Mares Marie-Louise, Sivakumar Gayathri
Department of Communication Arts.
Department of Journalism and Technical Communication, Colorado State University.
Dev Psychol. 2014 Nov;50(11):2498-511. doi: 10.1037/a0038041.
Educational television for young children often combines factual content with fantasy. In 2 experiments, we examined 3- to 5-year-olds' reality judgments and the implications for their learning. In the 1st study, 145 children watched 3 clips featuring (respectively) a Hispanic, a Chinese American, and an Anglo character. Responses indicated age differences in character-reality judgments (e.g., "X can hear me"), acceptance of fantasy (e.g., talking backpacks), rejection of factual content (i.e., Spanish and Chinese words are "just pretend") but not perceived learning. Perceived reality of Chinese and Spanish words used by the characters partially mediated age differences in word comprehension, controlling for viewer ethnicity. In the 2nd study, 114 children were randomly assigned to see clips featuring either Hispanic or Chinese traditions and words. Age differences in reality judgments were replicated and were partially mediated by children's use of evidence or arguments to justify reality judgments and (to a lesser extent) by their cognitive flexibility. Further, children's reality judgments partially mediated age differences in learning of the educational content. Results suggest that reality distinctions improve with age, contributing to children's learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).
面向幼儿的教育电视节目常常将事实内容与幻想元素结合在一起。在两项实验中，我们考察了3至5岁儿童的现实判断及其对学习的影响。在第一项研究中，145名儿童观看了三段视频片段，分别呈现了一名西班牙裔、一名华裔美国人和一名盎格鲁角色。结果表明，在角色现实判断（如“X能听到我说话”）、对幻想的接受程度（如会说话的背包）、对事实内容的排斥（即西班牙语和中文单词“只是假装的”）方面存在年龄差异，但在感知学习方面不存在年龄差异。角色使用的中文和西班牙文单词的感知现实在一定程度上调节了单词理解方面的年龄差异，同时控制了观众的种族。在第二项研究中，114名儿童被随机分配观看呈现西班牙裔或中国传统及单词的视频片段。现实判断方面的年龄差异得到了重复验证，并且部分由儿童用于证明现实判断的证据或论据的使用情况所调节，（在较小程度上）也由他们的认知灵活性所调节。此外，儿童的现实判断在一定程度上调节了教育内容学习方面的年龄差异。结果表明，现实区分能力随着年龄增长而提高，这有助于儿童的学习。（PsycINFO数据库记录（c）2014美国心理学会，保留所有权利）
