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34 J. Broad. & Elec. Media 399 (1990)
Do Young Children Think of Television Images as Pictures or Real Objects

handle is hein.journals/jbem34 and id is 415 raw text is: Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media Volume 34, Number 4, Fall 1990, pp. 399-419 Do Young Children Think of Television Images as Pictures or Real Objects? John H. Flavell, Eleanor R. Flavell, Frances L. Green, and Jon E. Korfmacher Three studies investigated whether 3- and 4-year-olds interpret television im- ages as mere pictorial representations of objects or as real, physically-present objects. Four-year-olds gave clear evidence of making the former interpretation whereas 3-year-olds seemed to make the latter one. However, the data suggest that the younger children's errors reflect a failure to differentiate conceptually between television images and their referent objects rather than a conviction that real objects populate television sets. There is considerable evidence that children's knowledge of the mental world increases markedly during the preschool years (Astington, Harris, & Olson, 1988; Harris, 1989; Perner, in press; Wellman, 1990). An important part of this theory of mind development is the growing awareness that people mentally represent (construe, interpret) external objects and events, and therefore that the selfsame single object or event may be mentally represented in several different, even contradictory-seeming ways (Flavell, 1988; Flavell, Green, & Flavell, 1990). As examples, studies have shown that children aged 4-5 years or older understand much better than younger children that: (1) the same thing may give rise to different visual representations (look different) if viewed from different perspectives (Flavell, 1978); (2) the same thing may be represented incorrectly as well as correctly (as when someone holds a false belief) (Wimmer & Perner, 1983); (3) when seriating things by size, the same John H. Fla vell (Ph.D., Clark University, 1955) is Professor of Psychology at Stanford University. EleanorR. Flaveil (A.B., University of Maryland, 195 1)and Frances L. Green (Specialist's Certificate in School Psychology, Yeshiva University, 1971) are Research Assistants in Psychology at Stanford University. Jon E. Kormacher (A.B., Stanford University, 1988) is a graduate student in Psychology at the University of Minnesota. The authors' research interests include children's knowledge about the mind. This research was supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grant 40687. The authors are grateful to the children, teachers, and parents of Bing School of Stanford whose cooperation made these studies possible. Thanks also to three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on a previous draft of this paper. This manuscript was accepted for publication June 1990. Q 1990 Broadcast Education Association

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