Highlights

Abstract

Keywords

Introduction

Method

Results

Discussion

Acknowledgments

Appendix A.

Appendix B. Supplementary material

Research Data

References

Abstract

Many science television shows feature refutation narratives where characters speculate about the value of scientific misconceptions (e.g., the sun circles the earth) before learning factual information. Previous research suggests that young children misunderstand these stories, and the current study examined whether learning could be improved using interventions previously validated with adults. Children (N = 201) aged 4–۷ years viewed a refutation narrative in its original form or in a modified format that lacked misconceptions or that contextualized those misconceptions with additional scaffolds. Although children’s comprehension of factual information was high across all conditions, their understanding of misconceptions depended on their prior knowledge. Specifically, children with low prior knowledge mistakenly identified misconceptions as intended factual lessons unless they viewed the story without misconceptions or with two forms of additional scaffolding. Conversely, children with high prior knowledge understood the original story best. These findings suggest that the inclusion of fantasy ideas in children’s science programming can disrupt learning for certain children and bolster learning for others.

Introduction

Unrealistic material is prevalent in children’s television. Recent content analyses have found that the majority of these programs are animated, feature fantastical content, and contain anthropomorphic characters (Bonus & Mares, 2018; Lemish & Russo Johnson, 2019; Taggart, Eisen, & Lillard, 2019). Although this material is undoubtedly intended to entertain (rather than mislead) young audiences, its presence in educational media can impede children’s learning (Ganea, Canfield, SimonsGhafari, & Chou, 2014) and reduce their willingness to transfer factual information gleaned from that content (Bonus, 2019; Ganea, Pickard, & DeLoache, 2008; Richert & Smith, 2011; Walker, Gopnik, & Ganea, 2015). These difficulties arise because children struggle to draw connections across dissimilar sources (e.g., animated representations vs. reality), and they are uncertain about the real-world relevance of information extracted from fantasy worlds (Hopkins & Weisburg, 2017; Strouse, Nyhout, & Ganea, 2018). Accordingly, Woolley and Ghossainy (2013) described children as ‘‘naïve skeptics” of fantasy media.