Specific impact of radio and television on children's story comprehension.

A cross-media comparison of TV and radio elucidated the specific strengths of each medium for transmitting explicit and implicit story content. 48 elementary school children in 2 age groups (6.5–8 yrs and 9–10.5 yrs) were exposed to an animated audiovisual (TV) and an audio (radio) story. A narration of the original story text served as the common soundtrack. The design was counterbalanced for story-medium combinations and orders. Except for the inclusion of characters, recall of the explicit story content was equivalent across media. However, recall of details from the story was improved with a TV presentation. Recognition of expressive language was facilitated by a radio story, whereas picture sequencing was augmented by a TV story. The radio story also elevated the use of knowledge unrelated to the story for inferences by younger Ss and verbal sources for both ages, whereas the TV story enhanced inferences based on actions. Findings emphasize the need to consider the differential impact of media for conveying explicit and implicit content. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of structure and strategy in two-dimensional pictures.

The development of 2 structural principles, hierarchical complexity and interruption, was examined in a new domain, 2-dimensional pictures. Using felt pieces, 20 children in each of 3 age groups (4–4.5, 4.5–5, and 5–5.5 yrs) were asked to reproduce felt pictures of flower arrangements constituting tree structures of different levels of hierarchical complexity. For each model, task difficulty was varied by requiring Ss to construct pictures either with whole flowers or with component pieces. The ability to reproduce the models formed a Guttman scale according to tree structure complexity, and older Ss scored higher on the scale than younger Ss. Thus, hierarchical complexity has a developmental role in the pictorial domain, as in language and 3-dimensional construction. The construction process was analyzed in terms of uninterrupted and interrupted strategies. Unlike earlier results with abstract (nonfigural) 3-dimensional construction tasks, the present Ss did not avoid interrupted strategies. The lack of strategy preference with whole flowers and the development of a preference for interrupted strategies with components may stem from the fact that the strong figural and thematic aspects of the models reduced the cognitive complexity of an interrupted strategy. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Radio vs. Television: Their Cognitive Impact on Children of Different Socioeconomic and Ethnic Groups

For a sample of first- through fourth-grade children, bearing an audiotaped version of a story stimulated more imaginative responses (especially among working-class children) than watching an animated version, which for its part led to superior recall of story information.