Touchscreens for Whom? Working Memory and Age Moderate the Impact of Contingency on Toddlers' Transfer From Video

Reinforcement matters: Animated reinforcements disrupt young children's word learning from a digital book

Ninety-seven 19- to 23-month-olds (53 boys, 44 girls; White (56%), multi-racial (25%), Asian (12%), Black (3%), other (3%)) listened to a digital book with a narration that labeled and requested the child touch an on-screen object. Conditions differed in how the book proceeded: no contingency/no reinforcement - the page turned regardless of the child's actions, contingency/no reinforcement - any response triggered a page turn, contingency/verbal reinforcement - a correct response triggered a "good job!" and page turn, and contingency/animated reinforcement - a correct response triggered a sound, animation, and page turn. Contingency supported learning and children displayed more learning with verbal than animated reinforcement. Findings highlight the importance of attention to the design of contingent features, as simple animations may overload processing demands.

Differential roles of problematic media use by mothers and toddlers in the relation between parenting stress and toddlers' socioemotional development

The increasing prevalence of digital media devices in families with young children has raised concerns over problematic media use. However, the link between toddlers' problematic media use, their socioemotional development, and the influence of parental factors remains unclear. The current study examined the roles of problematic media use by both mothers and toddlers in the association between maternal parenting stress and toddlers' socioemotional development. Participants comprised 215 mothers and 73 lead child care classroom teachers of toddlers aged 24-36 months enrolled in child care centers in South Korea. Mothers reported parenting stress and problematic media use by themselves and their toddlers, and child care teachers reported toddlers' socioemotional development. The results from structural equation modeling analysis revealed that maternal parenting stress was related to toddlers' socioemotional development both directly and indirectly through toddlers' problematic media use, both alone and in conjunction with mothers' problematic media use. Although maternal parenting stress was related to mothers' problematic media use, mothers' problematic media use was not directly related to toddlers' socioemotional development. These findings underscore the importance of toddlers' problematic media use in their socioemotional development and highlight the need for comprehensive approaches that address family dynamics, such as maternal parenting stress and problematic media use.

Dragging but not tapping promotes preschoolers' numerical estimating with touchscreens

When solving mathematical problems, young children will perform better when they can use gestures that match mental representations. However, despite their increasing prevalence in educational settings, few studies have explored this effect in touchscreen-based interactions. Thus, we investigated the impact on young children's performance of dragging (where a continuous gesture is performed that is congruent with the change in number) and tapping (involving a discrete gesture that is incongruent) on a touchscreen device when engaged in a continuous number line estimation task. By examining differences in the set size and position of the number line estimation, we were also able to explore the boundary conditions for the superiority effect of congruent gestures. We used a 2 (Gesture Type: drag or tap) × 2 (Set Size: Set 0-10 or Set 0-20) × 2 (Position: left of midpoint or right of midpoint) mixed design. A total of 70 children aged 5 and 6 years (33 girls) were recruited and randomly assigned to either the Drag or Tap group. We found that the congruent gesture (drag) generally facilitated better performance with the touchscreen but with boundary conditions. When completing difficult estimations (right side in the large set size), the Drag group was more accurate, responded to the stimulus faster, and spent more time manipulating than the Tap group. These findings suggest that when children require explicit scaffolding, congruent touchscreen gestures help to release mental resources for strategic adjustments, decrease the difficulty of numerical estimation, and support constructing mental representations.

Can touchscreens replace teachers? Chinese children's character learning from a touchscreen-based app, video, or face-to-face instruction

Given the increasing prevalence of touchscreen devices that are intended for educational purposes, this study explored children's transfer of learning from touchscreen media compared with video and offline face-to-face learning. A total of 76 5- and 6-year-old Chinese kindergarten children (M = 68.21 months, SD = 3.57, range = 62-76; 30 boys and 46 girls) were randomly assigned to learn eight Chinese characters using a touchscreen-based app, using a video, or through face-to-face interaction. Learning was measured via the recall task scores, recognition task scores, recall efficiency, and recognition efficiency. The results revealed that children's recall and recognition task scores improved when learning took place using the touchscreen or face-to-face interaction. Children's recall efficiency and recognition efficiency were strongest in the face-to-face condition, followed by the touchscreen condition and then the video condition. The effects of instructional format on children's recall and recognition scores and recall efficiency were moderated by age; younger children's recall and recognition scores in the face-to-face condition and the touchscreen condition were significantly higher than in the video condition, yet older children's recall and recognition scores did not differ between conditions. However, for recall efficiency, younger children's recall efficiency in the face-to-face condition and the touchscreen condition was significantly higher than in the video condition; older children's recall efficiency in the face-to-face condition was higher than in both the touchscreen condition and the video condition. In conclusion, both face-to-face interaction and a touchscreen-based app were helpful ways for children to learn Chinese characters compared with video, but face-to-face learning showed advantages over touchscreen learning in recall efficiency for older children.

Reexamining models of early learning in the digital age: Applications for learning in the wild

Young children are growing up in an increasingly complicated digital world. Laboratory-based research shows it is cognitively demanding to process and transfer information presented on screens during early childhood. Multiple explanations for this cognitive challenge have been proposed. This review provides an updated comprehensive framework that integrates prior theoretical explanations to develop new testable hypotheses. The review also considers the how the research can be generalized to the "wild" where children engage with multiple commercial products daily. It includes real-world applications for improving children's learning and memory from screen-based media by adding supportive cues and reducing distraction and interference. The review concludes with a call for future collaborative research between researchers, content developers, and families to better understand age-related changes in both short-term and long-term learning from digital media. Finally, policy makers need to be involved to ensure equitable access and to create a safe digital space for all families.