The effects of screen media content on young children’s executive functioning

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2018.01.006Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Executive functioning was assessed pre- and post-screen media intervention.

  • Interacting with educational content improved working memory, relative to viewing.

  • Ability to delay gratification was greatest after the educational app intervention.

Abstract

Children’s exposure to screen-based media has raised concerns for many reasons. One reason is that viewing particular television content has been shown to negatively affect children’s executive functioning. Yet, it is unclear whether interacting with a touchscreen device affects executive functioning in the same way as the television research suggests. In the current study, 96 2- and 3-year-old children completed executive functioning measures of working memory and response inhibition and task switching before and after a brief screen intervention consisting of watching an educational television show, playing an educational app, or watching a cartoon. Children’s ability to delay gratification was also assessed. Results indicate that the type of screen intervention had a significant effect on executive functioning performance. Children were more likely to delay gratification after playing an educational app than after viewing a cartoon. In particular instances, children’s working memory improved after playing the educational app. These findings emphasize that, for young children’s executive functioning, interactivity and content may be more important factors to consider than simply “screen time.”

Introduction

The purpose of the current study was to examine how different types of screen media experiences immediately affect young children’s executive functioning (EF). This work was intended to fill a number of important empirical gaps in the literature. Specifically, there is little work examining the effect of media exposure on the EF of children younger than 4 years old. Moreover, prior work in this area has focused on observational noninteractive video. Here, we further examined how touchscreen app use affects young children’s EF.

Executive functions refer to higher order cognitive processes responsible for mediating goal-directed behavior, including self-regulation, working memory, inhibition, and attention (Beck et al., 2011, Garon et al., 2008, Hughes and Ensor, 2005). Researchers have distinguished between executive functions as being either “hot” or “cool.” Hot executive functions are activated in emotive or heightened social situations, and are typically measured by tasks with an extrinsic reward such as delay of gratification (Beck et al., 2011). Conversely, cool executive functions are emotionally neutral cognitive skills typically assessed by more abstract tasks (Brock, Rimm-Kaufman, Nathanson, & Grimm, 2009). These abilities develop rapidly during early childhood and are related to children’s social and academic school readiness (Blair, Zelazo, & Greenberg, 2005). Collectively, both hot and cool executive functions are crucial to daily functioning and are important for learning and academic success (Diamond, 2013).

Given the significance of EF in development and learning, it is important to identify factors that may affect executive function performance in children. One such factor that has been repeatedly identified is exposure to observational media (e.g., television). Particular features of television programs can have immediate effects on 4-year-old children’s hot (e.g., delay of gratification) and cool (e.g., digit span, Tower of Hanoi, Heads–Knees–Toes–Shoulders) EF performance (Lillard, Drell et al., 2015, Lillard and Peterson, 2011, Lillard, Li et al., 2015) . In addition, other research has found that both television exposure time and content are related to children’s concurrent EF abilities as well as their EF performance later in life (Barr et al., 2010, Nathanson et al., 2014). Notably, as detailed below, it is not only the duration of exposure but also the specific media experience that can affect children’s EF.

The nature of television content and the amount of screen time exposure have been shown to affect children’s EF. For example, in a longitudinal study exploring the effects of television exposure during infancy and the preschool years, Barr et al. (2010) found that the content and duration of television exposure at each time point were related to EF at 4 years of age. Children exposed to high levels of adult-directed television at both 12 months and 4 years had poorer EF scores at 4 years of age. In addition, high levels of household television use at age 4 were associated with poorer EF. Interestingly, exposure to child-directed programming at either time point was not associated with EF scores (Barr et al., 2010). When children view content that is designed for them (e.g., Public Broadcasting Station [PBS] and Nickelodeon preschool programs), it is less detrimental to their EF than adult-directed content. This study suggests that in addition to overall television exposure, television content also plays an influential role in young children’s EF development.

More recently, children’s television viewing was further teased apart. Parental records of household television use reported television duration, channels, and programs watched (Nathanson et al., 2014). Here, consistent with the aforementioned study, children who viewed more television had weaker EF scores compared with children who watched fewer hours. Both the television channel viewed and the type of content were important predictors of EF performance. Specifically, PBS viewing was positively related to children’s EF skills, whereas watching educational cartoons (e.g., Dora the Explorer) was associated with poorer EF performance. Greater television viewing is typically related to poorer EF skills, whereas high-quality children’s programming (e.g., PBS) is related to better EF.

In addition to correlational studies, experimental research has shown that particular television content can have immediate effects on children’s EF. Lillard and Peterson (2011) assessed preschoolers’ EF abilities directly after viewing 9 min of a fast-paced cartoon (SpongeBob SquarePants) or an educational television program (Caillou). They concluded that the fast-paced fantastical cartoon subsequently impaired preschoolers’ hot (e.g., delay of gratification) and cool (e.g., backward digit span) EF performance. Interestingly, baseline EF performance was not measured, meaning that an alternative explanation of the results remains to be explored. Specifically, it is possible that the cartoon did not have negative effects on EF performance but that the educational program had positive effects on EF performance.

Recently, these effects were explored in greater detail over a series of experiments (Lillard, Drell et al., 2015). First, the aforementioned study by Lillard and Peterson (2011) was repeated with 4- and 6-year olds with mixed results. Children who watched a fast-paced fantastical cartoon performed significantly worse on cool EF tasks compared with children who were engaged in free play for the same amount of time. No significant difference was found for cool EF between children who watched a slow-paced realistic cartoon1 compared with children who viewed a fast-paced fantastical cartoon. The negative effects of watching a fast-paced fantastical cartoon on delay of gratification were not replicated here. Thus, in a second study, the hot EF measure was removed and the immediate effects of two fast-paced fantastical programs—one educational and one entertainment—were compared on 4-year-olds’ cool EF. After 22 min of viewing, cool EF performance was similar for children who viewed either entertaining or educational fast-paced fantastical shows, and both groups performed worse than children who were read a book. Thus, even a program intended to be educational can adversely affect EF when it is fast and fantastical. These results suggest that screen media content can have immediate effects on EF; and that the type of content may affect particular EF domains differently (i.e. hot vs. cool EF).

Another experiment was conducted to disentangle the influence of television pace and content on 4-year-olds’ EF (Lillard, Drell et al., 2015). Children watched one of four television programs: (a) a fast-paced realistic show, (b) a fast-paced fantastical show, (c) a slow-paced realistic show, or (d) a slow-paced fantastical show. To control for baseline EF ability, an EF battery was administered pre-intervention that differed from the test battery with the exception of an auditory working memory task that was repeated. Results indicated that content, but not pace, affected post-screen intervention aggregate cool EF scores. Children who viewed realistic content had positive EF scores, whereas children who viewed fantastical content had negative scores. Changes in auditory working memory performance were examined separately and were consistent with the post-test EF results; children who watched realistic content had improved working memory scores, whereas working memory declined for those who watched fantastical content. The authors concluded that, regardless of pacing, fantastical shows have adverse effects on children’s EF (Lillard, Drell et al., 2015). These results again emphasize the importance of identifying media content when examining screen media’s influence on children’s EF.

These studies indicated that when considering noninteractive video, content is an important piece in the puzzle of determining best practices for children’s media use. Both the amount of time and the type of content children consume are important determinants of screen media’s impact on EF. For this reason, guidelines for young children’s media use integrate both content and time (e.g., American Academy of Pediatrics [AAP] Council on Communications and Media, 2016). Such recommendations for young children (particularly those under 4 years of age) are mainly based on decades of observational media research despite the fact that children today are consumers of a wide array of screen media including mobile touchscreens (Rideout, 2017). Although much of the time that young children spend with touchscreen devices is used for watching videos (Cristia & Seidl, 2015), the proportion of screen time during which young children use interactive media, such as mobile touchscreen applications, has increased during recent years (Common Sense Media, 2013, Rideout, 2017).

Indeed, there is little research examining screen media effects on EF in younger children. Specifically, previous research in this area has investigated how observational media affects EF in children 4 years and older, whereas studies of interactive touchscreen media use and younger children have tended to focus on transfer of learning (e.g., Kirkorian and Pempek, 2013, Moser et al., 2015, Tarasuik et al., 2017). Because young children are increasingly engaging with interactive touchscreens, it is important to investigate if and how touchscreen use affects their EF compared with evidence from television. Is the medium, in fact, the message? Or does the specific media experience (i.e., interactivity and content) matter more than the device itself? Knowing this is important because it can determine the extent to which media use guidelines for young children should focus on media platforms and/or specific aspects of the media experience—content and interactivity.

Here, we examined hot and cool EF in 2- and 3-year-old children before and after exposure to one of three different touchscreen-based interventions: (a) a noneducational cartoon, (b) an educational video, or (c) an educational app. We hypothesized that, based on past research with older children (e.g., Lillard & Peterson, 2011), children’s hot and cool EF performance would be affected by the media experience. Specifically, we expected a fast-paced noneducational cartoon to have more adverse effects on both hot and cool domains of EF than an educational touchscreen app. Such a result would be analogous to Lillard and Peterson’s (2011) finding that noneducational cartoon viewing negatively affected EF relative to a drawing activity.

Because Lillard and Peterson (2011) found the effects of educational television programming appeared to sit somewhere between those of drawing and those of cartoon viewing, we reasoned that our observational educational video would have effects somewhere between those of the educational app and those of the cartoon. Put another way, we hypothesized that the interactive nature of the educational app may have benefits relative to the noninteractive educational video—on both hot and cool EF performance. However, we hypothesized that the educational video would also lead to better EF performance because it is slower paced and includes fewer fantastical elements than the noneducational cartoon.

In addition, we examined how the order of tasks might affect EF performance. We reasoned that this analysis would help us to understand the time course of any effects of screen-based activity on EF performance. Overall, we sought to clarify how various media activities influence EF—so that parents, educators, and policymakers can make better informed decisions for screen use and activity selection for children. Note that in the current study we were not seeking to disentangle how pace within an interactive app affects EF; this is a question for subsequent research provided that the educational app and noninteractive cartoon have significantly different effects on children’s EF.

Section snippets

Participants

A total of 96 children aged 24–48 months (M = 36.3 months, SD = 7.0; 54 boys) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: Cartoon (n = 37), EduApp (n = 37), or EduTV (n = 22). Of this sample, 9 children were excluded from analysis due to an unwillingness to complete all EF tasks (i.e., they did not complete all baseline and post-screen measures: 2 EduApp, 1 Cartoon, and 2 EduTV) or to attend to the screen-based intervention (4 Cartoon). Parents were asked whether their children had ever

Results

Preliminary analyses revealed no significant main effect of, or any interactions with, sex or previous exposure to touchscreens on any of the dependent measures; therefore, these factors were not considered in subsequent analyses.

Discussion

The key finding of this study was that, relative to watching a cartoon, playing with an educational app had beneficial effects on children’s subsequent hot and cool EF performance. This finding was consistent in two of the three measures of EF assessed. Most notably, across all three EF tasks, the educational app was never found to adversely affect children’s EF. Specifically, the screen intervention type had a significant effect on subsequent delay of gratification and working memory

Acknowledgments

The authors thank George Collins for his passion for research and support of the Swinburne BabyLab, the parents and their children who offered their time to participate in this study, and Renee Rowsell and the BabyLab interns. This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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