WEBVTT - Pretending To Be Batman Helps Kids Focus

0:00:02.040 --> 0:00:06.920
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain stuff from how Stuff Works. Hey, brain

0:00:06.960 --> 0:00:10.280
<v Speaker 1>stuff is Christian saga here pretending is fun. Take the

0:00:10.360 --> 0:00:13.920
<v Speaker 1>simple task of making breakfast. Would you rather make scrambled

0:00:13.960 --> 0:00:18.280
<v Speaker 1>eggs while pondering your utility payments? Or say, pretend you're

0:00:18.320 --> 0:00:21.880
<v Speaker 1>a short order cook tasked with making the world's best

0:00:21.960 --> 0:00:25.480
<v Speaker 1>scrambled eggs for a celebrity breakfast is a lot more

0:00:25.520 --> 0:00:29.080
<v Speaker 1>interesting when there's something at stake. According to a recent

0:00:29.160 --> 0:00:32.760
<v Speaker 1>study in the journal Child Development, kids are savvy to

0:00:32.840 --> 0:00:37.400
<v Speaker 1>this trick. Self distancing is when we view personal experiences

0:00:37.400 --> 0:00:41.320
<v Speaker 1>from an outsider's perspective. Aiming to test the benefits of

0:00:41.360 --> 0:00:45.839
<v Speaker 1>this on children's perseverance, the researchers asked one hundred and

0:00:45.960 --> 0:00:50.040
<v Speaker 1>eighty kids ages four or six to do a pretty

0:00:50.080 --> 0:00:54.440
<v Speaker 1>boring computer task for ten minutes. Although all the kids

0:00:54.440 --> 0:00:56.520
<v Speaker 1>had to do was press a key when they saw

0:00:56.560 --> 0:00:59.640
<v Speaker 1>a certain image, they were told the task was important

0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:03.040
<v Speaker 1>and that they had to be good helpers. They could

0:01:03.040 --> 0:01:06.000
<v Speaker 1>take breaks to play a game on an iPad if

0:01:06.040 --> 0:01:09.640
<v Speaker 1>they wanted. The researchers split the kids into three groups

0:01:09.640 --> 0:01:12.280
<v Speaker 1>and asked each to think about its performance on the

0:01:12.360 --> 0:01:17.280
<v Speaker 1>given task from a certain perspective self immersed third person

0:01:17.840 --> 0:01:22.240
<v Speaker 1>or exemplar? Kids in the self immersed group asked themselves,

0:01:22.600 --> 0:01:26.320
<v Speaker 1>am I working hard? The third person group reflected on

0:01:26.360 --> 0:01:30.039
<v Speaker 1>the task by asking, is Christian Sager working hard? Now?

0:01:30.040 --> 0:01:32.920
<v Speaker 1>That's just me doing the third person there and the

0:01:33.000 --> 0:01:37.880
<v Speaker 1>exemplar group, those children imagined they were either Batman, Bob

0:01:37.959 --> 0:01:42.720
<v Speaker 1>the Builder, Rapunzel, or Dora the Explorer, well known characters

0:01:42.840 --> 0:01:46.760
<v Speaker 1>who are model hard workers, and were given props to

0:01:46.840 --> 0:01:50.120
<v Speaker 1>help them get in character. They were told to ask themselves,

0:01:50.120 --> 0:01:54.639
<v Speaker 1>for example, is Batman working hard? Every minute of the task.

0:01:54.720 --> 0:01:58.400
<v Speaker 1>A recorded voice prompted the children with their allotted question.

0:01:58.840 --> 0:02:01.720
<v Speaker 1>The researchers found at the kids in both age groups

0:02:01.760 --> 0:02:05.640
<v Speaker 1>who imagined themselves as a character spent a longer time

0:02:05.720 --> 0:02:09.320
<v Speaker 1>on the task, although predictably the younger kids spent less

0:02:09.320 --> 0:02:12.120
<v Speaker 1>time on the task than the older kids across the board.

0:02:12.600 --> 0:02:15.000
<v Speaker 1>The six year olds who were asked to reflect in

0:02:15.080 --> 0:02:18.760
<v Speaker 1>person spent about thirty five percent of the time on

0:02:18.800 --> 0:02:22.200
<v Speaker 1>the task rather than on break in the four year

0:02:22.200 --> 0:02:26.799
<v Speaker 1>olds just over, but the children pretending to be fictional

0:02:26.919 --> 0:02:31.240
<v Speaker 1>heroes spent fifty five percent of their time working, while

0:02:31.240 --> 0:02:33.680
<v Speaker 1>the four year olds in this group spent thirty two

0:02:33.720 --> 0:02:37.600
<v Speaker 1>percent of their time on task. The researchers posit that

0:02:37.680 --> 0:02:41.800
<v Speaker 1>when the children used third person or impersonated characters, the

0:02:41.919 --> 0:02:46.560
<v Speaker 1>kids distanced themselves from the boring task and tempting game,

0:02:47.000 --> 0:02:52.000
<v Speaker 1>allowing them to gain more focus and self control. Taking

0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:57.200
<v Speaker 1>an outsider's perspective on one's own behavior can improve perseverance

0:02:57.320 --> 0:03:00.920
<v Speaker 1>in the face of entertaining distraction. This is what the

0:03:00.960 --> 0:03:05.040
<v Speaker 1>researchers say in their study, but interpreting these results is

0:03:05.080 --> 0:03:08.960
<v Speaker 1>not so simple. Is pretending to be a character just fun?

0:03:09.440 --> 0:03:13.160
<v Speaker 1>Does it make kids think like they're powerful alter egos?

0:03:13.520 --> 0:03:19.280
<v Speaker 1>The study authors say, Answering these questions will require more research. Regardless,

0:03:19.520 --> 0:03:22.960
<v Speaker 1>the current study suggests that for kids, sticking to a

0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:27.079
<v Speaker 1>task might be easier with role play. Now, if you'll

0:03:27.080 --> 0:03:30.640
<v Speaker 1>excuse me, I've got to go change outfits because I

0:03:30.800 --> 0:03:40.280
<v Speaker 1>am vengeance. I am the Night. Today's episode was written

0:03:40.320 --> 0:03:43.680
<v Speaker 1>by Kate Kirshner, produced by Tristan McNeil and For more

0:03:43.720 --> 0:03:46.480
<v Speaker 1>on this and other topics, please visit us at how

0:03:46.520 --> 0:03:58.760
<v Speaker 1>stuff works dot com.