Television and reality: Toddlers' use of visual information from video to guide behavior

Toddlers' ability to use a television display in order to guide their object retrieval and object placement was examined. In the first experiment, 2-, 2.5-, and 3-year-olds watched a toy being hidden in an adjacent room, after which they were asked to find it. In the second experiment, 2-year-olds watched a toy being placed in the adjacent room and were then asked to place the toy in the same place. Half the children in each experiment watched the event through a window, and half watched the event on television. In both experiments children performance was worse if they saw the event on television, although retrieval improved with age. In both experiments the 2-year-olds' performance in the television condition started above chance and then deteriorated over trials. These and other studies indicate that toddlers have considerable difficulty using a video image in order to guide behavior in a real setting. Three hypotheses that could account for these findings are discussed.