Story recall in young Black and White children: Effects of racial group membership, race of experimenter, and dialect.

Tested the effects of racial group membership, race of E, and dialect on unstructured and probed recall. l6 Black and 16 White 4-6 mo old children were Ss. Subgroups of 4 Ss within each racial group were randomly assigned to the experimental conditions such that order of exposure to E (Black and White) and dialects Standard English vs Black English vernacular) were counterbalanced. Results show that Whites performed better than Blacks in Standard English, Blacks performed better than Whites in Black English vernacular, Blacks tested in Black English vernacular were equivalent to Whites tested in Standard English, and Whites performed better in Standard English than in Black English vernacular. When probed with questions, there was an overall increase in the proportion of correct information for both racial groups. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)