In 2020, millions of children shifted to using video chat for core aspects of education and social interaction. While video chat allows for genuine social interaction-in which the partner can see and hear you-affordances in other modalities are limited (e.g., touch). Do children understand the nuanced affordances and limitations of video chat? Here we provide evidence of these abilities at preschool age. Prior to COVID-19, we conducted an experiment with 4-year-old children (N = 44). Each child was introduced to people over video chat, in person, and in a photograph. Children judged whether each person could see, hear, feel, and physically interact with them. We found that children made nuanced judgments about the affordances of video chat, judging that a person over video chat can see, but cannot feel a touch nor physically interact through the screen. Children's answers about hearing were divided, with children answering that the person over video chat could hear more often than for a photograph, but less often than for in-person interaction. Overall, by age four, children understand that video chat has a mixture of life-like affordances and picture-like limitations, showing the presence of a necessary cognitive prerequisite to effective use of video chat in early education.

How do children reason about people presented over video chat? Video chat is a representation, like a picture; but is also a real social interaction (the partner sees and hears you). Do children understand the nuanced affordances and limitations of video chat? We tested 4-year-old children’s reasoning, asking if a person over video chat (vs. a live person; photograph) could see, hear, feel, and physically interact through the screen. Children judged that a person over video chat can see, but cannot feel nor receive an object, through the screen. The person over video chat was judged to hear more often than a photograph, but less often than a live person. Preschool children are not limited to considering a stimulus fully representational, or fully present; instead, they understand video chat as a medium that blurs the boundaries of representation and reality, allowing for a mixture of life-like affordances and picture-like limitations.

In 2020, millions of children shifted to using video chat for core aspects of education and social interaction. While video chat allows for genuine social interaction – in which the partner can see and hear you – affordances in other modalities are limited (e.g. touch). Do children understand the nuanced affordances and limitations of video chat? Here we provide evidence of these abilities at preschool age. Prior to COVID-19, we conducted an experiment with 4-year-old children (N=44). Each child was introduced to people over video chat, in person, and in a photograph. Children judged whether each person could see, hear, feel, and physically interact with them. We found that children made nuanced judgements about the affordances of video chat, judging that a person over video chat can see, but cannot feel a touch nor physically interact through the screen. Children’s answers about hearing were divided, with children answering that the person over video chat could hear more often than for a photograph, but less often than for in-person interaction. Overall, by age four, children understand that video chat has a mixture of life-like affordances and picture-like limitations, showing the presence of a necessary cognitive prerequisite to effective use of video chat in early education.

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