Control as an Engagement Feature for Young Children’s Attention to and Learning of Computer Content

Abstract

This article examines a study in which young children were exposed to a computer story that varied the amount of control that children had over the visual and verbal content. Children who controlled the computer demonstrated more attention and involvement than those who watched an adult control the experience. Boys who had an adult control the program were more likely to try to gain control of the activity by making attempts to get the mouse or by asking to change activities. Control, however, had no effect on children’s memory of visual or verbal content. The implication is that control is an engagement feature that has its greatest impact when examining attention and interest, a lesson that may facilitate constructive early adult-child interactions with educational computer software.