AN INVESTIGATION OF CHILDREN'S PERCEPTIONS OF STORY CONTENT AS ELICITED BY THREE MODES OF PRESENTATION: THE STORYTELLER, THE READER, THE SOUND SLIDE SHOW (MEDIA, INFERENCES)

This study attempted to determine if three different modes of presenting a story--storyteller, book and reader, and sound slide show--represented different information potential by bringing different content to children's attention. Ninety third graders from three elementary schools in Butte, Montana, during spring 1984, were presented in small groups, with one of three presentations of the fairy tale, "The Wild Swans" and administered a paper and pencil instrument to determine their perceptions of three different types of content from the story--affective, inference and factual. This content had emerged from preliminary investigation with students and an adult panel analysis of the story text.;Results indicated there was no statistically significant difference among the modes in affective content in the foreground of attention, number of and overall inferences and factual recall. There was no difference in approximately eighty percent of the specific inferences. While no definite conclusions about media differences could be drawn, the research process yielded some relevant observations: there appeared more active student participation with book/reader and sound slide presentations than with the storyteller. The format of the sound slide show illustrations may have influenced those specific questions evidencing response differences. Sound slide show and book/reader presentations may not differ enough to elicit different perceptions, although this bears further investigation.;The following cross-media research is also suggested: further research into the development of suitable paper-pencil instruments; continued investigation into the possible differences in information potential of different media, problem solving fostered, preferences related to learning style, long-term effects, and delineation of specific media attributes.;Since there was no existing instrument to determine children's perception of the story content, a crucial preliminary was the instrument development, which (though ancillary to the original intent of the study) became a major portion of the research. As most similar cross-media research has utilized individual presentations with follow-up interviews for data collection, this paper and pencil instrument, more readily amenable to statistical analysis, proved a novel approach warranting further consideration, especially with different age groups and reading levels.