Do cavies talk? The effect of anthropomorphic picture books on children's knowledge about animals.

ABSTRACT: Many books for young children present animals in fantastical and unrealistic ways, such as wearing clothes, talking and engaging in human-like activities. This research examined whether anthropomorphism in children's books affects children's learning and conceptions of animals, by specifically assessing the impact of depictions (a bird wearing clothes and reading a book) and language (bird described as talking and as having human intentions). In Study 1, 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children saw picture books featuring realistic drawings of a novel animal. Half of the children also heard factual, realistic language, while the other half heard anthropomorphized language. In Study 2, we replicated the first study using anthropomorphic illustrations of real animals. The results show that the langua

SUBMITTER: Ganea PA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3989584 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature