BackHome
Refresh: OffView Personal Schedule
Individual Submission Summary
Share...

Direct link:

Poster #235 - Giggles and Smiles: Behavioral and physiological correlates of shared book reading vs. independent tablet reading

Thu, March 21, 4:00 to 5:15pm, Baltimore Convention Center, Floor: Level 1, Exhibit Hall B

Integrative Statement

With the rise of tablets, most parents report giving their child an e-book to read alone if they are busy (Vaala & Takeuchi, 2012). Children comprehend some content from e-book audio narration, although comprehension is better after parent reading (Dore et al., 2018). Furthermore, parent-child reading may have emotional advantages over independent e-book reading. Indeed, bonding with children is one of parents' most important reported goals for parent-child reading (Audet et al., 2008). We explored whether children have different emotional experiences when reading with a parent compared to reading an e-book independently.

In preliminary data, seventeen 4-year-old children were randomly assigned to: independent e-book reading (N = 5), parent e-book reading (N = 7), or parent traditional book reading (N = 5). We combined the two parent conditions and compared them to the independent condition. Children wore an Empatica E4 multi-sensor to capture electrodermal activity (EDA), an index of sympathetic arousal. To assign affective valence to child EDA, videos were coded with a microanalytic coding system using affect expressions to capture the percentage of time children displayed different emotions during reading (adapted by Roben, 2018 from Cole et al., 2007). Facial, affect, and postural cues are based on research on basic emotions (e.g., Ekman & Friesen, 1975; Izard, 1979).

EDA signal decomposition provided phasic and tonic indices of sympathetic arousal. Tonic waveforms reflect slow changes in EDA and phasic changes reflect the sharp rise and fall of EDA around the tonic waveform. For each minute of baseline activity (a relaxation game) and reading, phasic indices included the number of skin conductance responses (SCR), peak SCR amplitude, and average SCR amplitude. The mean number of SCRs per minute and condition are shown in Figure 1. Within this context, SCRs reflect periods of positive affect and focused attention or interest. Analyses were completed on baseline minus reading differences in EDA elements. Children who read independently had marginally fewer SCRs during reading relative to baseline (Mchange = -7.40) compared to children who read with their parents (Mchange = -2.58), t = -2.02, p = .061, suggesting greater physiological arousal during parent reading. Children's affect expressions were coded as happy during a greater percentage of time when reading with their parent (M = 11.22%) compared to listening to the e-book independently (M = 1.33%), t = -2.55, p = .030, suggesting that physiological arousal in EDA data may be physically expressed as enjoyment (Figure 2).

Thus, reading with a parent is a different emotional experience than reading an e-book independently. Reading with a parent was associated with greater physiological arousal and more positive emotion, than reading independently. Reading e-books independently may cause children to miss out on valuable emotional experiences that come from shared book reading. Reducing the positive valence of typical reading experiences may have the long-term effect of making reading less attractive relative to other activities that do evoke positive emotion. These tantalizing preliminary results will be further verified as additional participants are recruited.

Authors