The Role of Perceived Similarity in Children's Social Learning

• In Event: Children's and Adolescents' Technology Use to Enhance Cognitive and Educational Outcomes

Abstract

Previous research has examined how identification with media characters influences learning outcomes (Calvert, Strong, Jacobs, & Conger, 2007; Schlesinger, Flynn, & Richert, 2016), but no studies have attempted to manipulate a child’s level of identification with media characters or measured how this manipulated identification relates to learning. The current study examined if children’s identification levels can be manipulated, and how identification relates to learning STEM concepts from a video. 158 4- to 6-year-old children watched a short video of a puppet solving a problem. After the video, children were tasked with solving an analogous problem. Additionally, children were tested for working memory, spatial ability, executive function, and fantasy-reality distinction. Children to whom the character was presented as similar or dissimilar to themselves reported higher or lower levels of identification with the character, respectively. Perceived similarity was related to increases in memory for the video solution, but not analogical transfer or divergent thinking. Additionally, having the character presented as similar moderated the relationship between perceived similarity and memory scores. Findings are discussed in terms of their relation to how perceived similarity develops and its effects on different levels of learning.

Authors

• Courtney Baugh, University of California - Riverside
  Presenting Author

• Rebekah Richert, University of California - Riverside
  Non-Presenting Author