Unit 3 Flashcards
What year did Sesame Street start?
1969
What was the goal/target of Sesame Street?
-foster intellectual and cultural development in preschoolers -target academic skills and socio-emotional skills -for children from low-income and marginalized bgs
Why did Sesame Street mix the cartoon and muppets sections with human characters?
Research showed kids were most interested in cartoons and the Muppets -the human characters had tedious dialogue scenes
What did studies find in regards to Sesame Street?
Linked w/ academic skills –> school preparedness, cognitive skills, vocab -learning about the world, social reasoning & attitudes towards outgroups
- can persist for long time -higher hs grades in math, science, and english
- most impact for 3-5yr olds
- no difference across international
- little evidence on gender, but indication that bigger impact for girls
- significant impact for low & mid SES -& high
What population level effects did Sesame Street have?
-communities w/ SS had more kids in the right grade level (versus having kids behind a grade) -the presence of this 1 show effected academic level of children
What did the study with Super Why prove? And what was the study?
- effected literacy skills in children who watched it -improved -experimental study - randomly assigned kids of same level to watch SW or a science program - both went up but SW group went much higher
- can’t teach grammar
Can TV teach children?
- yes, but depends on processing the narrative -then edu content comprehension -& distance
- can teach literacy skills, socio-emotional skills, school preparedness -but can’t teach more complex skills such as grammar
Does media rot your brain? And where does this idea come from?
No it doesn’t necessarily
-comes from Reduction Hypothesis
What is the Reduction Hypothesis?
- consuming high amounts of media leads to poor academic achievement & will reduce academic abilities
- no evidence to support this
- there is a correlation *
What concepts are included in the Reduction Hypothesis?
- Time Displacement
- Mental effort
- Attention & impulsivity
What is the concept of Time Displacement (included in the Reduction Hypothesis)? & what are the findings? The exception?
- you only have X amount of time in the day and media takes away from intellectually beneficial activities
- but media actually displaces other media, not a reduction of intellectual activities
- the exception - replaces reading for young children -impacts reading acquisition
What is the concept of mental effort (included in the Reduction Hypothesis)?
media use is passive and causes passive thinking to become the norm
- no data to support this
- does not include the content, only the medium
What is the concept of attention and impulsivity (included in the Reduction Hypothesis)?
shortens attention span and increases impulsive behaviour - causing a kid to struggle in an academic setting
-no research to support this
Between Mental effort, attention & impulsivity, and time displacement, which have sufficient data?
- time displacement has limited data
- both mental effort and attention & impulsivity don’t have enough data
How can we explain the correlations btw amount of media use and academic achievement if there isn’t sufficient data?
a 3rd variable? -individuals who watch a high amount of media might be the type who struggles academically -or come from low socioeconomic households -parental involvement
What is the ‘Goldilocks’ theory when it comes to media use and academic achievement?
- just right amount of media use to increase academic achievement, but too much will put you over the curvilinear pattern and you’ll start to do worse -positive correlation then peak then negative w/ heavy use
- some say it’s 10hrs/wk others say 3hrs/wk -others say it varies by age