Poster #239 - The Short-term Cognitive Impacts of Technology use in Young Children

• In Event: 2-110 - Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Section - Technology, Media & Child Development

Integrative Statement

Mobile devices have made technology incredibly accessible, especially for children. Reading and speaking are not necessary for successful operation of mobile devices, allowing very young children to use mobile technology with ease. Approximately 75% of children under 9 years old have used tablets or smartphones, and many children use these devices for over an hour each day (Rideout, 2013). With these patterns in mind, it is critical to determine how these devices impact children’s developing cognitive abilities. Thus, the current study examined the short-term effects of tablet usage on children's attention and inhibitory control.

Forty-six children (25 male, M = 55.4 months) completed a go/no-go task called the Zoo Game (McDermott, 2005; Grammer et al., 2014) for baseline measurement. The task consisted of 120 trials presented in two 60-trial blocks without feedback. Then, children were randomly assigned to one of two groups for a 15-minute playtime during which children were shown meal cards and asked to ‘cook’ specific meals. In the technology group, children used a cooking app called TOCA Kitchen (Toca Boca AB, 2014) on a tablet. In the non-technology group, children used cooking toys. Following playtime, all children completed a second session of the go/no-go task.

At baseline, children in the non-technology group were trending to react slower after errors of commission (M = 231.90) than children in the technology group (M = 123.33; t(41) = 1.86, p = .070). There were no other baseline differences (ps > .354). In the second go/no-go session, the non-technology group had higher accuracy (M = 74.15%) on no-go trials than the technology group (M = 60.69%; F(1,41)= 3.30, p =.077). The non-technology group also showed an increase in no-go accuracy (M = 5.57%) across the two go/no-go sessions, whereas the technology group showed a decrease in no-go accuracy (M = 4.58%) across the two sessions (t(44) = -1.67, p = .102). Contrary to expectations, children in the technology group showed a trending increase in post-error slowing from the first to the second go/no-go session (F(1,40)= 3.23, p =.080) when controlling for overall accuracy. Finally, when committing errors of commission during the second go/no-go session, girls in the non-technology group showed significantly faster reaction times (M = 522.62) to the no-go stimuli than girls in the technology group (M = 680.86; F(1,38)= 4.20, p =.047). This pattern suggests that the two types of playtime may impact girls’ attentional resources differently.

After only 15 minutes of tablet use, children in the technology group demonstrated deficits in inhibitory control. In contrast, children in the non-technology group improved their performance on no-go trials. However, children in the technology group did slow down their reaction time after errors in the second go/no-go session, indicating that they recognized when they made mistakes but may have had difficulty preventing themselves from committing future mistakes because of potential decreases in attentional control resources. Overall, these results indicate that brief use of mobile technology can impact children’s attention and inhibitory control.

Authors

• Abigail Fontaine Helm, UMass Amherst
  Presenting Author

• Jennifer M. McDermott, University of Massachusetts Amherst
  Non-Presenting Author