THE EFFECTS OF CHILDRENS STEREOTYPES ON THEIR MEMORY FOR ELDERLY INDIVIDUALS

First-, third-, and fifth-grade children were asked to recall positive or negative information about individuals labeled elderly and individ uals not labeled at all. Children recalled more negative description i nformation about the individuals, regardless of the age of the charact er the length of the delay, and the age of the children. However, for additional statements, children recalled more negative statements abou t the elderly than they did about individuals not labeled elderly. The elderly description also led to some distortions in children's recall . That is, some of the positive information about the elderly (e.g., t he person was healthy) was recalled in its negative form (e.g, the per son was sick). These results suggest that children's concepts or stere otypes about the elderly affect the organization and recall of informa tion about specific elderly individuals.