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Updated: Jun 15, 2026

Quantifying Learning in Young Infants: Tracking Leg Actions During a Discovery-learning Task
Published on: June 1, 2015
Word learning from baby videos
Rebekah A Richert1, Michael B Robb, Jodi G Fender
1Department of Psychology, University of California, 900 University Ave., Riverside, CA 92521, USA. rebekah.richert@ucr.edu
Objective:
To examine whether children between 12 and 25 months of age learn words from an infant-directed DVD designed for that purpose.
Design:
Half of the children received a DVD to watch in their home over the course of 6 weeks.
Setting:
All participants returned to a laboratory for testing on vocabulary acquisition every 2 weeks.
Participants:
Ninety-six 12- to 24-month-old children.
Main Exposure:
Baby videos.
Main Outcome Measures:
Parent report and observational measures of vocabulary acquisition related to words highlighted in the DVD; parent report of general language development; and parent report of children's media use.
Results:
The age at first viewing of baby DVDs was related to children's general language development. There was no evidence of learning words highlighted in the infant-directed DVD independent of parental intervention.
Conclusions:
Researchers should continue to examine whether infant-directed media are effective in teaching infants and toddlers content and consider the cognitive factors related to whether very young viewers should be expected to learn from a DVD.
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