Fine motor skills and mental imagery: Is it all in the mind?

Screen‐time influences children's mental imagery performance

“…The latter two are key covariates because working memory is intimately related to executive functions, which, along with vocabulary, have been found to relate to screen-time usage. Additionally, we used a novel mental imagery measure, namely a mental comparison task, designed to specifically target the sensorimotor foundations of mental imagery (Martzog & Suggate, 2019), that generates response accuracy and response latency.…”

“…We employed a mental imagery task based on previously used mental size comparisons tasks (Moyer, 1973;Paivio, 1975), that has been recently utilized and further developed (Martzog & Suggate, 2019).…”

“…It is now indisputable that sensory experience provides human cognition with not only input, but impetus for its development (Lewkowicz, 2000), with mental imagery and thought depending on activation of sensory areas extending beyond the visual and auditory modalities (Connell & Lynott, 2012; James, 2010; Martzog & Suggate, 2019; Wellsby & Pexman, 2014). Although previous work has considered passivity during screen‐time (Valkenburg & van der Voort, 1994), research has neglected the question of whether screen‐time's narrower sensory input affects an important aspect of cognitive development, namely, mental imagery.…”

“…Martzog & Suggate, 2019). During task development,Martzog and Suggate (2019) accounted for diverse lexical features (e.g.…”

“…Martzog & Suggate, 2019). During task development,Martzog and Suggate (2019) accounted for diverse lexical features (e.g. length, syllabic structure, frequency, imageability, manipulability, sensory ratings).Response accuracy and latency were both recorded by the experimenter using response keys on a laptop.…”