Problems In Childhood Learning: The Video Deficit Effect
The video deficit effect (VDE) is a phenomenon where, “Children solve tasks reliably better and at an earlier age when instructed by a live person, as opposed to being instructed by video”(p. 2). With the large amount of media infants and toddlers consume everyday, it raises the question whether or not the child is “learning” from this exposure. Over 90% of children at least 2 years old watch television (textbook), so it should be a concern to parents if they can apply what they see on video to real situations.
Theory of Mind and the Video Deficit Effect: Video Presentation Impairs Children’s Encoding and Understanding of False Belief by Mirjam Reiß, Markus Krüger & Horst Krist is an article that tries to answer the question: to what extent do children gain information from their media usage? It expands the knowledge base on the impact of media on children's perception and learning. This essay will explain the previous studies that this current one is based on and explain how the results of the study expand on and support previous theories of the VDE.
Problems In Childhood Learning: the Video Deficit Effect [VDE]
In the United States, children until at least 8 years old are exposed to around 1. 5 hours of digital media per day. With daily internet use steadily increasing from 25% at age 3, to 50% by age 5 and 70% or more by age 8 it is clear that media usage only becomes more prevalent as the child grows, so it should be known how much, if any information is a child learning or retaining while they are watching TV, DVDs, or videos.
Many researchers and studies have tried to answer this question with an age range and what different tasks they can and cannot complete while learning from different modes of demonstration. Studies have hoped to find at what age range are children able to learn certain tasks from either a live demonstration or a video. These tasks mainly focus on imitation, self-recognition, world learning, and object retrieval which have all been shown to be affected by the VDE. Two researchers Schmitt, K. L. , & Anderson, D. R. (2002) conducted a study on children 24-30 months years old, where they would retrieve a toy from a hidden place that they saw. The children were separated in two groups based on two different conditions; one where the child would watch through a window to view where the experimenter hid the toy, in the second condition children watched a video of the experimenter hiding the toy. The results of the study found the 30 month year old child succeeded in both conditions, while at 24 months, had more search errors while watching the video demonstration.
These findings show at a younger age, you are less capable of using digital media to learn from and support the video deficit effect at age 2 with object-retrieval tasks. Suddendorf, T. , Simcock, G. , & Nielsen, M. (2007) tested self-recognition in live and video demonstrations among children, a childhood milestone typically acquired at 24-36 months of age. The method used was a variation of the Rouge test, where children are unknowingly marked with a red dot on their face and pass the test if they can locate the dot on their own face. This ability to locate the spot on their own body, shows they recognize that the mirror image is a representation of them. The children were put in two conditions, one that the child looked directly into a mirror and the other was shown a real-time video presented on a life-size screen (video vs. real-life demonstration).
The study found that the 24 month year old was able to demonstrate self-recognition in a mirror(real-life) but not with a video. This once again clearly supports VDE and shows that it also affects the ability of children to perform self-recognition tasks. It also shows that the video deficit effect, “Occurs when competencies have just been acquired and are not yet sufficiently consolidated” (p. 2). More importantly showing that if parents time when and how the expose children to digital media will greatly affect how much they are able to apply what they see to real-life situations Thierry, K. L. , & Spence, M. J. (2004) conducted a study on, how well 3-6 year old children remember and report information verbally about events seen on video compared with a real-life presentation. They found that 5 and 6 year olds were less accurate with video presentations than live ones. And concluded that children have difficulties understanding the symbolic nature of what they see on digital media and how they are similar or different from real-life objects. Supporting the fact children have problems with thinking what they see on video can help them in their life, this shows that viewing a video does not help a young child with real world tasks.
Once again the video deficit effect is prevalent in children even up to 6 years of age not helping with real world tasks, almost making educational programs pointless at a young age because they will not be able to apply what they see to what they do. Finally researches, Flavell, J. H. , Flavell, E. R. , Green, F. L. , & Korfmacher, J. E. (1990) found in children 4 ½ years old and younger cannot reliably predict that popcorn shown on a screen will not fall out of a bowl when the screen is shaken. This is showing with the higher task complexity, the more likely VDE will affect older children. This is shown in the previous studies discussed above and highlighted with Schmitt and Anderson's study compared to Thierry and Spence’s research. With Schmitt and Anderson they had a relatively simple task of object retrieval that children would overcome the effects of VDE at a younger age of 3 years old. While in Thierry and Spence’s study, the child was still affected by VDE up to the age of 5 or 6 due to the higher complexity of the task at hand (needing to recall and report information previously seen).
The study at hand, Theory of Mind and the Video Deficit Effect: Video Presentation Impairs Children’s Encoding and Understanding of False Belief conducted by Mirjam Reiß, Markus Krüger & Horst Krist uses Theory of Mind (ToM) tasks to see video deficit effects among children. Theory of mind is what allows us to understand our own and others’ mental states as separate and then generate prediction about future behaviors. For example, it is what gives a person the ability to understand another person's emotional state like being sad or upset even though they themselves are not in that current state. A false belief task was used to test VDE among the participants.
A variation of a normal change of location (false belief) task was used under two conditions of either a video or real-life demonstrations. The researchers used the classic Sally-Anne task, where an actor (Sally) enters a room carrying a covered basket and proceeds to take a ball out and play with it. A second actor (Anne) then enters the same room with a bag and joins Sally to play with the ball, until Sally exits the room. Anne then puts the ball into her bag and also leaves the room, soon after the first actor (Sally) will re-enter the room. The children are posed with the question, “Where will Sally look for her ball first? ”, they will guess “the basket” if the have ToM. Being able to understand that Sally will look where she believes the ball last was (in her basket) as opposed to what the child knows (that the ball is in the bag), even though it is different from their own knowledge. The results showed that 5 year old children performed better in live conditions than video conditions and it was not by chance.
This supports the effect of VDE, it shows that even at an older age of 5 children are more capable of learning from real-life or live demonstrations than from videos or other digital media. There were two major conclusions that this study led the researchers to, that is one, the age that VDE is found depends on the complexity of the task and secondly VDE can be expected when children have just attained the competencies in question. The major implications of these conclusions from the study have been briefly discussed throughout the essay and are mainly in reference to how children can learn more successfully and how parents can encourage this more successfully with the control of media exposure. With video deficit effect being proven in children of young ages with certain tasks, if parents are more knowledgeable of their children's learning milestones they can better help the child interact and learn from video demonstrations.
With children unable to learn from videos if they have not yet mastered a certain milestone like self-recognition, parents can better choose the type of program a child is exposed to. It also gives parents the means to better know how to interact with a child during media exposure for that child to get the most out of it. The authors’ main point is to expand on the knowledge of VDE which in turn will help parents, educational personnel, and anyone involved in childhood learning better help children. With a better understanding and knowledge of VDE, you can better able combat the problems digital media presents to a child trying to learn. I believe research like this could make teaching and parenting not only much easier but also less stressful for the parent knowing that their efforts are purposeful. With children inevitably being exposed to media, it can be a reassurance to know how and when to use media to help a child learn more successfully.
