▶ Word Choice Affects Responsive of Children:
A new study suggests that adults who use nouns rather than verbs when talking to children are more likely to prompt those children to act. UCSD, University of Washington and Stanford University researchers collaborated to complete the study, according to an April 30 UCSD News Room report.
The study consisted of two experiments with about 150 children, ages 3 to 6, from different ethnic, racial and economic backgrounds, both in which the adult talked to the children about helping. However, in one group, the adult referred to helping with a verb such as “help,” and in the other group, the adults talked about helping by using a noun such as “helper.”
The results showed that children were significantly more likely to help with certain tasks when adults talked to them about being “helpers” rather than “helping.” Moreover, when the adult experimenters used verb wording with the children, they were no more likely to help than the children who weren’t talked to at all about helping.
“Using the noun ‘helper’ may send a signal that helping implies something positive about one’s identity,” UCSD assistant professor of psychology Christopher J. Bryan said. “[This] may in turn motivate children to help more.”
▶ Burn Victims Hospitalized at UCSD Medical Center:
Two burnt Chinese fishermen were transported to the UCSD Burn Unit in Hillcrest for emergency treatment after their vessel caught on fire in the Pacific Ocean on Friday, May 2.
Officials said that of the 17 total sailors, six were missing and four were badly burnt, with only two surviving their injuries. The remaining sailors were in good condition and are set to be return home.The Air Force Rescue Coordination Center received an emergency rescue request at 5 p.m. on Friday and deployed the 563rd Rescue Group under Maj. Sarah Schwennesen at the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base to conduct the rescue mission.
Schwennesen told NBC 7 San Diego that the distance to reach the sailors was the most challenging. The rescue aircraft was dispatched from the Arizona Air National Guard in Phoenix, Arizona and took approximately 11 hours to fly across the Pacific Ocean.
