TELEVISION'S INFLUENCE ON CHILDREN'S ENCODING OF PERSON INFORMATION

Abstract

A recent model of person memory suggests that people will use the most accessible or most recently thought about traits in describing other people. An experiment was conducted to test the notion that once a trait is activated or “primed” by television, that trait will be more accessible and, therefore, more likely to influence encoding of new information. A group of 64 children in second, fourth, and sixth grades watched a 10-minute videotape designed to prime the trait “funny” by showing children representative segments of humorous situation comedy programs. After viewing, children evaluated a child they had never met on several traits including “funny” and two other traits taken from past television research—“attractive” and “strong.” A control group (n= 68) evaluated the new child only. Results showed no significant main effects of treatment, but significant interactions between treatment and grade. Second grade children in the experimental group rated the new child lower on traits funny, attractive, and strong in comparison to the control group. Sixth graders rated the new child higher on the same traits, and fourth graders showed no differences between the two conditions. No effects were found for 22 other traits. The results are discussed in terms of direct and contrast effects of prior information on person judgments.