Megan Geerdts Doctoral Dissertation 5.1.14
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
ANTHROPOMORPHIC MEDIA AND CHILDREN’S BIOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE by MEGAN GEERDTS A Dissertation submitted to the Graduate School-Newark Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in Psychology written under the direction of Dr. Gretchen Van de Walle and approved by _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ Newark, New Jersey May 2014 © 2014 Megan Geerdts ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Anthropomorphic Media and Children’s Biological Knowledge By MEGAN GEERDTS Dissertation Director: Gretchen Van de Walle Anthropomorphism, the attribution of human characteristics to non-human entities, has long been a staple of children’s media. However, little research has directly measured the effect of anthropomorphism on children’s developing conceptual knowledge about animals. How does seeing a dancing, talking bear that lives in a house impact children’s understanding of biological and psychological properties of real bears? In Studies 1 and 2, the use of anthropomorphism in popular children’s television and storybooks was analyzed. In Study 3, parents reported on their children’s actual exposure to and preference for anthropomorphic media, verifying the findings in Studies 1 and 2. In Study 4, a parent-child storybook reading paradigm explored parent’s own use of biological and social language to explain biological properties to their children. Finally, in Study 5 we experimentally examined the impact of anthropomorphic language and/or pictures in storybooks on children’s anthropocentrism and learning about biological properties. Contrary to previous research, storybooks with anthropomorphic pictures led to an increase in children’s willingness to project a novel biological property from both humans and animals to other animals, thus decreasing anthropocentrism. Boys who were read a storybook with anthropomorphic pictures showed the highest performance on a ii generalization task. Additionally, both boys and girls provided higher-level explanations about the biological property after being read an anthropomorphic storybook. Thus, anthropomorphic media may actually help children learn by increasing similarities between humans and animals. Suggestions for future research are discussed. The current research sheds important light on the educational implications of anthropomorphism in children’s media, parent-child interaction, early childhood science education, and the development of children’s biological concepts. iii Preface This dissertation is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Rutgers University, Newark. The research described herein was conducted under the supervision of Dr. Gretchen Van de Walle in the Department of Psychology, Rutgers University, Newark, between May 2012 and May 2014. The work is an original intellectual product of the author, M. Geerdts, except where acknowledgements and references are made to previous work. Neither this, nor any substantially similar dissertation has been or is being submitted for any other degree, diploma, or other qualification at any other university. Part of this work has been presented in the following conference formats: Geerdts, M., Kim, V., & Van de Walle, G. (2013, April). “Biological Explanations in Parent-Child Storybook Reading.” Poster presented at biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Seattle, WA. Geerdts, M. & Kim, V. (2012, October). “The Relation of Shared Storybook Reading to Children’s Biological Understanding of Inheritance.” Poster presented at annual meeting of the New England Psychological Association, Worcester, MA. iv Acknowledgement I am incredible grateful for the support of my advisor, Dr. Gretchen Van de Walle, who has generously provided me with support, advice, and resources over the past five years that have been instrumental in helping me become the researcher and scholar I am today. I am especially appreciative to Dr. Vanessa LoBue for am immeasurable amount of writing, editing, and research support over the past two years. I thank the other members of my committee, Dr. Paul Boxer and Dr. Jennifer Kotler Clarke, for their insightful and supportive comments, suggestions, and edits. This research has been funded in part through the Rutgers-Newark Psychology Department Dissertation Research Fund. I would also like to thank past and present members of the Child Research Labs who provided both friendship and research support, in particular to Katy-Ann Blacker, Kaleigh Matthews, Teresa Harvey, Jennifer Irving, and Vivian Kim. Thanks also to my friends and the people I met during my time at Rutgers University, Newark, especially the members of the Graduate Student Government Association. Finally, to my family for their love, encouragement, and support. Thank you for everything you have done in the past and everything you continue to do that has allowed me to complete this dissertation and pursue my dreams. v Table of Contents Chapter Page 1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………... 1 1.1 Why do we Anthropomorphize? …………………………………………. 1 1.2 The use of Anthropomorphism in Popular Media………………………... 6 1.3 Transfer of Behavioral Knowledge from Media to Reality………………. 8 1.4 Anthropomorphism and Biological Knowledge Development…………… 12 1.5 Current Research………...…………….………………………………….. 16 2 Study 1………...…………….………………………………………………….. 20 2.1 Methods………...…………….…………………………………………… 22 2.1.1 Coding………...…………….…………………………………….. 22 2.2 Results………...…………….…………………………………………….. 24 2.3 Discussion………...…………….………………………………………… 25 3 Study 2………...…………….………………………………………………….. 26 3.1 Methods………...…………….…………………………………………… 29 3.1.1 Coding………...…………….…………………………………….. 29 3.2 Results………...…………….…………………………………………….. 33 3.2.1 Anthropomorphism………...…………….……………………….. 34 3.2.2 Biological Mechanisms………...…………….…………………… 35 3.3 Discussion………...…………….………………………………………… 36 4 Study 3………...…………….………………………………………………….. 38 4.1 Methods………...…………….…………………………………………… 39 vi 4.1.1 Participants………...…………….………………………………... 39 4.1.2 Procedure………...…………….………………………………….. 39 4.1.3 Coding………...…………….…………………………………….. 40 4.2 Results………...…………….………………………………...…………... 40 4.3 Discussion………...…………….………………………………...………. 42 5 Study 4………...…………….………………………………...………………... 44 5.1 Methods………...…………….……………………………….................... 47 5.1.1 Participants………...…………….………………………………... 47 5.1.2 Materials………...…………….………………………………....... 47 5.1.3 Procedure………...…………….………………………………...... 48 5.1.4 Coding………...…………….……………………………….......... 49 5.2 Results………...…………….………………………………...................... 50 5.2.1 Storybook Reading………...…………….………………………... 50 5.2.2 Post-test………...…………….………………………………….... 51 5.3 Discussion………...…………….…………………………………............ 52 6 Study 5………...…………….………………………………….......................... 54 6.1 Methods………...…………….…………………………………............... 60 6.1.1 Participants………...…………….………………………………... 60 6.1.2 Procedure………...…………….………………………………….. 61 6.2 Results………...…………….………………………………….................. 66 6.2.1 Children’s biological and psychological concepts about animals 66 6.2.3 Children’s comprehension and learning about camouflage…….. 70 vii 6.3 Discussion….………...…………….………………………………….... 73 7 General Discussion………...…………….…………………………………..... 79 References……………………………….…………………………………............. 88 Tables Table 1……………………………….…………………………………........... 96 Table 2……………………………….…………………………………........... 97 Figures Figure Captions……………………………….………………………………. 98 Figure 1……………………………….………………………………….......... 99 Figure 2……………………………….………………………………….......... 100 Figure 3……………………………….………………………………….......... 101 Figure 4……………………………….………………………………….......... 102 Figure 5……………………………….………………………………….......... 103 Figure 6……………………………….………………………………….......... 104 Figure 7……………………………….………………………………….......... 105 Figure 8……………………………….………………………………….......... 106 Appendices Appendix A……………………………….…………………………………... 107 Appendix B……………………………….…………………………………... 109 Appendix C……………………………….…………………………………... 112 Appendix D……………………………….…………………………………... 113 viii List of Tables Table Page 1 Number of storybooks (and percent) with anthropomorphic language and/or 96 pictures in Study 2…………………………………………………………... 2 Mean number of utterances per parent and percent of parents who provided 97 at least one coded statement………………………………………………… ix List of Illustrations Figure Page 1 The distribution of television shows falling into each of the three coding 99 categories: educational, format, and subject…….…………………………... 2 The percentage and number of younger and older children’s favorite screen 100 media and books that feature anthropomorphic animals. …….…………….. 3 Examples of drawings and scripts from the factual and anthropomorphic 101 camouflage storybooks in Study 5…………………………………………... 4 Sample trial of our modified biological induction task based on Tarlowski 102 (2006) featuring base (top left), biological property (bottom left), and 3x3 array of targets. …….…………………………...…….…………………….. 5 Percentage of children in each of the three storybook picture conditions 103 (control, realistic, anthropomorphic) who attributed the novel biological property from humans to animals and from dogs to animals……………….. 6 Percentage of children who used anthropomorphic language when recalling 104 the story within each of the four storybook conditions……………………... 7 Mean number of correct generalization predictions by boys and girls