| A recent application of the script paradigm to children's knowledge representation offered evidence that children as young as three were capable of producing of script-like structures when describing everyday events. Children were assumed to acquire and develop scripts as they went about their everyday activities. The purpose of this study was to investigate children's "vicarious" acquisition of an unfamiliar event presented on television.;Specifically, the study examines whether children can acquire generalized knowledge of an event after exposure to multiple episodes of an event, where the general event is the same but details are varied in terms of actors, props, and options chosen. Kindergarten and second grade subjects were used to explore possible developmental differences. In addition, multiple question formats were used to explore the flexibility of the children's representations.;Results suggest that children can acquire script-like knowledge of an event vicariously from television, even when exposed to multiple experiences but that developmental differences appear to exist. The results suggest that the younger subjects' representations were first personal, regardless of the fact that the episodes they "experienced" happened to someone else. They appeared to internalize the event such that the information was accessible for personal use only; whereas, older subjects showed a greater flexibility in applying their newly-acquired scripts to themselves as well as to someone else.;A treatment condition was also introduced that offered subjects the generalized script structure in advance of exposure. Only second grade subjects showed significant gains from the treatment. It appears that the younger subjects needed to generate scripts from their own experience, which in this case, was simply 'experiencing' the event on television.;Results are interpreted with regard to a number of different theoretical frameworks. More importantly, however, this research suggests that television or the video medium is a viable source of experience for the acquisition of event knowledge. |
