In our research funded by the National Science Foundation and the Spencer Foundation, we explored young children’s learning from different sources of information, including real-life demonstrations, observational media (e.g., video), interactive media (e.g., apps, digital games), and eBooks. 

Findings suggest that when the information is relatively simple (e.g., a single word), young children may learn more from interactive apps than from noninteractive video; however, when information is more complicated (e.g., early math skills), children appear to learn more by simply watching a video than interacting with an app or digital game. 

Follow-up work examined different types of interactivity (e.g., eBook features that draw attention toward relevant vs. irrelevant information) to determine the extent to which visual attention (as measured by eye movements) and cognitive skills (e.g., working memory, inhibitory control) moderate toddlers’ learning from touchscreen devices.

Selected Publications and Presentations

Selected publications:

Kirkorian, H. L, & Simmering, V. (2023). Searching in the sand: Protracted video deficit in U.S. preschoolers' spatial recall using a continuous search space. Developmental Science, 26(4), e13376. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13376

Choi, K., Kirkorian, H. L., & Pempek, T. A. (2021). Touchscreens for whom? Working memory and age moderate the impact of contingency on toddlers’ transfer from video. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, e621372. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.621372 

Choi, K., Kirkorian, H. L., & Pempek, T. A. (2017). Understanding the transfer deficit: Contextual mismatch, proactive interference, and working memory affect toddlers’ video-based transfer. Child Development. DOI: 10.1111/cdev.12810.

Kirkorian, H. L., Choi, K., & Pempek, T. A. (2016). Toddlers' word learning from contingent and noncontingent video on touch screens. Child Development, 87, 405-413.

Choi, K., & Kirkorian, H. L. (2016). Touch or watch to learn? Toddlers' object retrieval using contingent and noncontingent video. Psychological Science. 

Our research on media impact emphasized the distinction between foreground television (i.e., programs to which children pay substantial attention, often child-directed) and background television (i.e., programs to which children pay little attention, often designed for older viewers). 

We found that when an adult-directed television program is playing in the background, there is a substantial reduction in the quantity and quality of both toddler play (e.g., amount of play, focused attention) and parent-toddler interactions (e.g., number of words spoken to the child, amount of active engagement in children's toy play). These studies suggest two mechanisms by which background television may have a negative impact on subsequent cognitive development: reduced sustained attention during toy play and poorer quality of social interactions with parents. We also found that the effects of background television are greatest when the television show contains a lot of salient visual and auditory features. 

We also examined children's physiological responses (e.g., heart rate) to child- and adult-directed background television, as well as the individual characteristics (e.g., temperament, attentional control) that might predict greater susceptibility to background television.

Selected Publications and Presentations

Selected publications:

Kirkorian, H. L., Choi, K., & Anderson, D. R. (2019). American parents’ active involvement mediates the impact of background television on young children’s toy play. Journal of Children and Media, 19, 377-394. https://doi.org/10.1080/17482798.2019.1635033 

Pempek, T. A., Kirkorian, H. L., & Anderson, D. R. (2014). The impact of background television on the quantity and quality of parents' child-directed language. Journal of Children and Media, 8, 211-222. 

Kirkorian, H.L., Pempek, T.A., Murphy, L.A., Schmidt, M.E., & Anderson, D.R. (2009). The impact of background television on parent-child interaction. Child Development, 80, 1350-1359.

Schmidt, M.E., Pempek, T.A., Kirkorian, H.L., Frankenfield, A.F., & Anderson, D.R. (2008). The effects of background television on the toy play behavior of very young children. Child Development, 79, 1137-1151.

Selected conference presentations:

Yoo S. H., Pempek, T. A., & Kirkorian, H. L. (2017, April). The impact of background TV on toddlers’ play and attention: An examination of formal-feature density. Poster presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Austin, TX.

We were interested in whether there are age differences in visual selective attention to video (e.g., as measured by eye movements) and whether such differences predict learning. 

We found that it is not until the middle of the second year of life that children begin to show that they understand television narratives by looking longer toward television that is incomprehensible than television that has been made incomprehensible (e.g., putting the shots in a random sequence). 

In more recent studies, we recorded eye movements during video viewing. We found dramatic growth in systematic processing of televised narratives over the first few years of life, and that established viewers deploy top-down strategies when watching video. We also investigated whether visual attention differs for video versus in-person demonstrations and whether such differences predict toddlers' learning; findings indicated that toddlers spend more time watching learning events on video than those that are in person, suggesting that they need more time to process video information than in-person information. 

Other studies examined visual attention and cognitive control by toddlers while watching noninteractive video versus using mobile applications.

Selected Publications and Presentations

Selected publications:

Jing, M., Kadooka, K., Franchak, J., & Kirkorian, H. L. (2023). The effect of narrative coherence and visual salience on children’s and adults’ gaze while watching video. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 226, e105562. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2022.105562

Kirkorian, H. L., Choi, K., Yoo, S. H., & Etta, R. (2022). The impact of touchscreen interactivity on U.S. toddlers’ selective attention and learning from digital media. Journal of Children and Media, 16(2), 188-204. https://doi.org/10.1080/17482798.2021.1944888

Kirkorian, H. L., & Anderson, D. R. (2018). Effect of sequential video shot comprehensibility on attentional synchrony: A comparison of children and adults. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115, 9867-9874. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1611606114

Kirkorian, H. L., & Anderson, D. R. (2017). Anticipatory eye movements while watching movement across shots in video sequences: A developmental study. Child Development, 88(4), 1284-1301. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12651 

Kirkorian, H. L., Anderson, D. R., & Keen, R. (2012). Age differences in online processing of video: An eye movement study. Child Development, 83, 497-507. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01719.x