Children’s math learning (N = 217; Mage = 4.87 years; 63% European American, 96% college‐educated families) from an intelligent character game was examined via social meaningfulness (parasocial relationships [PSRs]) and social contingency (parasocial interactions, e.g., math talk). In three studies (data collected in the DC area: 12/2015–10/2017), children’s parasocial relationships and math talk with the intelligent character predicted quicker, more accurate math responses during virtual game play. Children performed better on a math transfer task with physical objects when exposed to an embodied character (Study 2), and when the character used socially contingent replies, which was mediated by math talk (Study 3). Results suggest that children’s parasocial relationships and parasocial interactions with intelligent characters provide new frontiers for 21st century learning.

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Objective: Media characters are used to market snacks that are typically of poor nutritional value, which has been linked to childhood obesity. This study examines whether children's snack selections and consumption patterns are influenced by an app depicting a popular children's media character, as well as the role that children's awareness of the character plays. The results can increase our understanding of how to encourage healthier snack selection and consumption in newer game-based marketing venues, such as apps.Materials and Methods: Four- and 5-year-old children (N = 132) played a bowling game on an iPad with no character or with a character holding either healthier or unhealthy snacks. After app-play, children selected and consumed healthier or unhealthy snacks. Children's awareness of the character was measured by children's verbalizations of the character's name during or after app-play.Results: An ordered logistic regression found no significant effect of treatment conditions compared with the control group. Within treatment conditions, awareness of the character led to selection and consumption of more healthy snacks in the healthier condition (odds ratio β = 10.340, P = 0.008), and of unhealthy snacks in the unhealthy condition (odds ratio β = 0.228, P = 0.033), but children were unaware that the character influenced their decisions.Conclusions: Results suggest that young children will choose and consume healthier, not just unhealthy, products when they are aware that a popular character in an app is associated with the snack, potentially leading to healthier eating patterns.

Objective: Childhood obesity is a health issue in the United States, associated with marketing practices in which media characters are often used to sell unhealthy products. This study examined exposure to a socially contingent touch-screen gaming app, which replied immediately, reliably, and accurately to children's actions. Children's recall of nutritional content and their liking of the character were assessed.Materials and Methods: Four- and five-year-old children (N = 114) received no-exposure, single-exposure, or repeated-exposure to a character-based iPad app rewarding healthy and penalizing unhealthy behaviors. Children reported how much they liked the character and recalled healthy and unhealthy items from the app. An ordinary least squares regression was conducted on how much children liked the character by condition. Poisson regressions were conducted on the number of items recalled by condition alone, and in an interacted model of treatment condition by liking the character.Results: Children liked the character more in the repeated app-exposure condition than in the control group (P = 0.018). Children in the repeated and single app-exposure conditions recalled more healthy (P < 0.001) and unhealthy (P < 0.001) items than the control group. Within treatment conditions, liking the character increased recall of healthy items in the single app-exposure compared to the repeated app-exposure condition (P = 0.005).Conclusions: Results revealed that repeated exposure increased children's learning of nutritional information and liking of the character. The results contribute to our understanding of how to deliver effective nutrition information to young children in a new venue, a gaming app.

This study incorporated a dual-task paradigm, in which participants were asked to perform basic locomotion tasks with one of three interfaces while remembering a sequence of either spatial or verbal items. Interfaces varied in similarity to natural body movements. Stopping performance was compromised when concurrently remembering a spatial, but not verbal, sequence. Also users exhibited lower performance on spatial memory tasks while using more unnatural locomotion interfaces. These results confirm that semi-natural locomotion interfaces require spatial working memory resources and thus locomotion interfaces compete with ongoing spatial tasks, as opposed to those requiring verbal resources or general attention resources.

Children's parasocial relationships (PSRs) with media characters end through a process called PSR breakups. An online parent report measure was used to describe preschool and school-aged children's breakups with media characters, as well as the attributes of past and current favorite characters. According to parents (N ¼ 138), 51% of children experienced PSR breakups. PSRs lasted about two years before a breakup occurred. Past and current favorite characters were animated, human-like, and embedded in fantastical content. Current favorite characters taught fewer academic lessons than past favorite characters. Both boys and girls had current favorite characters that were more gendered in their physical appearance than past favorite characters. However, girls' current favorite characters had more masculine traits than past favorite characters. Our findings suggest possible avenues for the design of future media characters that can teach as they entertain.

An experiment examined how U.S. preschool-aged children's (N = 113; 53% girls; M age = 4.44 years, SD = .35) math-related parasocial interactions (e.g., math talk) with a same-or other-gender intelligent character prototype impacted their performance on add-1 math problems in a virtual math game and subsequent transfer task with physical objects. The interactive intelligent character prototype was controlled with a Wizard of Oz approach and was not autonomous. Children who engaged in more math talk, particularly with a same-gender intelligent character prototype, demonstrated better performance on the math task during the virtual game and in the transfer task compared to children who engaged in less math talk. Children also reported that they liked same-gender media characters more than children that reported how much they liked other-gender media characters. The results suggest that engaging in contingent interactions about math and sharing a salient aspect of identity with intelligent characters, in this case gender, can facilitate children's learning of foundational math skills. Intelligent characters who teach science, technology, engineering, and mathematics skills through digital media to young children hold promise as remote education tools that can provide individualized educational support to children.

Lack of physical activity is often associated with electronic media use. However, augmented reality exergames require player movement, making them a potential health application (app). In the exergame Pokémon GO, characters were embedded into the external environment through a live camera feed and viewed through a player’s smartphone screen. Online surveys from adults ( N = 230) who played the Pokémon GO app reported about their childhood emotionally tinged, parasocial relationships with a favorite Pokémon character, motivations to play Pokémon GO, and frequency of Pokémon GO play. Those who had stronger childhood parasocial relationships with a Pokémon character reported playing the Pokémon GO app for nostalgic reasons but reported less frequent app play. Older participants were motivated to play Pokémon GO to increase their physical activity levels and reported more frequent app play. The findings suggest that the age and motivations of players are important considerations for exergame design.