The Influence of Television Content on Very Young Children's Play

自20世纪90年代初以来，美国婴儿和蹒跚学步的孩子越来越多地看电视，包括为他们制作的“婴儿录像带”和电视节目。关于看电视对婴幼儿行为的影响，包括他们玩玩具的影响，人们知之甚少。几乎所有关于人类发展的理论都断言，玩具游戏对认知、社交和身体发展都很重要。众所周知，电视会影响年龄较大的儿童的游戏和游戏主题，但它对幼儿玩具偏好和游戏的影响却鲜为人知。从一个角度来看，可以认为电视对玩耍的影响很小，因为蹒跚学步的孩子几乎不能理解他们在电视上看到的东西。从另一个角度来看，电视可能会产生实质性的影响，因为它可能会影响玩具的偏好，而且据称它会使儿童处于被动的认知和行为模式，并在观看后转移到其他活动中。此外，针对非常年幼的儿童的玩具往往是以电视角色为基础或打上电视角色的烙印。这样的授权产品很贵，所以制造商大概认为非常年幼的孩子对这种品牌反应积极。关于儿童从什么年龄开始喜欢基于电视角色的玩具，以及看电视对儿童的影响在早期是如何发挥作用的，我们一无所知。这项研究考察了电视对1岁和2岁儿童玩耍的影响，包括三种类型的研究，均在实验室游戏室进行。最初的研究确定了儿童在多大年龄形成了对基于电视连续剧的玩具的偏好。这项研究还确定了看电视后玩玩具是否与与父母一起看书后玩玩具不同。具体地说，这项研究考察了电视剧的剧集长度、游戏过程中的注意力集中以及观看电视后的游戏成熟度。其次，这项研究确定了电视角色行为是否会影响幼儿的玩具偏好和游戏类型。孩子们将看到一些电视片段，其中角色参与了亲社会行为，如分享、拥抱或轮流，或者角色参与了攻击性和反社会行为。问题是，年幼的儿童是否表现出对亲社会或反社会的电视角色的偏好，如果是这样，他们的戏剧是否会根据他们观看的内容而有所不同。第三，本研究考察了程序可理解性和程序类型(强调建构活动或强调人物互动)的作用。如果非常年幼的孩子受到内容的影响，那么在观看了以建筑活动为特色的教育节目后，游戏应该强调对建筑玩具的偏好。另一方面，他们应该更喜欢在看完娱乐故事类节目后玩基于角色的玩具。如果他们真的对这些节目有一定的顺序性和语言理解，那么在观看了电视节目的可理解性降低的版本(通过随机排列镜头和倒放对话来创建)后，他们的玩具偏好和玩耍活动应该不会那么明显。1999年，美国儿科学会建议2岁以下儿童不要看电视。自那以后的几项研究报告称，幼儿看电视与认知和语言发育较慢以及注意力缺陷症状有关。然而，目前还不知道是什么因素产生了这些联系，甚至不知道这种关系是否是因果关系。然而，尽管这些研究发出了警告信号，但最近的调查表明，美国婴幼儿看电视的人数稳步增加。目前的研究增加了关于电视影响的可能机制的重要信息，目前尚不清楚。电视对幼儿的游戏行为有影响吗？如果是这样的话，影响的性质是什么？游戏被认为对发育很重要，而且在幼儿醒着的时间中占很大一部分。了解电视是否以及如何影响游戏，可能有助于提供一种可信的机制，通过这种机制，电视以一种累积的方式对发展施加影响。

Since the early 1990s American infants and toddlers have increasingly watched television, including "baby videos" and TV programs that have been made for them. Little is known about the impact of watching television on infant and toddler behavior, including their play with toys. Nearly all theories of human development assert that toy play is important for cognitive, social, and physical development. While it is well known that television influences play and play themes in older children, nothing is known about its impact on toddler toy preference and play. From one point of view it can be supposed that TV has little effect on play because toddlers can understand little of what they see on TV. From another point of view, television may have a substantial effect because it may influence toy preference and it has been claimed to place the child in a passive mode of cognition and behavior that transfers to other activities following viewing. Toys directed at very young children, moreover, are frequently based on or are branded with television characters. Such licensed products are expensive, so presumably the manufacturers believe that very young children positively respond to this branding. Nothing is known about the age at which children begin to prefer toys based on television characters or how TV viewing influences play at early ages. This research examines the effect of television on toy play by 1- and 2-year-old children and consists of three types of studies, all conducted in a laboratory playroom. The initial study determines at what age children develop preferences for toys based on television series. The research also determines whether toy play following TV viewing is different from toy play following a book reading session with a parent. Specifically, the research examines play episode length, focused attention during play, and play maturity following TV viewing. Second, the research determines whether television character behavior influences toy preference and the type of play in which very young children engage. Children will be shown TV segments in which the characters engage in prosocial behavior such as sharing, hugging, or taking turns, or in which characters engage in aggressive and antisocial behavior. The question is whether very young children show preferences for either prosocial or antisocial television characters and if so, whether their play differs based on what they have watched. Third, the research examines the role of program comprehensibility and program type (emphasizing construction activities or emphasizing character interactions). If very young children are affected by content, then play should emphasize preference for construction toys after watching the educational program that features construction activities. On the other hand, they should prefer play with toys based on characters after watching the entertainment story-based program. If they actually have some sequential and linguistic understanding of the programs, their toy preference and play activity should be much less pronounced after watching reduced-comprehensibility versions of the TV programs (created by putting shots in random order and making dialogue run backwards). In 1999 the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that children under 2 years of age not watch television. Several studies since then have reported that TV viewing by very young children is associated with slower cognitive and language development as well as attention deficit symptoms. It is not known, however, what factors produce these associations, or even whether the relationship is causal. Nevertheless, despite the warning flags raised by these studies, recent surveys have indicated that TV viewing by American infants and toddlers has steadily increased. The present research adds important information about possible mechanisms of television influence where nothing is now known. Does television influence play behavior in very young children? If so, what is the nature of the influence? Play is thought to be developmentally important and also constitutes a large portion of very young children's waking time. Knowing whether and how television influences play may help provide one plausible mechanism by which television, in a cumulative fashion, exerts an influence on development.