It's a rainy afternoon, there's a TV quiz show jabbering in the background, a young child plays sweetly with her toys, and Mum (or Dad) flicks idly through the newspaper - what could be wrong with this domestic scene? According to
Marie Schmidt and colleagues, the background TV could well be disrupting the child's play, which in turn could have a negative impact on her cognitive development.
Fifty children aged between one and three years were videoed playing in a room for an hour while their mother or father sat nearby reading magazines. For either the first or second half of the session, a 21-inch TV in the room displayed the adult quiz show "Jeopardy!". Past research has tackled the question of whether children's TV shows are harmful or beneficial, but this study was interested in the effects of an adult TV show buzzing away in the background (see
Psychologist magazine news item for more on TV effects).
When the TV quiz show was on, all three age-groups of children played less overall, each of their playing episodes was shorter, and their bursts of focused attention were shorter, compared with when the TV was off. However, the maturity of their play (for example whether or not it incorporated imaginary objects) was unaffected.
Schmidt's team described the disruptive effects of the background TV as "real but small". While the current study doesn't say anything about the possible developmental consequences of TV-disrupted play, previous research has shown that shorter play episodes and less focused attention tend to be associated with poorer developmental outcomes. Moreover, a previous unpublished study by the present team of researchers showed that background TV reduces how often parents interact with their children. "Taken together," the researchers said, the new and previous findings lead us to "hypothesise that background television, as a chronic influence, is by itself an environmental risk factor in children's development."
译文:
背景电视影响着孩子们的正常玩耍
这是一个阴雨绵绵的午后，电视机里播放着智力竞赛节目，声音嘈杂而模糊，一个小孩正自己津津有味地玩着她的玩具，她的妈妈（或者爸爸）清闲地浏览着报纸--这个家庭场景有什么地方不太对劲吗？根据玛丽博士（专门研究媒体对孩子的影响）和她的同事们的研究发现，作为背景音乐的电视节目很有可能干扰孩子们的玩耍，而这又反过来可能对孩子的认知水平发展带来一些负面影响。
50个在1岁到3岁的孩子分别被录像：录制他们在一个房间里玩耍一个小时的时间，与此同时，他们的父亲或者母亲就做在他们的附近看杂志。 要么是第一半部分要么是第二半部分都会显示在房间里放上一台21寸的正播放着成人智力竞赛的电视机是危险之举。过去的研究已经着手处理了是否儿童电视剧对孩子有害还是有利的问题，而这次的研究是旨在关注一个成人电视节目所产生的噪音环境会有什么效果。（读者可以在Psychologist magazine news item 这个网页上得到更多有关于电视机所带来的效应的信息）
当电视里正在播放成人节目的时候，所有这三个组不同年龄段的孩子都总体玩的少了，和不开电视相比，他们每个人持续玩的时间更短了并且他们能够集中注意力的时间少了。但是，他们玩耍的成熟心智是不会受到影响的。（比如是否会影响到想象力问题）
玛丽博士的团队把电视作为背景打断孩子们玩耍的效应描述成“确切存在但却非常微小的”。尽管目前的研究还不能预言电视节目打断孩子玩耍的任何可能潜在后果，但是前期研究已经显示了还是玩耍时间越是短，他们的注意力就集中的越少，而这种注意力又是和更加差劲的发展后果相联系的。而且，之前这个团队所从事的一项没有公开的研究显示电视机的背景效果减少了父母与自己孩子交流的次数。研究员们说，这项新的、早先发现的研究引导我们要一起去假设电视的背景效果就像慢性病的影响一样是一个孩子成长环境中的冒险因素。