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看电视，包括为他们制作的“婴儿录像”和电视节目。关于看电视对婴幼儿行为的影响，包括对他们玩玩具的影响，我们知之甚少。几乎所有关于人类发展的理论都断言，玩玩具对认知、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，但对电视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，可以认为电视对玩耍的影响很小，因为幼儿对电视上看到的东西理解得很少。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偏好，并且有人声称它会将儿童置于被动的认知和行为模式中，这种模式会在观看后转移到其他活动中。此外，针对幼童的玩具经常以电视人物为原型或打上电视人物的烙印。这样的授权产品很贵，所以制造商可能认为非常小的孩子会对这种品牌做出积极的反应。孩子们从什么时候开始喜欢以电视人物为原型的玩具，或者看电视对他们小时候的游戏有什么影响，目前还不得而知。这项研究考察了电视对1岁和2岁儿童玩玩具的影响，包括三种类型的研究，都是在实验室游戏室进行的。最初的研究确定了孩子在什么年龄会对基于电视连续剧的玩具产生偏好。这项研究还确定了看电视后玩玩具与和父母一起读书后玩玩具是否不同。具体来说，该研究考察了游戏的剧集长度、游戏期间的注意力集中以及观看电视后的游戏成熟度。其次，研究确定电视角色的行为是否影响玩具偏好和幼儿参与的游戏类型。孩子们将会在电视上看到角色进行分享、拥抱、轮流等亲社会行为的片段，或者角色进行攻击性和反社会行为的片段。问题是，年幼的孩子是否会对亲社会或反社会的电视角色表现出偏好，如果是这样，他们的游戏是否会因他们所观看的节目而有所不同。第三，研究考察了节目可理解性和节目类型（强调建构活动或强调人物互动）的作用。如果很小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，他们应该在观看娱乐故事节目后更喜欢玩基于角色的玩具。如果他们确实对节目有一定的顺序和语言理解，那么在观看了可理解性较低的电视节目版本（通过随机排列镜头和让对话倒着播放来创造）后，他们的玩具偏好和游戏活动应该不那么明显。1999年，美国儿科学会建议两岁以下的儿童不要看电视。此后的几项研究报告称，很小的孩子看电视与认知和语言发展较慢以及注意力缺陷症状有关。然而，究竟是什么因素导致了这些关联，甚至这种关系是否存在因果关系，目前还不得而知。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时间正在稳步增加。目前的研究增加了关于电视影响的可能机制的重要信息，目前还不知道。电视会影响幼儿的游戏行为吗？如果有，影响的性质是什么？玩耍被认为对发展很重要，也占了很小的孩子醒着的时间的很大一部分。了解电视是否以及如何影响玩耍可能有助于提供一种合理的机制，通过这种机制，电视以一种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.