Exploring work practices for scientifically-informed pre-school app creation: a case study in attentional control.

基本原理和研究问题电影、电视和应用程序等视听媒体渗透到现代生活中。自从触屏设备（如智能手机和平板电脑）出现以来，我们所有人——包括很小的孩子——都有能力在醒着的时候寻找信息和娱乐。触屏设备的家庭拥有率从2011年的7%上升到2014年的71%，其中11%的3岁儿童拥有平板电脑，而第一次接触触屏设备是在出生后的一年内。再加上有小孩的家庭每天看电视的时间长达8小时，对许多英国家庭来说，看电视的时间比阅读、参与社交活动或户外体育活动占据了孩子醒着的生活更多的时间。可以理解的是，对于父母、科学家和其他幼儿利益相关者（如儿科医生、社会工作者、学前教师、媒体制作人）来说，这些设备如何影响儿童正在发育的大脑是一个紧迫的问题。大众媒体充斥着这样的说法：AV媒体正在造就一代患有注意力缺陷/多动障碍（adhd）和反社会行为的人5,6。然而，这些担忧并非基于任何将早期触屏使用与长期发育问题联系起来的经验证据。与此同时，学前应用开发的商业市场是巨大的，“5岁以下儿童”类别是苹果app Store中最大的类别之一。英国是面向学龄前儿童的数字内容和技术创造的领导者之一（如CBeebies、MadeInMe和Hopster），开发者们一直在努力协调他们的应用在儿童和家庭中的明显成功，以及美国儿科学会（AAP）等官方机构的建议，即不鼓励、强烈限制或适度限制学龄前儿童的屏幕时间7。应用程序开发人员经常声称他们的内容是基于教育和发展理论和发现，但他们是如何做到这一点的，以及允许这样做的工作实践是什么，都不清楚。即使是那些把这些实践做得很清楚的公司（比如Hopster的内部教育从业者），也可能很难知道科学证据表明它们在发展的特定方面（比如语言学习、记忆或注意力）有什么作用，因为科学文献是令人困惑的。例如，实验室研究表明，快节奏的儿童电视节目对4、6岁儿童的注意力控制有短期影响9,10，其他研究表明，这种过滤不相关感官信息的认知能力与一生的智力、行为和教育成就密切相关11,12，但屏幕时间与这种长期后果之间的直接联系尚未得到证明。此外，与在触摸屏设备上使用应用程序相比，被动电视消费对用户的主动参与要求要低得多，这可能会对认知发展产生非常不同的影响。在我们最近的“幼儿注意行为和通过触摸屏学习”项目中，我们证明了幼儿主动使用触摸屏与现实世界的高级精细运动发展有关，也可能是防止儿童气质问题（包括自我调节，一种与注意力控制有关的行为）的保护因素。平板电脑项目的初步脑电图（EEG）证据也表明，在18个月大的时候，每天使用触摸屏的幼儿表现出与更好的注意力控制相关的大脑活动。目前的科学证据清楚地描绘了一幅令人困惑的画面，即触摸屏的使用如何影响注意力控制的发展，这使得处于这场争论前沿的应用程序开发者很难以最具发展性的建设性方式设计他们的体验。

Rationale and Research QuestionsAudio-visual (AV) media such as movies, TV and apps, permeate modern life. Since the advent of touchscreen devices (e.g. smartphones and tablets), all of us -including very young children- have the ability to seek information and entertainment throughout our waking lives. Family ownership of touchscreen devices increased from 7% in 2011 to 71% in 2014, with 11% of 3-year-olds owning a tablet1 and first exposure to a touchscreen occurring within the first year of life2. Combined with up to 8 hours/day of TV exposure reported by families of young children3, screen time for many UK families constitutes more of a child's waking life than reading, engaging in social interaction or outdoor physical activity. Understandably, how such devices impact a child's developing brain is a pressing question for parents, scientists and other early-years stakeholders (e.g. paediatricians, social workers, pre-school teachers, media producers). The popular media is awash with claims that AV media are creating a generation with increasing rates of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD4) and antisocial behaviour5,6. However, these fears are not based on any empirical evidence linking early touchscreen use with long-term developmental problems. Meanwhile, the commercial market for pre-school app development is huge with the 'Kids 5 & under' category being one of the largest on the Apple App Store. The UK is one of the leaders in digital content and technology creation for pre-schoolers (e.g. CBeebies, MadeInMe, Hopster) and developers are constantly struggling with how to reconcile the apparent success of their apps with children and families with the recommendations of official bodies like the American Academy for Pediatrics (AAP) to discourage, strongly limit or moderate screen time for pre-school children7. App developers often claim to have based their content on educational and developmental theories and findings but how they do this and what the work practices are that allow this are unclear8. Even companies who make these practices clear (such as Hopster's in-house educational practitioner) may struggle to know what the scientific evidence suggests they do in terms of particular aspects of development (such as language learning, memory or attention) as the scientific literature is confusing. For example, lab studies have demonstrated a short-term impact of a fast-paced kid's TV program on attentional control in 4 and 6 year olds9,10 and other studies have shown that this cognitive ability to filter out irrelevant sensory information has been strongly associated with lifetime intellectual, behavioural and educational attainment11,12 but the direct association of screen time and such long-term consequences has not been shown. Also, passive TV consumption requires a lot less active involvement of the user compared to app use on a touchscreen device, potentially leading to very different impacts on cognitive development. In our recent Toddler Attentional Behaviours and LEarning through Touchscreens (TABLET) project we demonstrated that active touchscreen use by toddlers was associated with advanced real-world fine-motor development13 and may also act as a protective factor against child temperament problems (including self-regulation; a behaviour related to attentional control14). Preliminary electroencephalology (EEG) evidence from the TABLET project also suggest that at 18 months, toddlers who use touchscreens on a daily basis exhibit brain activity related to better attentional control. The current scientific evidence is clearly painting a confusing picture of how touchscreen use may impact the development of attentional control and this makes it very difficult for app developers who are on the frontline of this debate to design their experiences in the most developmental constructive way.