How pictures in picture storybooks support young children's story comprehension: An eye-tracking experiment

Zsofia K. Takacs; Adriana G. Bus

doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2018.04.013

How pictures in picture storybooks support young children's story comprehension: An eye-tracking experiment

Zsofia K. Takacs^*
, Adriana G. Bus

^*Corresponding author for this work

Language, Literature and Communication

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

In a within-participant design, 41 children (mean age = 64 months, range = 50–81) listened to brief stories in four conditions. Written text was present on the screen in all conditions (similar to the typical storybook experience) but combined with other sources of information: (a) only oral narration, (b) oral narration and a picture that was congruent with the narration, (c) oral narration and an incongruent picture, and (d) only a picture but no oral narration. Children's eye movements while looking at the screen were recorded with an eye-tracker. An important finding was that a congruent picture contributed substantially to children's story retellings, more so than a picture that was incongruent with the narration. The eye-tracking data showed that children explored pictures in a way that they could maximally integrate the narration and the picture. Consequences for interactive reading and picture storybook format are discussed.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1-12
Number of pages	12
Journal	Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
Volume	174
Early online date	29 May 2018
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2018.04.013
Publication status	Published - Oct 2018

Funding

This work was supported by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO; Grant 411-07-216 ), the Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office (Grant PD121297 ), and the ÚNKP-17-4 New National Excellence Program of the Ministry of Human Capacities (Grant ÚNKP-17-4-I-ELTE-125 ).

Funders	Funder number
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek	411-07-216
Emberi Eroforrások Minisztériuma	ÚNKP-17-4-I-ELTE-125
Nemzeti Kutatási Fejlesztési és Innovációs Hivatal	PD121297

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 4 Quality Education

Keywords

Dual coding
Experiment
Eye-tracking
Kindergarten
Multimedia learning
Picture storybooks

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10.1016/j.jecp.2018.04.013

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title = "How pictures in picture storybooks support young children's story comprehension: An eye-tracking experiment",

abstract = "In a within-participant design, 41 children (mean age = 64 months, range = 50–81) listened to brief stories in four conditions. Written text was present on the screen in all conditions (similar to the typical storybook experience) but combined with other sources of information: (a) only oral narration, (b) oral narration and a picture that was congruent with the narration, (c) oral narration and an incongruent picture, and (d) only a picture but no oral narration. Children's eye movements while looking at the screen were recorded with an eye-tracker. An important finding was that a congruent picture contributed substantially to children's story retellings, more so than a picture that was incongruent with the narration. The eye-tracking data showed that children explored pictures in a way that they could maximally integrate the narration and the picture. Consequences for interactive reading and picture storybook format are discussed.",

keywords = "Dual coding, Experiment, Eye-tracking, Kindergarten, Multimedia learning, Picture storybooks",

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AU - Bus, Adriana G.

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N2 - In a within-participant design, 41 children (mean age = 64 months, range = 50–81) listened to brief stories in four conditions. Written text was present on the screen in all conditions (similar to the typical storybook experience) but combined with other sources of information: (a) only oral narration, (b) oral narration and a picture that was congruent with the narration, (c) oral narration and an incongruent picture, and (d) only a picture but no oral narration. Children's eye movements while looking at the screen were recorded with an eye-tracker. An important finding was that a congruent picture contributed substantially to children's story retellings, more so than a picture that was incongruent with the narration. The eye-tracking data showed that children explored pictures in a way that they could maximally integrate the narration and the picture. Consequences for interactive reading and picture storybook format are discussed.

AB - In a within-participant design, 41 children (mean age = 64 months, range = 50–81) listened to brief stories in four conditions. Written text was present on the screen in all conditions (similar to the typical storybook experience) but combined with other sources of information: (a) only oral narration, (b) oral narration and a picture that was congruent with the narration, (c) oral narration and an incongruent picture, and (d) only a picture but no oral narration. Children's eye movements while looking at the screen were recorded with an eye-tracker. An important finding was that a congruent picture contributed substantially to children's story retellings, more so than a picture that was incongruent with the narration. The eye-tracking data showed that children explored pictures in a way that they could maximally integrate the narration and the picture. Consequences for interactive reading and picture storybook format are discussed.

KW - Dual coding

KW - Experiment

KW - Eye-tracking

KW - Kindergarten

KW - Multimedia learning

KW - Picture storybooks

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How pictures in picture storybooks support young children's story comprehension: An eye-tracking experiment

Abstract

Funding

UN SDGs

Keywords

Access to Document

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