Three different tasks (word repetition, lexical decision, and gender decision) were
designed to explore the impact of the sex clues (sex of the speaker, sex of the addressee) and
the type of gender (semantic, arbitrary) on the processing of isolated Spanish gendered words.
The findings showed that the grammatical gender feature was accessed when no mandatory
attentional focus was required. In addition, the results indicated that the participants organize
information according to their own sex role, which provides more salience to the words
that match in grammatical gender with their own sex role representation, even when the
gender assignment is arbitrary. Finally, the sex of the speaker biased the lexical access and
the grammatical gender selection, serving as a semantic prime when the two dimensions
have a congruent relationship. Furthermore, the masculine form serves as the generic gender
representing both male and female figures.

EB00000003940K

Available

• The Influence of Sex Information on Gender Word Processing