Disinhibition transmits from television to young children

The present study examined whether young children's behaviors in the Dimensional Change Card Sorting task (DCCS task) could be influenced by their observation of another person performing the task on video. In Experiment 1, 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children observed that an actor on video was sorting cards according to one rule (e.g., shape rule). Then they were asked to sort the cards according to the other rule (e.g., color rule). Result showed that 3-year-olds failed to use the second rule whereas 4- and 5-year-olds used the second rule. Experiments 2 further investigated whether children's performance following the televised demonstration was different from their performance following the live demonstration of the same actions. Results showed that 3-year-old children failed to use the second rule in spite of the presentation modality (live or video). We conclude that disinhibition can transmit from television to children as it transmits from one person to children.