Sandra Calvert - Profile on Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Sandra Calvert

Production features that attract children's interest and that foster their learning are examined.... more Production features that attract children's interest and that foster their learning are examined. Action, involving movement, is put forth as a feature that is developmentally appropriate for young children, for boys, and for developmentally delayed children, in part because these groups may well be visual processors. Music is a motivating feature for girls though its effects on learning are less clear. Knowledge about how children learn from new media is linked to the creation of intrinsically interesting environments that can engage children to think and learn as they are being entertained.

Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, Apr 1, 1992

People adopt behavioral patterns consistent with events observed in their environments, including... more People adopt behavioral patterns consistent with events observed in their environments, including television portrayals. Although television programs frequently portray unhealthy styles of living, a vast potential exists for people to learn healthy patterns of behavior from media presentations. The purpose of this article is to examine interactions between the person and television that capitalize upon environmental features associated with healthy life styles. In particular, we advance the hypothesis that people act upon media messages which advocate healthy life styles when they perceive the messages as personally relevant and when they believe that they can translate those messages into personal actions. The challenge for the television medium is to present content about healthy life styles in a manner that people can understand, remember, and which motivates them to act-either by altering unhealthy patterns of living (intervention) or by refusing to partake in these patterns in the first place (prevention). AGENTIC ACTION, SELF-EFFICACY, AND HEALTH When people believe that they can control the events around them, their health is enhanced (Bandura, 1986). Even institutionalized elderly people who control simple events like watering a plant improve their sense of well-being (Langer & Rodin, 1976). Findings from diverse sectors suggest that health is promoted when people believe themselves to be active agents who control events that occur in their environments. In social-cognitive theory, attention, retention, motivation, and behavior are regulated by self-efficacy, one's belief about personal control (Bandura, 1986). However, a person must have a sense of self in order to evaluate the outcomes of actions and to develop beliefs about how effective they are in those endeavors. In

This paper places research findings within a social learning framework to demonstrate that televi... more This paper places research findings within a social learning framework to demonstrate that television influences the development of sex typing in children. First, the presence of sex-typed content in television programming and advertising is documented. Then, the nature of children's attention to and comprehension of televised messages is reviewed. Finally, behavioral effects after exposure to sex-typed television content are examined. Although children can learn both traditional and nontraditional values from television viewing, research findings clearly document that for the past 30_years, television content has overwhelmingly reinforced children for adopting traditional sex roles. Recommendations are offered for moderating these effects.

This document has been reproduced as eceneed from thi: person or organi>shon originating it Minor... more This document has been reproduced as eceneed from thi: person or organi>shon originating it Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality Points " view or opinions stated in this docui meet do not necessarily represent °Moat NIE position or policy nevelopmental Differences in Children's Television Story Comprehension: Effects of Content Cues and Au' '.ory Formal Production Features

Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, Apr 1, 1991

A cognitive-behavioral model is applied to televised public service announcements as a paradigm f... more A cognitive-behavioral model is applied to televised public service announcements as a paradigm for applied developmental psychologists to conceptualize and disserninate findings. Schematic processes am examined in relation to viewers' attention, retention, and motivation to change altitudes and behaviors after viewing public service announcements. Content and format changes are discussed as ways to increase effectiveness of social information processing models of behavioral change.

Children's visual attention to, and comprehension of, a television program was measured. A total ... more Children's visual attention to, and comprehension of, a television program was measured. A total of 64 children, equally distributed by sex, with 32 in kindergarten and 32 in fifth grade, were randomly 'assigned to one of four treatment conditions that crossed two levels of content cues with two levels of sound effects. The content cue conditions provided 35 seconds of additional information which indicated that a dream was occurring while the no content cue conditions did not. The content cue conditions were either preceded or not preceded by one-second sound effects. Visual attention was videotaped during each child's individual viewing session. After viewing, each child answered a 22-item multiple-choice recognition test of inferential, central-concrete, and incidental content. Results demonstrated that sound effects increased attentional responsiveness and inferential recognition better than the content cues, particularly foi the youngest children who have the greatest difficulty understanding televised stories. (Author/RH)

The purpose of this study was to assess developmental differences in children's visual attention ... more The purpose of this study was to assess developmental differences in children's visual attention to, and comprehension of, a prosocial television program as a function of varying "preplay" formats. (Preplays were defined as advance organizers designed to help a child select, order, and integrate critical televised content into a memory scheme.) To determine which features were most effective as aids to comprehension, preplays varied on two orthogonal dimensions: presence or absence of visual portrayal of story events and concrete or inferential story narration. Examined were (1) developmental differences in visual attention to the preplays and program segments, (2) developmental differences in story comprehension as a function of preplay features, and (3) the relationship between visual attention to preplays and comprehension of story content. Subjects were 160 children equally distributed by sex who attended grades 1 through 4. Pairs of children taken to a mobile laboratory were told they could read, play, and watch television as they did at home. Visual attention was scored "on" when a child looked at the television screen. After viewing, each child completed two comprehension items: picture sequencing and multiple choice. Results are discussed indicating that differences in children's visual attention to, and comprehension of, a prosocial television program were a function of varying preplay formats.

A study was conducted to determine whether children think about the verbal messages embedded in s... more A study was conducted to determine whether children think about the verbal messages embedded in songs, or merely sing the words without thinking about them. A total of 48 preschool girls and boys viewed a televised vignette of the song "Frere Jacques" under varying conditions of language comprehensibility, rehearsal, and repetition. The visual track always depicted a sleeping friar who was awakened by ringing bells, while the audiotrack presented the accompanying song in either French or English. The song was played two times during each exposure. In active rehearsal conditions, children were asked to sing during the second presentation. In passive rehearsal conditions, children were asked to listen to the song one more time. The repetition condition involved repeated exposure to the vignette for 4 successive days, while the no repetition condition involved exposure for 1 day only. Children who repeatedly viewed the French vignette recalled more words verbatim than did children in other conditions. Older children better understood the sequence of visual story events and the meaning of song lyrics than younger children. The results suggested that songs lead to children's relatively superficial information processing activities without any major impact on learning. Given this implication, an educational challenge is to elicit mindful, semantic processing for the many lyrics that children sing with little effort.

This study assessed the educational and informational television programming provided by four maj... more This study assessed the educational and informational television programming provided by four major networks, ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox. Assessed were 29 children's television programs during the 1995-1996 season. Programs were videotaped from 7:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., a time frame when children are most likely to be in the viewing audience. A content analysis was conducted in which educational and prosocial programs which met the requirements of the Children's Television Act were counted. A 5-point scale was used to measure the degree of educational or prosocial television content in each program. No programs fell into both categories. Programs with scores of 4 or 5 were rated as those that met the requirements of the law and those with lower ratings did not. Results indicated that although CBS offered the most programs meeting the requirements of the Children's Television Act, followed by Fox, NBC, and ABC, there were no statistically significant differences among stations. The educational programs identified were Beakman's World, Really Wild Animals, and Reality Check on CBS; and It's Academic on NBC. The prosocial programs were Santa Bugito on CBS and Fudge on ABC. The majority of children's programs had little educational value. Except for CBS, the total time devoted to educational and prosocial programs was close to the 30-minute guideline used by the Federal Communications Commission for license renewal during 1992 to 1994.

Children's television programs broadcast on Saturday mornings (7:OOam-12:OOpm) on CBS, NBC, ABC, ... more Children's television programs broadcast on Saturday mornings (7:OOam-12:OOpm) on CBS, NBC, ABC, and Fox networks were examined for gender and ethnic representation. For a sample of programs during the 1995/96 television season, raters counted the number of males and females, and the number of Caucasians, African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, Asian-Americans, and Native Americans presented in the programs. Raters then computed the amount of time each character appeared and spoke during the program. The results showed that the male to female ration was 4/1 on CBS, 4/1 on Fox, 3/1 on ABC, and 1/1 on NBC. Male characters spoke more (an average of 10 minutes and 46 seconds) than female characters (an average of 2 minutes and 55 seconds). Caucasian and ethnic minority representation was 73.6 percent and 26.4 percent respectively; these percentages are very close to the groups' actual percentages in the United States population. There was a difference in the representation of race in major roles (roles in which a character speaks and is present at least 20 percent of the total program time). ABC and Fox under-represented ethnic minorities in major roles, CBS over-represented ethnic minorities in major roles, and NBC represented both ethnic minorities and Caucasians in major roles in proportions equal to their proportions in the United States population. Ethnic minority females were not represented at all in major roles on ABC and NBC, and were represented on CBS and Fox 16 percent and 5 percent of the time, respectively. (AS)

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The purposes of this study were to provide information about how formal features of television ar... more The purposes of this study were to provide information about how formal features of television are related to children's selective attention and to determine how selective attention is related, in turn, to comprehension of content. Formal features are defined as attributes of television productions that are relatively content-free and that result from visual and auditory production techniques. Specifically, it was hypothesized that features influence comprehension in two ways: (1) salient featurbs may draw attention selectively to certain content-that is, they may serve to emphasize and mark important contenI, or (2) salient features may provide a developmentally appropriate mode of representation for encoding content in iconic or symbolic codes. Analysis included an investigation of the information processing chain from the effects of salience on attention to later comprehension of content. A total of 128 children at two age levels (kindergarten and and third/fourt) graders) viwed a prosocial cartoon in same-sez pairs. Each child's visual attention to the television screen was continuously scored on a Datamyte. Children were then given a recall test consisting of 60 multiple-choice items. These questions had previously been cross-classified according to dimensions of content (either central or incidental) and formal features used to present that content (either salient or nonsalient). Results are discussed. (RH)

Games for health journal, Apr 1, 2018

Objective: Media characters are used to market snacks that are typically of poor nutritional valu... more Objective: Media characters are used to market snacks that are typically of poor nutritional value, which has been linked to childhood obesity. This study examines whether children's snack selections and consumption patterns are influenced by an app depicting a popular children's media character, as well as the role that children's awareness of the character plays. The results can increase our understanding of how to encourage healthier snack selection and consumption in newer game-based marketing venues, such as apps. Materials and Methods: Four-and 5-year-old children (N = 132) played a bowling game on an iPad with no character or with a character holding either healthier or unhealthy snacks. After app-play, children selected and consumed healthier or unhealthy snacks. Children's awareness of the character was measured by children's verbalizations of the character's name during or after app-play. Results: An ordered logistic regression found no significant effect of treatment conditions compared with the control group. Within treatment conditions, awareness of the character led to selection and consumption of more healthy snacks in the healthier condition (odds ratio b = 10.340, P = 0.008), and of unhealthy snacks in the unhealthy condition (odds ratio b = 0.228, P = 0.033), but children were unaware that the character influenced their decisions. Conclusions: Results suggest that young children will choose and consume healthier, not just unhealthy, products when they are aware that a popular character in an app is associated with the snack, potentially leading to healthier eating patterns.

The-!'preplay" technique, an advance organizer summarizing important plot evente before sectione ... more The-!'preplay" technique, an advance organizer summarizing important plot evente before sectione of a story, is examined for its effecti,veness in facilitating childreWs selective attention to and comprehension of televised stOries. Ong hundred and sixty first through fourth grade children, equally\dietributed,by grade And Sex, were randomly selected from three mi western schools. Pairs of same-sex childrencviewed a prosocial,cArto n in one of five viewing conditions:'In the four treatment "Conditions the type of preplay varied by visual-nonvisual and concrete/inferential narratioh. The fifth condition was a contrel with no Preplays. After each, subject's visual attention to the television screen was scored, they were asked to order four picture sets taken from the'television pr?gram to assess temporal integration of the story,: In addition, children:were asked to answer 42 mu1tip1e7choice items intenaed to assese their reCognition of inferential,,central-cpncrete, and incidental content. As predicted, children attended longer to visual ' alan monvisual preplays. Boys and younger children were especially ,

The Role of Environments in Development

The Cambridge Handbook of Environment in Human Development

Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, Oct 1, 1987

Sound effects were inserted in a television program in order to guide children's selective attent... more Sound effects were inserted in a television program in order to guide children's selective attention to, and comprehension of, significant story content. Sixty-four children, equally dish'ibuted by sex and by kindergarten and fifth grades, were randomly assigned to one of four treatment conditions that crossed two levels of sound effects with two levels of visual inserts. Ones sound effects either preceded or did not precede three key program transitions. The visual insert conditions provided additional information at these program points whereas the no visual insert conditions did not. Visual attention was videotaped during each child's individual viewing session. After viewing, each child answered a 22-item multiple-choice recognition test of inferential, central, and incidental content. As predicted, sound effects increased selective attention and inferential recognition, particularly for the youngest children who have the greatest difficulty understanding televised stories. Mature comprehension of a televised story requires that viewers select significant content for processing, temporally integrate that content, and draw inferences about implicit relations among those story events (Collins, Wellman, Keniston, & Westby, 1978). In view of young children's difficulty in selecting plot-relevant content during viewing (Collins, 1983), one means to improve television story comprehension is to guide visual attention selectively to central content. Content, per se, does not reliably distinguish plot-relevant from irrelevant information, but certain television production techniques can highlight particular content by eliciting attentional orienting responses from children (Calve-t, Hus

Author response for "Parent reports of children's parasocial relationships with conversational agents: Trusted voices in children's lives

Developing Early Social Relationships with Media Characters for Early STEM Learning