Date of Award

2013

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Barton, Michelle

Keywords

Children, Child, Development, Education, Puppet, Television

Area of Concentration

Psychology

Abstract

The current study explored whether different character types in a video program designed to educate 4- and 5-year-olds affects learning. Each child was randomly assigned to watch a video with human, puppet, or a combination of the character types. Before watching the video, each child was tested for theory of mind development and ability to replicate and continue ABAB and ABCABC patterns using blocks. During the video, the two characters, Alex and Jessie, built block towers using the same patterns. When Jessie accidentally knocked the tower down, Jessie asked the child what to do to make Alex feel better. The experimenter measured the child's ability to generate an apology. After the video, each child repeated the pattern replication task using different colored blocks and was asked what they would do if they broke their friend's toy. The pre-video pattern replication task resulted in a ceiling effect. The apology generation task showed that the children learned to apologize after watching the video regardless of character type. Theory of mind development did not predict ability to generate apologies. These findings provide parents with information about the programs their children watch on television.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida Libraries, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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