task, them is considered increasingly unnatural with greater gender expectancy. However, participants might not be able to differentiate high-expectancy and gender-known antecedents online because they initially search for plural antecedents (e.g., Sanford & Filik), and they make all-or-nothing gender inferences. An eye-tracking study reveals early differences in the processing of them with antecedents of high gender-expectancy compared with gender-known antecedents. This suggests that participants have rapid access to the expected gender of the antecedent and the level of that expectancy.

Citation

Doherty, A., & Conklin, K. (2016). How gender-expectancy affects the processing of “them”. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 70(4), 718-735. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2016.1154582

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 9, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Mar 15, 2016
• Publication Date: Dec 15, 2016
• Deposit Date: Aug 30, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 30, 2017
• Journal: Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
• Print ISSN: 1747-0218
• Electronic ISSN: 1747-0218
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 70
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 718-735
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2016.1154582
• Keywords: Pronoun; Number agreement; Gender agreement; Stereotypical gender; Language usage
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/833281
• Publisher URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17470218.2016.1154582
• Additional Information: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology on 15/03/2016, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/17470218.2016.1154582