Conrad, M., Marcovitch, S., & Boseovski, J. (2021). The friendly fossa: The effect of anthropomorphic language on learning about unfamiliar animals through both storybooks and live animal experiences. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 201, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2020.104985.

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Children’s storybooks about animals often use elements of fantasy; even educational storybooks intended to teach children about factual and biological properties include talking animals depicted as more like humans than animals. Some previous research has found that fantastical elements such as extreme anthropomorphism hinders factual learning and should thus not be used in the context of educational experiences. However, the majority of this research has been done with storybooks, and little research has explored the impact of its use in other contexts, such as zoos, where parents often naturally use anthropomorphic language. The current paper explores the impact of anthropomorphism on learning about an unfamiliar animal (fossa) across two contexts: storybooks (Study 1) and a zoo (Study 2).  Across both studies, there was no evidence that anthropomorphism interfered with factual learning. However, children given anthropomorphic information about a fossa were more likely to generalize anthropomorphic traits to other fossa. Outcomes related to age and individual differences in anthropomorphic beliefs are also discussed.  These results provide important information for parents and educators regarding the appropriateness of fantastical information about animals in experiences designed to support early biological learning. 

Conrad, M., Kim, E.*, Blacker, K. A., Walden, Z.*, LoBue, V. (2020). Using storybooks to teach children about illness transmission and promote adaptive health behavior – a pilot study. Frontiers in Psychology, 11:942. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00942

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Although there is a large and growing literature on children’s developing concepts of illness transmission, little is known about how children develop contagion knowledge before formal schooling begins and how these informal learning experiences can impact children’s health behaviors. Here, we asked two important questions: first, do children’s informal learning experiences, such as their experiences reading storybooks, regularly contain causal information about illness transmission; and second, what is the impact of this type of experience on children’s developing knowledge and behavior? In Study 1, we examined whether children’s commercial books about illness regularly contain contagion-relevant causal information. In Study 2, we ran a pilot study examining whether providing children with causal information about illness transmission in a storybook can influence their knowledge and subsequent behavior when presented with a contaminated object. The results from Study 1 suggest that very few (15%) children’s books about illness feature biological causal mechanisms for illness transmission. However, results from Study 2 suggest that storybooks containing contagion-relevant explanations about illness transmission may encourage learning and avoidance of contaminated objects. Altogether, these results provide preliminary data suggesting that future research should focus on engaging children in learning about contagion and encouraging adaptive health behaviors.

Conrad, M., & Stricker, S. (2018). Personality and labor: a retrospective study of the relationship between personality traits and birthing experiences. Journal of reproductive and infant psychology, 36(1), 67-80.

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Objective: In the current study, we explored the relationship between a woman’s personality, epidural use and perceptions of the labour and birth experience.

Background: Having a positive birthing experience is relevant to predicting a range of important outcomes including mother–infant bonding, fertility rates and delivery interventions. However, limited research has addressed the kinds of individual differences that may affect a woman’s subjective birthing experience.

Methods: One hundred and twenty-five women were surveyed about subjective aspects of the labour and birthing experience of their firstborn child, including use of epidural, perceived pain, anxiety, self-capacity and positive experiences. The women also completed the Big Five personality inventory, which measures five dimensions of

stable personality characteristics.

Geerdts, M., Van de Walle, G. A., & LoBue, V. (2015). Daily animal exposure and children’s biological concepts. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 130, 132-146.

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A large body of research has focused on the developmental trajectory of children’s acquisition of a theoretically coherent naive biology. However, considerably less work has focused on how specific daily experiences shape the development of children’s knowledge about living things. In the current research, we investigated one common experience that might contribute to biological knowledge development during early childhood—pet ownership. In Study 1, we investigated how children interact with pets by observing 24 preschool-aged children with their pet cats or dogs and asking parents about their children’s daily involvement with the pets. We found that most of young children’s observed and reported interactions with their pets are reciprocal social interactions. In Study 2, we tested whether children who have daily social experiences with animals are more likely to attribute biological properties to animals than children without pets. Both 3- and 5-year-olds with pets were more likely to attribute biological properties to animals than those without pets. Similarly, both older and younger children with pets showed less anthropocentric patterns of extension of novel biological information. The results suggest that having pets may facilitate the development of a more sophisticated, human-inclusive representation of animals.

Geerdts, M. S., Van de Walle, G. A., & LoBue, V. (2016). Learning about real animals from anthropomorphic media. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 36(1), 5-26.

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While a large body of empirical research has investigated preschool-aged children’s knowledge of the natural world, comparatively little attention has been paid to the relevant cultural and social input that shapes the content and development of children’s factual knowledge and conceptual reasoning. In the current research, we experimentally examined the impact of exposure to one particularly common and relevant cultural tool for learning about living things: storybooks. While anthropomorphism— the attribution of human characteristics to nonhuman entities—has long been a staple of children’s storybooks, researchers have only recently focused on directly measuring its effect on children’s knowledge about real animals. Contrary to previous research, we found that anthropomorphic language and pictures in storybooks did not interfere with factual learning about real animals. Even though children did retell anthropomorphic stories using anthropomorphic language, they were nonetheless better at providing factual, biological explanations after being read an anthropomorphic storybook. Our results suggest that anthropomorphism in storybooks may not have the strong, negative impact as previously suggested and supports the need for further research on the potential educational role of fantasy elements such as anthropomorphism in children’s media.

Geerdts, M., Van De Walle, G., & LoBue, V. (2016). Using animals to teach children biology: Exploring the use of biological explanations in children’s anthropomorphic storybooks. Early Education and Development, 27(8), 1237-1249.

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Research Findings: Anthropomorphism—the attribution of human characteristics to nonhuman entities—has long been a staple of children’s media. However, children’s experiences with anthropomorphic media may interfere with biological reasoning instead encouraging an anthropocentric view of the natural world. To date, little research has addressed the typical content of children’s storybooks about animals: Do these storybooks present factual information that may support early developing biological reasoning, or do they instead focus on human-centered, psychological information that may encourage anthropocentrism? We analyzed the types of causal explanatory information that commercial storybooks about animals provide to children about 2 biological concepts that have been extensively studied in the experimental literature: biological inheritance and the transmission of illness. Using coding schemes similar to those used in prior experimental literature to assess preschool-age children’s biological reasoning, we found that none of the anthropomorphized books presented children with scientifically accurate causal mechanisms. These books focused almost exclusively on social-emotional experiences as opposed to biological explanations, which may inadvertently encourage anthropocentric reasoning. Practice or Policy: Understanding more about the content of informal sources of early learning can help inform educators on how to best support developing knowledge about the natural world and biological properties.

Geerdts, M. S. (2016). (Un) Real Animals: Anthropomorphism and Early Learning About Animals. Child Development Perspectives, 10(1), 10-14.

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Children are frequently exposed to anthropomorphic depictions of animals. The impact of anthropomorphism on children’s development of factual and biological knowledge about real animals has consequences for how we engage children in early learning about the natural world. In this article, I discuss recent cross-cultural and experimental studies on children’s exposure to differing representations of animals, and studies that highlight the role that experiences with and about animals play in the development of biological reasoning and factual learning. Continued research that considers the conditions in which anthropomorphism may support early learning can explain discrepancies in previous research and help advance the ways we address the place of anthropomorphism in early educational experiences.

Geerdts, M. S., Van de Walle, G. A., & LoBue, V. (2015). Parent–child conversations about animals in informal learning environments. Visitor Studies, 18(1), 39-63.

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A large body of empirical research has focused on understanding children’s biological knowledge development. However, limited research has investigated the informal learning experiences through which children actively construct biological concepts. The current study focused on examining whether parents provide information that supports and shapes children’s emerging biological knowledge within settings that provide opportunities for biological learning about animals.We observed parent–child interaction within informal learning environments about two different types of animals: A penguin exhibit at a zoo and an insect exhibit at a science museum. Fifty-two families with preschool and school-aged children participated. Parents more frequently provided important, unobservable information such as predictions and causal inferences to the youngest children, potentially supporting the development of children’s knowledge. However, parents seldom explicitly supported their children’s knowledge by providing explanations of readily observable biological processes. Further research examining these and other direct and indirect animal experiences in informal learning settings can help us better understand how to support children’s early biological learning.