Media and the Mind: Young Children’s Imitation Learning During In-Person and Video Chat Interactions

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the neural mechanisms associated with working memory across early childhood and working memory performance during in-person and video chat interactions. The neural mechanisms underlying the development of working memory during early childhood are largely unknown. This gap in knowledge is due to inappropriate neuroimaging methods and a lack of tasks that can measure working memory across a wide age range in a neuroimaging context. Furthermore, how children learn from in-person versus video chat contexts is under-investigated, and no research to date has examined neural activation associated with video chat learning.

In chapter 2, we developed a new imitation task, the robots task. We tested 56 3- to 5-year-olds on low and high memory load sequences. Performance decreased with increasing load. There was no effect of age on performance, showing that our parameterization of the task was successful. In chapter 3, we tested 32 3- to 8-year-olds on the robots task and the spatial sequencing task (SST), while functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) measured whole cortical activation. Children performed significantly better on the low than the high load, and the older children performed significantly better than the younger children. Overall, fNIRS results indicated task- and load-dependent frontal and parietal activation. In chapter 4, we tested 21 4- to 8-year-olds on the robots task and SST, while fNIRS measured whole cortical activation, during in-person and video chat interactions. Performance was comparable during in-person and video chat conditions. Children performed significantly better on the low than the high load, and this did not vary by condition. The older children performed better than the younger children. Overall, fNIRS results indicated greater engagement of prefrontal regions during the in-person than the video chat condition.

This dissertation demonstrates age- and load-related changes in working memory performance, the involvement of frontal and parietal areas during working memory tasks, and the engagement of prefrontal regions during in-person compared to video chat conditions. As social connection and learning increasingly take place over video chat, understanding the behavioral and neural mechanisms that are characteristic of video chat processing is crucial for best educational practices.