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TV for Tots: Early Learning Project Measures the Impact

"The finding that infants as young as 6 months of age are able to view something on television and then translate that information into the real world is fascinating."

For many parents, television can be an attractive babysitter­­—even for children younger than 2 years old. But what can babies pick up from exposure to such media, and under what conditions? These questions form the basis of the research conducted at the Georgetown Early Learning Project, established by Dr. Rachel Barr, Assistant Professor of Psychology.

Dr. Barr and her team of more than 30 undergraduates and several graduate students conduct research on the learning abilities of children younger than 2 years of age to determine what babies actually learn from television. The results from the Early Learning Project’s studies can be used in developing guidelines for appropriateness of television and educational films for babies.

In today’s media-saturated culture, children are being exposed to television and movies at increasingly younger ages. Although the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends completely restricting exposure for children under 2, a 2006 Kaiser Family Foundation report found that in an average day, 61 percent of children below age 2 watched television or a video for one hour and 19 minutes. Some studies have suggested such exposure has detrimental effects on sleep, cognition, and behavior. Others suggest that educational content in the media can have positive effects. The Early Learning Project attempts to determine exactly what impact this exposure has on infant learning and memory.

“I am fascinated by how babies process information and how they are able to pick it up from so many sources,” says Dr. Barr. “With the ever-increasing amount of media and electronic toys available to them, systematically studying what and how they learn from such media seems like the obvious next step.”

Dr. Barr and her student researchers use imitation as a gauge of learning abilities in infants. When a baby copies a behavior, it indicates that he or she has formed a memory of another person’s behavior and thus has learned something new. The Early Learning Project uses games with the babies to determine whether they can imitate behaviors better when demonstrated live, or whether a televised version of the demonstration is just as effective.

One such game involves a hand puppet with a mitten with a bell inside; when the mitten is removed, the bell can be rung. Researchers remove the mitten and ring the bell in front of the infant, then return 24 hours later to see if the baby imitates the action by removing and shaking the mitten. Dr. Barr and her students form conclusions about the impact of television on learning by providing the demonstration to some babies live and others through television. Initial results show that babies can quickly imitate behaviors after a live demonstration, but they have more difficulty doing so after watching a video of the same behavior.

Two recent studies currently in press at Developmental Science and Developmental Psychobiology, by Barr and Georgetown student researchers Paul Muentener, Amaya Garcia, Melissa Fujimoto, and Veronica Chavez, determined that infants 6 months old were able to imitate the action equally well from a video demonstration as a live demonstration. Babies 12 months old were able to imitate from the video as well only when the duration of the video exposure was doubled. This trend of a repetition requirement for the video learning continued as babies aged, suggesting that infants 6 months old retain information from television, but that repetition of the video demonstration is needed for older infants.

“Our most significant finding has been new information on infant learning from television,” Dr. Barr says. “The finding that infants as young as 6 months of age are able to view something on television and then translate that information into the real world is fascinating. Equally fascinating is the difficulty that babies have in this translation process and how something as simple as repetition can help them in this demanding cognitive task.”

The study’s indication that babies remember how to make a toy work based on a demonstration they saw on television the previous day demonstrates that the content of television programs infants are exposed to really does matter. Dr. Barr advises producers of television shows aimed at an infant audience to carefully consider what content is appropriate because babies do remember what they see.

Dr. Barr also recommends parents monitor the type of content and amount of exposure their children—especially infants—to television. The Early Learning Project research also means background television, which has little impact on most adults, does in fact impact babies, including interrupting the play time that is critical to cognitive development. Barr, a mother of a 2 year old, suggests that parents watching shows with their children can add depth and value to the show.

Building upon their findings pertaining to visual learning, Barr and her student colleagues are continuing their work on the Early Learning Project by examining how music and sound effects, popular with many of the television programs and videos, impact the infant learning process.

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