Simplicity and validity in infant research Kominsky, Jonathan F.; Lucca, Kelsey; Thomas, Ashley J. ...
Cognitive development,
July-September 2022, 2022-07-00, Volume:
63
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Infancy researchers often use highly simplified, animated, or otherwise artificial stimuli to study infant’s understanding of abstract concepts including “causality” or even “prosociality”. The use ...of these simplified stimuli have led to questions about the validity of the resulting empirical findings. Do simplified stimuli effectively communicate abstract concepts to infants? Even if they do, why not use stimuli more like what infants encounter in their everyday lives? Here we make explicit the underlying logic of using simplified stimuli in studies with infants: Simplified stimuli allow for stronger experimental control and therefore more precise inferences compared to more complex, uncontrolled, naturally occurring events. We discuss the inherent tradeoff between measurement validity and ecological validity, offer three strategies for assessing the validity of simplified stimuli, and then apply those strategies to the increasingly common use of simplified stimuli to assess the development of complex social concepts in the infant mind. Ultimately, we conclude that while concerns about the validity of experiments using simplified stimuli are founded, results from such studies should not be dismissed purely on ecological grounds.
•Research with nonverbal infants often uses highly simplified, unrealistic stimuli.•We address concerns about the external validity of studies using such stimuli.•Infant research must balance ecological and measurement validity.•We give special attention to the case of social cognition studies using puppets.•We argue that these studies shouldn’t be dismissed purely on ecological grounds.
This is a translation from Spanish of the book titled, Marionetas de la Esquina Tras Bambalinas, which documents Las Marionetas de la Esquina, one of present-day Mexicos longest enduring puppet ...theater groups. Its the story of a small groups obsession in perfecting an art form, in this case, one especially aimed at entertaining children.
The Balinese puppets in the traditional paintings as a cultural heritage has inspired Balinese craftsmen created ceramic works of aesthetic value. The efforts these craftsmen can be read as ...resistance to entry the ceramic works from outside and the production of the ceramic art in Indonesia that ignore Indonesian characters. This study aims to discuss the aesthetics of visuals ceramic works that apply Balinese puppets ornaments. The data collection method by observation and documentation. The results showed that the aesthetics of the ceramic craft products with Balinese puppets ornaments seen from unity, harmony, symmetry, balance, and contrast are quite good, although not yet optimal. Besides, the visual aesthetics of the ceramic works have not displayed good complexity, so the beauty that obtained was not optimal. The visual aesthetic assessment of this work was subjective in nature, so it was possible that there will be different judgments. The conclusion that aesthetics can be achieved by elevating the cultural traditions of the past and at the same time as a form of appreciation for that culture and become a differentiator amid the rise of Chinese ceramics in Indonesia.
Drawing on medieval Arabic sources and earlier scholarship, this book is a study of the life and work of Ibn Dāniyāl (d. 1310). It also presents the first full English translation of his shadow play ..."The Phantom.".
•Under some conditions, embodied pretend play may help support preschoolers’ learning.•Children can learn from both passive consumption and active engagement with fiction.•Children’s judgments of ...fictionality may not impact their learning.
Preschool-aged children can learn from fictional, pretend, and imaginative activities. However, many studies showing this learning involve children as physically passive while consuming fictional narratives rather than as actively, physically engaged. Physical engagement may add to cognitive processes already at play when watching narratives, making children more likely to retain or understand information. Children’s natural pretend involves physical movement, role play, and embodiment. To test learning from embodied pretense, we conducted two studies in which we experimentally manipulated whether children were physically passive while consuming narratives or physically actively engaged with them through embodied pretend play using puppets or costumes. In Study 1, children were shown/engaged in television-based narratives, all of which contained fantastical content. In Study 2, children were shown/engaged in lab-created stories, some of which contained fantastical elements. We measured children’s learning and perceptions of realism. In Study 1, neither perception of fictionality nor embodiment immediately affected learning, although older preschoolers learned more than younger preschoolers. In Study 2, neither perception nor presence of fantastical content affected learning, but embodiment did. Children learned more from both embodied conditions compared with the physically passive condition. We also included 2-week follow-up tests of recall and found that although children retained very little, embodiment still affected retention in both studies. Overall, children did not use realism judgments to differentiate learning. These findings show the complexity of different elements involved in children’s learning from pretense and the need to understand what elements affect learning from fantastical and embodied pretend play and stories.
In order to examine young children, developmental science has relied extensively on puppets, dolls, and animated stimuli. While some scholars regarded this as a royal road to the child’s mind and ...competencies, others conceived of it as a dead end. This article introduces the debate on the use of puppets and other simplified stimuli in developmental psychology. It presents key theoretical and methodological arguments that are offered for both sides. In addition, it introduces a special issue that has collected theoretical and empirical contributions on how children process puppets, dolls, and animated stimuli as well as to illustrate the benefits and challenges of their use in developmental research. Finally, the article suggests avenues for further research.
•Introduction to the special issue on the use of puppets in developmental science•Summarizes key theoretical and methodological arguments on both sides of the debate•Provides a brief overview of the published articles in the special issue•Suggests avenues for future research on the topic
Two social learning strategies that develop rapidly during the preschool period are selective trust and overimitation. To our knowledge, no study has directly compared performance on these two ...abilities. In line with previous research, we hypothesized that these abilities would be associated, but that this association would decrease with age; that selective trust would be related to theory of mind; and that overimitation would be related to social affiliation. We first administered a selective trust task and an overimitation task with puppets via video-chat to a sample of 3.5- and 5-year-old children (n = 80). Results did not support our hypotheses. As the overimitation rate was low, we conducted a second experiment using the same procedures, but with human agents (n = 72). Results showed an association between selective trust and theory of mind, and a significant increase of overimitation with the human demonstrator, suggesting that overimitation might be related to social affiliation.
•Preschoolers’ performance on selective trust and overimitation tasks was unrelated.•Selective trust was associated with theory of mind skills with human informants.•There was no link between overimitation and parent-reported social affiliation.•Children overimitated more a human than a puppet model
Scientists have long employed puppets in research with young children; this essay explores the validity of this practice. After considering what puppets are, their main types and history, I note the ...different ways puppets have been employed in research. One of these uses raises the issue of whether and when children apply their theory of mind to puppets. After exploring this issue, I consider if children believe puppets actually are animate and sentient, like humans, and whether children participating in experiments with puppets are pretending (in the sense of pretend play) that puppet stimuli are human. Children aged three years and older and infants are discussed separately, as different definitions of puppets have been used in the research across these age levels and different patterns of results have been obtained. I end with ideas regarding further research.
•Puppets have been used in many forms and cultures.•They have been used for specific purposes in developmental research.•For children ages 3 and older, they appear to be valid stand-ins for humans.•For children under 3, results are less clear, and more research is needed.
The current study examined young children’s perceptions of puppets and the relation between individual differences in perceptions of puppets and learning from puppets. The study also tested if ...increasing children’s perceptions of similarity to a puppet increased learning from the puppet. Preschool-aged children were introduced to a novel puppet character through stories and a video. The stories presented the puppet as either similar to or different from the child, while the video that followed the stories showed the puppet solving a physical problem. Children were asked questions assessing the extent to which they attributed human-like characteristics to the puppet (personification) and the extent to which they felt similar to the puppet (similarity). Learning was assessed through a memory question, transfer task, and questions about analogical connections between the video and the problem children solved. The results suggest that (1) younger children are more likely to view puppets as humans; (2) feeling similar to the puppet was not significantly related to age or cognitive ability; (3) personification and learning were not significantly related; (4) and children who felt similar to the puppet despite being cued to differences were the least likely group to learn from the puppet. These results are discussed in terms of the implications for children’s media involving puppets and of the theoretical underpinnings of learning from puppets.
•Younger children viewed a puppet as more like a human than older children.•Identification with the puppet was not related to age or cognitive ability.•Personification of the puppet and learning from the puppet were not related.•Despite confirmation that similarity can be primed in young children, children who were primed to similarity were no more likely to transfer than children who were primed to dissimilarity or not primed at all.
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