Seven-year-olds' references to internal states when playing with toy figures and a video game.

ABSTRACT: References to internal states (e.g., thoughts, feelings, and desires) indicate children's appreciation of people's inner worlds. Many children spend time playing video games; however, the nature of children's speech when doing so has received little attention. We investigated the use of internal state language (ISL) as 251 seven-year-olds played with toy figures and a video game designed for the study. Although children used ISL more when playing with toy figures, children used ISL in both contexts, highlighting video game play as a context where children demonstrate their appreciation of inner worlds. Children's speech in the two contexts differed in how ISL was used: references to children's own internal states were more common when playing the video game, and the characters' internal st

SUBMITTER: Hashmi S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8404204 | biostudies-literature | 2021 May-Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature