Effects of Prior Experience on Children's Use of Symbols

Vanderbilt University, Nashville TN

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Linked publications & trials

Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Learning to use symbols is a challenge for young children, even when the symbol in question (a live video image or a picture) is iconic and seems transparent to adults. Video and pictures are probably the first symbols to which many young children are systematically exposed, typically in the form of educational videos for toddlers and during nightly picture-book reading sessions with their parents. The purpose of the proposed research is to examine the effect of prior experience on young children's understanding and use of pictorial symbols (video and pictures). The first study examines transfer across symbol types--a potential mechanism for symbolic development. Children's prior experience will involve live video, but they will be tested with pictures in the lab. To succeed, children will need to abstract what is common between a video image on TV and a small photograph (i.e., the fact that both can give information about a real situation). In the second study, 2-year-old children will be given extensive picture experience at home that may help them succeed at a lab task that has proven difficult for their age group (using a picture as a clue to find a hidden object). The experiments grew out of a previous body of work on symbolic transfer abilities of young children. A final proposed study explores a potential application of this paradigm: it will test whether experience with live video helps young children to learn from educational television. The proposed research should expand our knowledge of the early development of symbolization. Given the proliferation of educational television programs specifically designed for toddlers, the final study may suggest a way to promote early learning from video.