The Children's Digital Media Center and the Georgetown Early Learning Project have been working together on this naturalistic longitudinal study to examine the relationship between early media exposure and preschool outcomes.

Parents completed detailed TV viewing diaries and questionnaires when their children were infants and again when they were preschoolers. At age 4, all children were visited in their homes and watched two popular children’s programs, read two children’s books, and played two children’s computer games. The children also completed a serious of cognitive tasks.

The Relation between Infant Exposure to Television and Executive Functioning, Cognitive Skills, and School Readiness and Age Four in a Low-risk Sample:

We found no relationship between children’s amount of exposure to children’s television shows when they were infants and their performance on cognitive measures when they were four-years-old. However, children that viewed high levels of television created for an adult audience performed worse on measures related to attention.

For more information contact Alexis Lauricella: arl7@georgetown.edu

Very Young Children's Learning from Video Presentations
based on Familiar and Unfamiliar Characters

The Children’s Digital Media Center studied how very young children learn a cognitively challenging task from a familiar versus an unfamiliar television character. To do so, we developed a Piagetian seriation task that tests children’s skills to put multiple objects in order by size.

In the initial study, 21-month-old children either view a demonstration of how to seriate the objects or are just given the objects without a demonstration to assess their spontaneous behavior. The children that view the demonstration of the seriation task are shown the demonstration in one of three ways. 1. Children view the demonstration performed by a popular children’s television character on a video; 2. Children view the demonstration performed by an unknown children’s television character on a video; or 3. Children view the demonstration performed by and adult experimenter in their home. After viewing the video, children are given the nesting cups that were used in the video. Results indicate that children learn more after viewing the video of the familiar than the unfamiliar character perform the seriation task.

For more information contact Alexis Lauricella: arl7@georgetown.edu

Pace Study

Although many DVDs and television shows have recently been created for infants and toddlers, little empirical research has examined how certain video features affect very young children’s attention to the screen. We recently investigated the effect of pace (i.e., the number of scene and character changes) on 6-, 9-, and 12-month-olds’ attention to the screen.

We coded fifty-six popular children’s videos for the rate of pace. We then extracted five-minute segments from two of the lowest and highest paced videos. Children then saw one high-paced video and one low-paced video, counterbalanced for order.

Results suggest that across age and gender, children watched the high-paced videos significantly longer than the low-paced videos (71% of the time versus 60%, respectively). Further analyses revealed that 6- and 9-month-olds watch significantly more of the high-paced videos; however, there were no differences in looking time among the 12-month-olds between the high- and low-paced videos. These results support Huston and Wright’s (1983) hypothesis that perceptual salience initially elicits attention and interest in younger children, but as children develop cognitively and gain more experience with media, other factors begin to play a role in eliciting and sustaining their attention the screen.

For more information contact Alice Ann Howard: amh243@georgeton.edu

Wii Sports Tennis Study

With the recent introduction of the Nintendo Wii, video games are a way to address a lack of physical activity in schools as well as in the home. The Nintendo Wii console requires movement in 3D space that is translated onto the 2D screen of a TV. Due to the physical activity required for game play, the Nintendo Wii is an “exergame,” combining physical exercise with gaming entertainment. Although one study demonstrates that adolescent athletes who play the Wii Sports games expend more energy than those who play a traditional video game, little is known about other potentially beneficial outcomes of active video games, including psychosocial and cognitive outcomes.

During the summer of 2008, our team provided an “alternative gym class” to middle and high school low-income African American students through a one hour daily course that was part of an academic curriculum. Two treatment conditions played the Wii tennis game; students were randomly assigned to either the “solitary” condition (in which they played alone against the console) or to the “social” condition (in which they played against a peer on the console). The control condition participated in a sedentary academic activity in which they create digital documentaries of their summer experience.

Our study involved a pretest/posttest design in which physiological characteristics pertaining to body weight and caloric expenditure were assessed. Additionally, psychosocial measures of body image, self-esteem, motivation, and exercise self-efficacy were monitored as well as cognitive transfer effects of game play, tennis stroke production, and learning the rules of the game.

Results indicate that there was a main effect of condition on caloric expenditure, with students in the social condition expending more calories than students in the solitary condition, which in turn expended more calories than the control condition. Gender differences reveal that males burned more calories than females. Analysis of daily enjoyment surveys indicate the females enjoyed playing the Wii more than males. This research can guide game developers as they create the next generation of exergames, potentially yielding positive effects on the health of our nation’s youth.

For more information contact Amanda Exner: ale26@georgetown.edu

Wii Active Study

In a follow-up study of the effects of Wii exergame play on adolescents' physical, cognitive, and social health, the Children's Digital Media Center is teaming up with pediatricians Dr. Anisha Abraham and Dr. Kirsten Hawkins to implement a 7 month physical activity intervention using the Wii Active game. This intervention is being conducted this fall 2009 and spring 2010 with 60 overweight high school students at an inner-city public high school in D.C. Students will play the Wii Active game for 45 minutes per day, 5 days per week. Students will be tested for caloric expenditure and weight loss; cognitive and executive control skills including attention and concentration; and social outcomes including peer interaction and friendship formation. Results will be analyzed for publication in the summer of 2010.

For more information contact Amanda Exner: ale26@georgetown.edu

Digital Expression

Digital media, a ubiquitous part of daily life, may be an important way through which contemporary adolescents are forming and communicating their identities, and sharing experiences with others. This study examined how 24 urban, low-income African American adolescents digitally expressed themselves through film documentaries in a summer college-preparatory program. The results suggest that youth who traditionally face many barriers due to economic inequalities focus on academic achievement and relationships with peers in an academic summer camp setting. Moreover, urban, low-income African American youth can express their unique and shared stories through digital media.

For more information contact Christina Baker: cmb227@georgetown.edu