Abstract
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the significance of online research has been rising in the field of psychology. However, online experiments with child participants are rare compared to those with adults. In this study, we investigated the validity of web-based experiments with child participants 4–12 years old and adult participants. They performed simple emotional perception tasks in an experiment designed and conducted on the Gorilla Experiment Builder platform. After short communication with each participant via Zoom videoconferencing software, participants performed the auditory task (judging emotion from vocal expression) and the visual task (judging emotion from facial expression). The data collected were compared with data collected in our previous similar laboratory experiment, and similar tendencies were found. For the auditory task in particular, we replicated differences in accuracy perceiving vocal expressions between age groups and also found the same native language advantage. Furthermore, we discuss the possibility of using online cognitive studies for future developmental studies.
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic that began in 2020 has forced people to move much of their daily, face-to-face communication online
The purpose of this study was to investigate the validity of online developmental studies through an emotion perception experiment
We conducted an experiment controlled by Gorilla Experiment Builder with child and adult participants who engaged in simple auditory and visual emotion perception tasks following communication and instruction through Zoom
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic that began in 2020 has forced people to move much of their daily, face-to-face communication online. Many behavioral scientists had to stop their research and decide whether to postpone it or to move it online. Many researchers have been trying to conduct studies remotely, sufficient examination of the validity of online developmental research is absent to date. We introduce an online trial of perception tasks for children. We conducted a simple experiment featuring an auditory and a visual emotion perception task using video chat and an online experiment platform with children (4–12 years old) and adult participants. We examined the validity of these data (online data) with the data from our previous, similar laboratory trial (Kawahara et al, 2021)
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