Rebekah A. Richert

Media as social partners: the social nature of young children's learning from screen media.

Television has become a nearly ubiquitous feature in childrens cultural landscape. A review of the research into young childrens learning from television indicates that the likelihood that children will learn from screen media is influenced by their developing social relationships with on-screen characters, as much as by their developing perception of the screen and their symbolic understanding and comprehension of information presented on screen. Considering the circumstances in which children under 6 years learn from screen media can inform teachers, parents, and researchers about the important nature of social interaction in early learning and development. The findings reviewed in this article suggest the social nature of learning, even learning from screen media.

Just a talking book? Word learning from watching baby videos.

This study examined the relationship between viewing an infant DVD and expressive and receptive language outcomes. Children between 12 and 15 months were randomly assigned to view Baby Wordsworth, a DVD highlighting words around the house marketed for children beginning at 12 months of age. Viewings took place in home settings over 6 weeks. After every 2 weeks and five exposures to the DVD, children were assessed on expressive and receptive communication measures. Results indicated there was no increased growth on either outcome for children who had viewed the DVD as compared to children in the control group, even after multiple exposures. After controlling for age, gender, cognitive developmental level, income, and parent education, the most significant predictor of vocabulary comprehension and production scores was the amount of time children were read to.

Anthropomorphism or Preparedness? Exploring Children's God Concepts

Historically, the development of God concepts in human cognition has been explained anthropomorphically. In other words, for children especially, God is a big, superhuman who lives in the sky. Recent empirical research on the development of these concepts may suggest an alternative hypothesis. In this paper, we review this research and outline the preparedness hypothesis, which suggests that children may be cognitively equipped to understand some properties of God in a non-anthropomorphic way.

Learning From Fantasy and Real Characters in Preschool and Kindergarten

In three experiments, 3½- to 6-year-old children were presented with analogical problems in which the protagonists were either real people or fantasy characters. Children were more likely to transfer solutions from the stories about real people rather than the stories about fantasy characters. These results suggest that the use of a fantasy character might not be an effective strategy for teaching children information that is meant to be applied to the real world.

Word learning from baby videos.

OBJECTIVE To examine whether children between 12 and 25 months of age learn words from an infant-directed DVD designed for that purpose. DESIGN Half of the children received a DVD to watch in their home over the course of 6 weeks. SETTING All participants returned to a laboratory for testing on vocabulary acquisition every 2 weeks. PARTICIPANTS Ninety-six 12- to 24-month-old children. MAIN EXPOSURE Baby videos. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Parent report and observational measures of vocabulary acquisition related to words highlighted in the DVD; parent report of general language development; and parent report of childrens media use. RESULTS The age at first viewing of baby DVDs was related to childrens general language development. There was no evidence of learning words highlighted in the infant-directed DVD independent of parental intervention. CONCLUSIONS Researchers should continue to examine whether infant-directed media are effective in teaching infants and toddlers content and consider the cognitive factors related to whether very young viewers should be expected to learn from a DVD.

The Ghost in My Body: Children's Developing Concept of the Soul

Two experiments were conducted to explore whether children, who have been exposed to the concept of the soul, differentiate the soul from the mind. In the first experiment, 4- to 12-year-old children were asked about whether a religious ritual affects the mind, the brain, or the soul. The majority of the children claimed that only the soul was different after baptism. In a follow-up study, 6- to 12-year-old children were tested more explicitly on what factors differentiate the soul from the mind and the brain. Children differentiated the soul from the mind and the brain along two dimensions: function and stability. In contrast to their responses about the mind and the brain, children did not claim that the soul was important for cognitive, non-cognitive, or biological functioning. Children consistently indicated that the mind and the brain change and grow over time. In contrast, children indicated that the soul is something that stays constant and is devoted to various, predominantly spiritual, functions.

RESEARCH: Do You See What I See? Young Children's Assumptions About God's Perceptual Abilities

The present study investigated predictions from the preparedness hypothesis that childrens God concepts may not be strictly anthropomorphic along certain dimensions. In particular, 39 American children (ages 3 to 7) predicted the visual, auditory, and olfactory perspectives of humans, animals with special senses, and God. Results revealed that preschoolers distinguished God and the special animals as having greater perceptual access than humans and normal animals, who were predicted to have limited perceptual access. These results offer further support for the theory that in developing a concept of God, even young children differentiate God from humans and resist incorporating certain aspects of the human concept into their concept of God.

Effects of Exergame Play on EF in Children and Adolescents at a Summer Camp for Low Income Youth

Past research has suggested exergame play improves adolescents’ executive function (EF) skills. EF change in 70 African American and Hispanic/Latino 10- to 16-year-olds participating in an inner-city summer camp was assessed following five 30-minute exergame play sessions. Children’s EF scores improved from pre- to posttest, and factors related to this change were examined. The number of exergame sessions the participants attended predicted posttest scores. In addition, level of achievement during game play was related to EF scores. Finally, the children’s level of enjoyment was not related to EF; however, frustration and boredom during game play were negatively related to EF. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for the relationship between exergame play and cognitive benefits for adolescent players.

US preschoolers’ trust of and learning from media characters

Abstract The current study examined the relations between children’s perceptions of character social realism, identification with characters, trust of characters as knowledgeable informants, and learning from media characters. Thirty-six 3½- to 6-year-old children watched a short clip of an animated educational television program about a preschool-aged boy who enjoys learning about science. Participants provided ratings of the character’s social realism, their identification with the character, and their trust in the character as a knowledgeable informant. Participants were asked to solve problems based on information in the video clip. Findings revealed character trust was the strongest indicator of learning from the character. Results are discussed in the context of the different factors that influence learning from curriculum-based media for young children.

Cognitive Foundations in the Development of a Religious Mind

Evolutionary explanations for the existence of religious concepts have generally been based on the premise that the transmission and acquisition of religious concepts is a cognitively easy process because religious concepts build on natural cognitive predispositions. These predispositions evolved as cognitive tools essential to human survival . Theories have focused on several candidate cognitive processes that provide the cognitive foundations of religious beliefs: agency detection, folk-psychology , attributions of causality , and the animacy/inanimacy distinction. In this chapter, we review theories and studies outlining children ’s development of religious concepts such as supernatural agents, creation , religious rituals , afterlife beliefs, and the soul . These studies are discussed within the context of the contributions of ordinary cognition in religious belief , as well as the importance of also considering the cultural influences in the strength and content of belief.