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The Georgetown Early Learning Project is currently focusing its research on understanding how children under the age of 2 interact with television. The goal of our current project is to investigate how infants transfer learning from television to the real world and how this ability may change across the second year of life.

From a practical point of view, our research may help guide the development of television programming for infants. The more we know about how babies learn from television, the more likely we are to produce high-quality programs for them. From a theoretical point of view, this research helps us to understand the mechanisms by which babies transfer two-dimensional information to their three-dimensional environment and remember it for later use. This is especially important when you consider that our environment is composed of many other two-dimensional objects, such as pictures or books or the computer screen that you are reading now.

Can I see that again? Study 2 -- Puppet Game 30th August 2007
This study is based on the same empirical premise as the Rattle and Animal Toy study (see Can I see that again? Study 1)

The study will appear in the journal Developmental Science

To view complete findings on this study please click here
Can I see that again?--Study 1: Rattle and Animal 30th August 2007
Has your child ever seen the same video more than once? If so, this increased viewing may have increased their comprehension. Past research has shown that infants learn less from television than from a live demonstration. In this study we doubled the number of times that infants saw a game repeated on TV.

This study is published in the journal Developmental Psychobiology.

To view complete findings on this study please click here
Cartoon Sound Effects 30th August 2007
Does your child like the "funny noises" that are added to children's programs? These noises may have increased your child's comprehension of the video. We learned from a prior study that doubling exposure to the video demonstration for the rattle toy increased 12- and 15-month-olds' ability to imitate from television. Babies, however, were not able to imitate the actions for the puppet game from a video demonstration even when exposure time was doubled. In this study we added sound effects to the puppet video demonstration. Imitation by both age groups of a puppet toy increased when sound effects were added.

To view complete findings on this study please click here
Infant Attention:Baby Mozart and Sesame St 30th August 2007
While there has been much research on television viewing during early childhood, there have been very few studies that have investigated infant attention to television. In this study we were interested in how babies typically view videos with their parents or caregivers. We chose popular infant videos and examined factors that can influence their attention patterns.

The paper will be published in the journal Infancy

To view complete findings on this study please click here
Learning from computers 10th April 2007
In this study 4 year olds and their parents participated in a computer on-line story called Elmo goes to the doctor. They then answered questions. Please see attached a poster presentation at the Society for Research and Child Development in Boston, MA, March 2007

To view complete findings on this study please click here
Poster Presentations at EPA Conference 17th April 2004
This April the undergraduate research assistants presented results from three of our ongoing studies at the 75th Annual Meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association.

To view complete findings on this study please click here
Research Supported By  
National Institutes of Health and Georgetown University funding to Rachel Barr and Georgetown University Research Opportunities Programs

Special Acknowledgements  
We would like to extend our thanks to all parents and babies who have participated. Without your generosity, our findings would not exist. If you are interested in learning more about our studies, please contact us and we will be sure to get back to you. We are always looking for new participants to be involved and for current participants to be involved again. We would also like to especially thank the National Science Foundation for funding Sandra Calvert's Children's Digital Media Center Grant.