Pretending to be Batman helps kids stay on task

By Christian Jarrett Do their homework or reach over there for the iPad and dive into a world of games? It’s the ever-present dilemma facing young children today. Here’s a simple technique that could tip the balance a little in favour of the homework. Psychologists have reported in Child Development that when four- to six-year-olds pretended to be Batman while they were doing a boring but important task, it helped them to resist distraction and stay more focused. The challenge now is to nail down exactly why the technique works, and to see if over time it could improve children’s self-regulation skills without them needing to go through the ritual of pretending to be someone else. Rachel White and her colleagues, including Angela Duckworth famous for her work on “grit”, recruited 180 kids aged 4 to 6 years and had them take some basic psych tests assessing their mental control, memory and empathy. Next the researchers asked them to complete a boring, slow but supposedly important ten-minute computer task that involved pressing the space bar whenever they saw a picture of cheese or not pressing anything when the screen showed a cat. The children were encouraged to stay on task, but they were told they could take a break whenever they wanted and go play a game on a nearby iPad. Some of the children were assigned to a “self-immersed condition”, akin to a control group, and before and during the task were told to reflect on how they wer...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Developmental Educational Source Type: blogs