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

自 20 世纪 90 年代初以来，美国婴幼儿越来越多地观看电视，包括“婴儿视频”和为他们制作的电视节目。 人们对看电视对婴幼儿行为（包括他们玩玩具）的影响知之甚少。 几乎所有人类发展理论都声称玩具游戏对于认知、社交和身体发展很重要。 众所周知，电视会影响年龄较大的儿童的游戏和游戏主题，但对其对幼儿玩具偏好和游戏的影响却一无所知。 从一个角度来看，可以认为电视对游戏影响不大，因为幼儿几乎无法理解他们在电视上看到的内容。 从另一个角度来看，电视可能会产生重大影响，因为它可能会影响玩具偏好，并且据称会使孩子处于被动的认知和行为模式，并在观看后转移到其他活动。 此外，针对幼儿的玩具常常以电视角色为基础或以电视角色为品牌。 此类授权产品价格昂贵，因此制造商大概认为年幼的儿童会对这种品牌做出积极反应。 我们不知道孩子们在什么年龄开始喜欢基于电视角色的玩具，也不知道电视观看对孩子的早期玩耍有何影响。 这项研究考察了电视对 1 岁和 2 岁儿童玩玩具的影响，由三类研究组成，全部在实验室游戏室进行。 初步研究确定了儿童在什么年龄开始对电视剧中的玩具产生偏好。 该研究还确定了看电视后玩玩具是否不同于与父母一起读书后玩玩具。 具体来说，该研究考察了游戏剧集长度、游戏过程中的注意力集中以及电视观看后的游戏成熟度。 其次，该研究确定电视角色的行为是否会影响幼儿的玩具偏好和游戏类型。 孩子们会看到电视片段，其中的角色有亲社会行为，如分享、拥抱或轮流，或者角色有攻击性和反社会行为。 问题是年幼的孩子是否表现出对亲社会或反社会电视角色的偏好，如果是的话，他们的游戏是否会根据他们所观看的内容而有所不同。 第三，研究考察了程序可理解性和程序类型（强调构建活动或强调角色交互）的作用。 如果很小的孩子会受到内容的影响，那么在观看以拼搭活动为特色的教育节目后，玩耍时应强调对拼搭玩具的偏好。 另一方面，在观看基于故事的娱乐节目后，他们应该更喜欢玩基于角色的玩具。 如果他们实际上对节目有一定的顺序和语言理解，那么在观看电视节目的可理解性降低版本（通过以随机顺序排列镜头并使对话向后运行而创建）后，他们的玩具偏好和游戏活动应该不那么明显。 1999年，美国儿科学会建议2岁以下的儿童不要看电视。 此后的几项研究报告称，幼儿看电视与认知和语言发展缓慢以及注意力缺陷症状有关。 然而，尚不清楚是什么因素产生了这些关联，甚至不知道这种关系是否是因果关系。 然而，尽管这些研究提出了警告，但最近的调查表明，美国婴幼儿看电视的次数稳步增加。 目前的研究增加了有关电视影响的可能机制的重要信息，但目前尚不清楚。 电视会影响幼儿的游戏行为吗？ 如果是这样，影响的本质是什么？ 游戏被认为对孩子的成长非常重要，并且占据了幼儿清醒时间的很大一部分。 了解电视是否以及如何影响游戏可能有助于提供一种合理的机制，电视可以通过这种机制以累积的方式对发展产生影响。

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.