Reported are a series of studies revealing developmental and individual differences among preschool children on relationships between gender-based knowledge, gender constancy, gender schematic processing, recognition memories for gender-typed information, and flexibility, sequencing, and understanding of gender scripts. Alternative approaches for looking at early gender-role development are discussed, and ideas about important issues in contemporary gender-role research are advanced. It is suggested that researchers should stress the amount of gender-based knowledge children might need to make gender typifications. Researchers should also try to understand the salience of the gender dimension to young children and children's use of gender roles to organize and remember social information. An alternative to conventional gender-role knowledge, children's gender script understanding, is discussed. Research findings suggest that children's gender-role knowledge and their sequencing of gender scripts may be unique types of gender-role understanding and knowledge. It is concluded that there appear to be cognitive factors other than gender-role knowledge and gender constancy understanding that significantly affect young children's gender-typing. Forty-nine references are cited. (RH)