Three experiments investigated how grammatical gender and gender stereotypicality influence the way person information is mentally represented. Participants read sentences about social groups denoted by nouns with different grammatical gender and stereotypicality. A following sentence contained a reference to the social group that qualified the group members as female, male, or neither one. Experiment 1 tested grammatically masculine nouns; Experiment 2 tested gender-balanced forms, composed of the masculine and the feminine or neither one; and Experiment 3 tested nouns without gender inflection. Stereotypicality varied within studies. Second sentence reading times differed depending on the fit between grammatical gender and stereotypicality of the first sentence’s subject and the subsequent information’s gender-relatedness. Both grammatical gender and stereotypicality contribute biological gender information to mentally represented person information. Strong grammatical input may override stereotypicality’s influence. The feminine’s influence seems to be weaker than the masculine’s. Results are discussed in the framework of the scenario mapping and focus approach.

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Two studies assessed how gender-marked person denotations in German are interpreted in contrast to their unmarked counterparts in English. Participants read sentences about national groups denoted by nouns of masculine gender in German (Experiment 1) and by gender-unmarked nouns in English (Experiment 2). These statements were followed by a sentence that contained a reference to the subject of the first sentence and expressed either stereotypically feminine, stereotypically masculine, or gender-neutral content. Reading times for the second sentences indicate the ease of reference resolution which depends on the fit between the first sentence’s subject and the gender relatedness of the second sentence. Results show that grammatical gender in German slowed down the reading of information that was mismatched as to gender. No effect occurred in the English study. Results are discussed in terms of the theoretical framework of scenario mapping and focus ( Sanford & Garrod, 1981 , 1998 ).

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