Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the landscape for children’s daily lives and the landscape for developmental psychology research. Pandemic-related restrictions have also significantly disrupted the traditional face-to-face methods with which developmental scientists produce research. Over the past year, developmental scientists have published on the best practices for online data collection methods; however, existing studies do not provide empirical evidence comparing online methods to face-to-face methods. In this study, we tested feasibility of online methods by examining performance on a battery of standardized and experimental cognitive assessments in a combined sample of 4- to 5-year-old preterm and full-term children, some of whom completed the battery face-to-face, and some of whom completed the battery online. First, we asked how children’s performance differs between face-to-face and online format on tasks related to verbal comprehension, fluid reasoning, visual spatial, working memory, attention and executive functioning, social perception, and numerical skills. Out of eight tasks, we did not find reliable differences on five of them. Second, we explored the role of parent involvement in children’s performance in the online format. We did not find a significant effect of parent involvement on children’s performance. Exploratory analyses showed that the role of format did not vary for children at risk, specifically children born preterm. Our findings contribute to the growing body of literature examining differences and similarities across various data collection methods, as well as literature surrounding online data collection for continuing developmental psychology research.
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the landscape for children’s daily lives and the landscape for developmental psychology research
Scores on the following standardized neurocognitive assessments did not differ between children who participated face-to-face and children who participated online, when controlling for parent education: WPPSI-IV PM, NEPSY-II affect recognition (AR), and NEPSY-II statue
Scores on the following experimental tasks did not differ between children who participated face-toface and children who participated online, when controlling for parent education and age at testing: mental rotation and what’s on this card
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the landscape for children’s daily lives and the landscape for developmental psychology research. Around 214 million children are estimated to have missed more than three quarters of in-person education in 2020 (United Nations Children’s Fund, 2021). Comparing Data Collection Methods during COVID-19 (Bureau, 2021). Pandemic-related restrictions have significantly disrupted the traditional methods in which developmental scientists produce research—that is, in-person studies requiring face-toface interactions (Garrisi et al, 2020). Given the likely continued role of online assessments in research and clinical services, it is important to understand both the differences and similarities between children’s performance in face-to-face and online settings. The goal of the current paper is to add to this growing body of literature by testing the feasibility of online data collection methods and comparing 4- to 5-year-old preschoolers’ performance face-toface vs online on a wide variety of standardized and experimental cognitive assessments
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