Abstract
Research shows that preschoolers are likely to anthropomorphize not only animals, but also inanimate toy after being exposed to books that personify these objects. Can such an effect also arise through young children’s use of touch-screen games? The present study is the first to examine whether playing a touch-screen personified train game affects young children’s anthropomorphism of real trains. Seventy-nine 4- and 6-year-old children were randomly assigned to play either a touch-screen game or a board game of Thomas the Tank Engine for 10 min. They completed the Individual Differences in Anthropomorphism Questionnaire–Child Form (IDAQ-CF) (two subscales: Technology/Inanimate Nature, Animate Nature) and an additional four items about the anthropomorphism of real trains, before (T1) and after (T2) the game. Overall results showed that children manifested a small but statistically significant increase in anthropomorphizing of real trains after their exposure to both games, claiming that real trains were like humans. Interestingly, 4-year-old children in the board game group tended to anthropomorphize real trains more than those in the touch-screen group, whereas the reverse was true for the 6-year-old children. The results suggest that touch-screen games may delay the decline of children’s anthropomorphism during the cognitive and socio-emotional transition that occurs in children aged 5–7. These findings have implications for future research on how touch-screen games increase children’s anthropomorphism of the real world, and more generally, for evaluation of the influence of the growing use of touch-screen games on young children’s learning.
Highlights
Recent survey data suggest that young children start to use tablets at a very early age, most often to watch videos and play video games (Common Sense Media, 2013)
The present study tested whether Chinese young children would show greater anthropomorphism about real trains after being exposed to a board game or a touch-screen game that personified Thomas the Tank Engine
We assessed children’s anthropomorphism of real trains before and after playing one of the two games, both of which featured the personified train that has a human face on the front
Summary
Recent survey data suggest that young children start to use tablets at a very early age, most often to watch videos and play video games (Common Sense Media, 2013). This playful use of various media affects their development and learning (Moreno, 2016). Touch-screen devices have become prevalent in children’s lives (Cristia and Seidl, 2015), being more interactive than earlier play media such as picture books and board games In this area of research, three features of touch-screen devices stand out: interactivity, tailorability, and progression (Christakis, 2014). Such multimodal stimulation creates a sense of presence (Preston, 2007) in which the user feels as though he or she were physically present in the scene (Benski and Fisher, 2013)
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