Do Computers Affect ‘The Mind’?

Abstract

It has been claimed that computers affect the way children think and learn, yet no research has examined the capacity of computer interaction to affect “the minds” of young children. This study aimed to examine the relation between computer use and the development of metacognitive abilities, in particular the child's theory of mind and mental time travel. The parents of forty preschool children were surveyed as to whether there was a computer in the home, accessibility of a computer at home or elsewhere, and the frequency of use by their child. Each child was given a battery of tests measuring mental age, source memory, false-belief understanding, the ability to dissociate past from present, and to predict future knowledge. In addition, the children were observed during choice play, and the amount and level of social play, as well as the frequency of other play with conventional materials was calculated. Results showed a significant and positive relation between various measures of computer use and metacognition. Except for an association with single toy play, computer use was not related to the frequency of social or other play behavior. It is suggested that computer interaction is qualitatively different from other play activities that the child engages in, and this is due to specific task demands associated with computer use. That is, computer interactions promote the assumption of an intentional stance which must be observable and explicit. Communication with a computer, therefore, affords the child opportunities that foster the development of representational ability which forms the basis for mental time travel and mature social thinking about self and others.