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Effects of repeated exposures to a single episode of the television program Blue's Clues on the viewing behaviors and comprehension of preschool children.

1999; American Psychological Association; Volume: 91; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1037/0022-0663.91.4.630

1939-2176

Alisha M. Crawley, Daniel R. Anderson, Alice Wilder, Marsha Williams, Angela Santomero,

Media Influence and Health

Nickelodeon A single episode of the preschool educational television program Blue's Clues was shown once or repeated on 5 consecutive days for 3- to 5-year-old viewers. A comparison group watched a different preschool program one time. Viewer behavior was videotaped, and comprehension and learning of Blue's Clues content was tested. With repetition, looking at the television screen remained at a high level. Only 5-year-old boys' looking decreased. Verbal and nonverbal interactions with the program (such as answering questions and pointing at the screen) increased, especially during educational content. Comprehension improved with repetition. Episode repetition is an effective strategy for enhancing learning and program involvement for a preschool audience. Preschool children often ask for repetition of storybooks and videos. Mares (1998) surveyed parents of children aged 2 to 17 years about frequency of repeated videotape viewing. Sixty-nine percent of parents of children aged 2 to 4 reported that their children almost always watched videos repeatedly. The parents of less than 10% of the children in this age group reported that their children very rarely or never watched videos repeatedly. The percentage of children who almost always watched repeatedly substantially decreased with age beyond the preschool years. Almost any theory of comprehension would predict that children's comprehension of a television program improves with repetition. In the small amount of research concerning television that has examined this issue, the prediction has been supported. Peracchio (1992) studied the effects of repetition on the acquisition of the event knowledge of a product-exchange story presented aurally or audiovisually . Five- and 7-year-old children were shown either once or three consecutive times a televised version of a child returning a birthday present to a store. Repetition benefited