NDLI: Humans (really) are animals: picture-book reading influences 5-year-old urban children’s construal of the relation between humans and non-human animals

Content Provider	PubMed Central
Author	Waxman, Sandra R. Herrmann, Patricia Woodring, Jennie Medin, Douglas L.
Copyright Year	2014
Abstract	What is the relation between humans and non-human animals? From a biological perspective, we view humans as one species among many, but in the fables and films we create for children, we often offer an anthropocentric perspective, imbuing non-human animals with human-like characteristics. What are the consequences of these distinctly different perspectives on children’s reasoning about the natural world? Some have argued that children universally begin with an anthropocentric perspective and that acquiring a biological perspective requires a basic conceptual change (cf. Carey, 1985). But recent work reveals that this anthropocentric perspective, evidenced in urban 5-year-olds, is not evident in 3-year-olds (Herrmann etal., 2010). This indicates that the anthropocentric perspective is not an obligatory first step in children’s reasoning about biological phenomena. In the current paper, we introduced a priming manipulation to assess whether 5-year-olds’ reasoning about a novel biological property is influenced by the perspectives they encounter in children’s books. Just before participating in a reasoning task, each child read a book about bears with an experimenter. What varied was whether bears were depicted from an anthropomorphic (Berenstain Bears) or biological perspective (Animal Encyclopedia). The priming had a dramatic effect. Children reading the Berenstain Bears showed the standard anthropocentric reasoning pattern, but those reading the Animal Encyclopedia adopted a biological pattern. This offers evidence that urban 5-year-olds can adopt either a biological or a human-centered stance, depending upon the context. Thus, children’s books and other media are double-edged swords. Media may (inadvertently) support human-centered reasoning in young children, but may also be instrumental in redirecting children’s attention to a biological model.
Related Links	http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00172
Starting Page	172
File Format	PDF
ISSN	16641078
e-ISSN	16641078
Journal	Frontiers in Psychology
Volume Number	5
Language	English
Publisher	Frontiers Media S.A.
Publisher Date	2014-03-17
Access Restriction	Open
Rights Holder	Frontiers Media S.A.
Subject Keyword	Research in Higher Education
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Psychology

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

Humans (really) are animals: Picture-book reading influences five-year-old urban children's construal of the relation between humans and non-human animals

An analysis of values in children’s picture books in Turkish for 5-6 year-old children

Mathematics and reading difficulty subtypes: minor phonological influences on mathematics for 5–7-years-old

The hows and whys of face memory: level of construal influences the recognition of human faces

The developmental relation between aggressive behaviour and prosocial behaviour: A 5-year longitudinal study

Structural changes in white matter are uniquely related to children’s reading development

Examining transactional influences between reading achievement and antisocially-behaving friends

The really big picture: A review of guns, germs, and steel: The fates of human societies

The effect of phonics-enhanced Big Book reading on the language and literacy skills of 6-year-old pupils of different reading ability attending lower SES schools

Humans (really) are animals: picture-book reading influences 5-year-old urban children’s construal of the relation between humans and non-human animals

Similar Documents

Humans (really) are animals: Picture-book reading influences five-year-old urban children's construal of the relation between humans and non-human animals

An analysis of values in children’s picture books in Turkish for 5-6 year-old children

Mathematics and reading difficulty subtypes: minor phonological influences on mathematics for 5–7-years-old

The hows and whys of face memory: level of construal influences the recognition of human faces

The developmental relation between aggressive behaviour and prosocial behaviour: A 5-year longitudinal study

Structural changes in white matter are uniquely related to children’s reading development

Examining transactional influences between reading achievement and antisocially-behaving friends

The really big picture: A review of guns, germs, and steel: The fates of human societies

The effect of phonics-enhanced Big Book reading on the language and literacy skills of 6-year-old pupils of different reading ability attending lower SES schools

Humans (really) are animals: picture-book reading influences 5-year-old urban children’s construal of the relation between humans and non-human animals