The impact of informant type on children's animal knowledge learning

How educational media can support learning is a growing concern. This study examined the impact of age (4-year-olds vs. 6-year-olds) and informants (human vs. animal puppet vs. anthropomorphic language animal puppet) on children’s animal knowledge learning and anthropomorphic generalization. A total of 210 children aged 4 and 6 participated. Children learned equally well from each of the three types of informants. Six-year-olds learned more than did 4-year-olds and were also more curious to learn more about the animal after watching the videos. Four-year-olds were more likely to generalize anthropomorphic traits in animals than were older children. Finally, 4-year-olds in the animal puppet group showed a significantly higher preference for the informant than did 4-year-olds in the human and anthropomorphic language animal puppet groups. Overall, the findings showed that watching animal educational videos can promote children’s acquisition of animal knowledge and that children learn equally well from human and puppet informants. Additionally, younger children may enjoy learning from non-anthropomorphic language animal puppets more than from humans and anthropomorphic language animal puppets, but there are no significant differences in their learning.