How do you get a preverbal infant to tell you anything?
One way to find out is to take advantage of the fact that infants are born imitators. Parents notice that even at birth infants imitate facial gestures. By the time they are a year old they have a wide repertoire of behaviors they imitate, from pointing the remote control at the TV, to playing peek-a-boo, talking on the phone, or fake coughing. So we can show infants how to make a toy work and bring it back a day later and see if they imitate the actions. In order to imitate the actions, they have to remember what they saw the day before.
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What do Babies See on TV?
Since previous research has not focused on television exposure in infants, we aim to get an understanding of how much and what kind of TV babies regularly see in homes today. We ask you to fill out a television diary so that we can get an idea of what aspects of shows or videos your baby seems to enjoy. In addition, we ask for your opinion about the quality of programming for your baby. |
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If your baby is in childcare, we may ask your permission to give your childcare provider a similar questionnaire. We are interested in media-viewing differences when children are with their parents as opposed to caregivers.
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Infant-Directed Videos
In this study, we show a 15-minute segment of either a Baby Mozart or a Sesame Street video to your baby. We are investigating how cartoon sound effects and music in these two videos affect infant visual attention. |
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We are also looking to see if babies pay more attention to parts of the videos that feature familiar characters or music, such as Elmo or the music of Mozart.
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The Puppet Game
We will show your baby one of these puppets. It is hard to see, but there is a mitten on the right hand, with a bell inside. We will show your baby that the mitten can come off, and shake it to ring the bell inside. |
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When we return the next day, we will see if your baby tries to copy what we did by removing and shaking the mitten. If (s)he does, we can say that (s)he remembers what we showed them the day before. To read an article that has used this task, click here.
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The Rattle Game
We can show your baby how to make a rattle by putting the ball into the jar, placing the stick on top, and shaking the rattle. |
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Will children learn better if this demonstration is seen in a book, on a television, or live?
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The Touchscreen
In one demonstration, we will show your baby, either live or on a touch screen, a pair of toys to play with: a fire truck or a school bus, a duck or a cow. |
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We will teach your baby where to press the wooden toy so as to produce a sound, such as a siren or a moo. Will babies be more likely to learn from a real-life demonstration than from visual media?
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