Be Kind to Three-Legged Dogs: Children's Literal Interpretations of TV's Moral Lessons

Mares, Marie‐Louise; Acosta, Emily Elizabeth

doi:10.1080/15213260802204355

Cited by 65 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 38 publications

(49 reference statements)

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“…There is some question as to whether children understand these moral messages. For example, Mares and Acosta (2008) found that children had difficulty articulating the underlying moral message of a television program that involved fictional animal characters. Children may not be able to articulate the moral of the story, but the moral may influence their behavior nonetheless.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Indirect goal priming is more powerful than explicit instruction in children

Kesek

Cunningham

Packer

et al. 2011

Developmental Science

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This study examined the relative efficacy of explicit instruction and indirect priming on young children's behavior in a task that required a series of choices between a small immediate reward and a larger delayed reward. One hundread and six 4-year-old children were randomly assigned to one of four conditions involving one of two goals (maximize rewards or obtain immediate rewards) and one of two types of instruction (indirect priming using stories or explicit verbal instructions). Children were more likely to make goal-congruent choices as a result of indirect priming, but there was no effect of explicit instruction, suggesting that indirect approaches to changing young children's behavior may be more effective than direct approaches under some circumstances. These results have implications for understanding the dynamic interplay between bottom-up and top-down influences on self-regulation early in development.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Indirect goal priming is more powerful than explicit instruction in children

Kesek

Cunningham

Packer

et al. 2011

Developmental Science

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“…Some studies have suggested that preschool children may have difficulty in understanding the abstract messages embedded into children’s programming. Research into children’s comprehension of the moral lessons in television shows would suggest that preschool‐ and kindergarten‐aged children generally do not learn the complicated, thematic elements that program designers embed into their stories (Mares, 2006; Mares & Acosta, 2008). In one study, 5‐ and 6‐year‐old children learned a moral from watching Clifford the Big Red Dog but did not transfer the moral outside the boundaries of the story (Mares & Acosta, 2008).…”

Section: The Preschool Years: Learning From Screen Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Research into children’s comprehension of the moral lessons in television shows would suggest that preschool‐ and kindergarten‐aged children generally do not learn the complicated, thematic elements that program designers embed into their stories (Mares, 2006; Mares & Acosta, 2008). In one study, 5‐ and 6‐year‐old children learned a moral from watching Clifford the Big Red Dog but did not transfer the moral outside the boundaries of the story (Mares & Acosta, 2008). In another study, 3‐ to 5‐year‐old children were more likely to learn a moral lesson that could be demonstrated concretely (i.e., cooperation) rather than abstractly (i.e., honesty; Fisch, Brown, & Cohen, 2001).…”

Section: The Preschool Years: Learning From Screen Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%

Media as Social Partners: The Social Nature of Young Children’s Learning From Screen Media

2011

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Television has become a nearly ubiquitous feature in children's cultural landscape. A review of the research into young children's 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.

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“…The developmental stage of some respondents here necessitated a simplistic and crude assessment of communication sources and content. Future work should use more refined measurements to include more nuanced sources and content to test effects (e.g., Mares& Acosta, 2008;Farnall & Smith, 1999), for a comprehensive study of social learning.…”

Section: Limitations and Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%