Kids See Human Too: Adapting an Individual Differences Measure of Anthropomorphism for a Child Sample

Severson, Rachel L.; Lemm, Kristi M.

doi:10.1080/15248372.2014.989445

Cited by 72 publications

(74 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Such a non-significant age difference in anthropomorphism of Technology/Inanimate-Nature subscale is consistent with the data the IDAQ designers obtained on the same subscale (Severson and Lemm, 2016). Although they found a significant age difference between 5 and 9 in the Animate-Nature subscale, this subscale was not particularly sensitive to the two younger age groups, 4 and 6.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

“…Individual Differences in Anthropomorphism Questionnaire-Child Form (IDAQ-CF), a highly reliable measure (12 items, α = 0.80) (Severson and Lemm, 2016), was translated into Chinese and then back-translated into English to ensure the original meanings. The original IDAQ-CF contained three subscales: Technological Nature with four items: robot, TV, car, and computer; Inanimate Nature with four items: mountain, ocean, tree, wind; and Animate Nature with four items: cheetah, turtle, insect, and lizard.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The original IDAQ-CF contained three subscales: Technological Nature with four items: robot, TV, car, and computer; Inanimate Nature with four items: mountain, ocean, tree, wind; and Animate Nature with four items: cheetah, turtle, insect, and lizard. However, because the Technological and Inanimate Nature items loaded well onto the same factor (Severson and Lemm, 2016), they were combined in our analyses, resulting in two subscales: Technology/Inanimate-Nature (mean score for items 1–8), and Animate Nature (mean score for items 9–12). The same 12-item Chinese version of IDAQ-CF was used to measure the level of anthropomorphism at Times 1 and 2.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some argue that the anthropomorphism of animals can hinder children’s understanding of the biological world (Ganea et al, 2011, 2014; Legare et al, 2013). Like animism, which declines with age (Jahoda, 1958; Inagaki, 1989), anthropomorphism declines noticeably from early to middle childhood (Severson and Lemm, 2016) following the so-called period of “the age of reason” (White, 1996). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Do Young Chinese Children Gain Anthropomorphism after Exposure to Personified Touch-Screen and Board Games?

Hsueh

Wang

et al. 2017

Front. Psychol.

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Research shows that preschoolers are likely to anthropomorphize not only animals, but also inanimate toy after being exposed to books that personify these objects. Can such an effect also arise through young children’s use of touch-screen games? The present study is the first to examine whether playing a touch-screen personified train game affects young children’s anthropomorphism of real trains. Seventy-nine 4- and 6-year-old children were randomly assigned to play either a touch-screen game or a board game of Thomas the Tank Engine for 10 min. They completed the Individual Differences in Anthropomorphism Questionnaire–Child Form (IDAQ-CF) (two subscales: Technology/Inanimate Nature, Animate Nature) and an additional four items about the anthropomorphism of real trains, before (T1) and after (T2) the game. Overall results showed that children manifested a small but statistically significant increase in anthropomorphizing of real trains after their exposure to both games, claiming that real trains were like humans. Interestingly, 4-year-old children in the board game group tended to anthropomorphize real trains more than those in the touch-screen group, whereas the reverse was true for the 6-year-old children. The results suggest that touch-screen games may delay the decline of children’s anthropomorphism during the cognitive and socio-emotional transition that occurs in children aged 5–7. These findings have implications for future research on how touch-screen games increase children’s anthropomorphism of the real world, and more generally, for evaluation of the influence of the growing use of touch-screen games on young children’s learning.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Do Young Chinese Children Gain Anthropomorphism after Exposure to Personified Touch-Screen and Board Games?

Hsueh

Wang

et al. 2017

Front. Psychol.

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“…Past research indicates some potential factors that may relate to children's differentiation between minds, including individual differences in anthropomorphism generally (Severson & Lemm, 2016) and in children's fantasy orientation (Taylor, 2001;Wigger et al, 2013). Thus, future studies could examine how these individual child factors support or hinder children's differentiation between human and God concepts.…”

Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of religious context in children's differentiation between God's mind and human minds

Richert

Saide

Lesage

et al. 2016

British J of Dev Psycho

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The current study examined the cultural factors (i.e., religious background, religious participation, parents' views of prayer, and parents' concepts of God) that contribute to children's differentiation between the capabilities of human minds and God's mind. Protestant Christian, Roman Catholic, Muslim, and Religiously Non‐Affiliated parents and their preschool‐aged children were interviewed (N = 272). Children of Muslim parents differentiated the most between God's mind and human minds (i.e., human minds are fallible but God's is not), and children who had greater differentiation between God's and humans' minds had parents who had the least anthropomorphic conceptions of God. Additionally, there was a unique effect of being raised in a Religiously Non‐Affiliated home on the degree of children's differentiation between God's and human minds after religious context factors had been accounted for; in other words, children of Religious Non‐Affiliates differentiated between humans and God the least and their differentiation was unrelated to religious context factors. These findings delineate the ways in which religious context differences influence concepts of God from the earliest formation. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Children's concept of God develops during the preschool years. The degree of anthropomorphism in children's concept of God varies. What does this study add? Muslim children have a strong differentiation between what God's mind and human minds can do. Religiously Non‐Affiliated children have almost no differentiation between God's and human minds. Parent anthropomorphism explains variance in children's God concepts, both within and across religious groups.

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A ladybug bear can fly and climb trees: Children prefer conjunctions of labels and properties for cross‐classifiable toys

Nguyen

Girgis

Knopp

2019

Infant and Child Development

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The present studies (N = 159) investigated children's and adults' preferences for label and property conjunctions for cross‐classifiable toys. In Study 1, 4‐year‐olds, 5‐year‐olds, and adults participated in a labelling and property attribution task involving experimental toys that belong to two categories and control toys that belong to only one category. In Study 2, the same age groups were tested on a version of the task focusing on the control toys. In Study 3, 4‐ and 5‐year‐olds were tested on a modified version of the labelling and property attribution task involving the experimental and control toys. Finally, Study 4 tested a younger age group, 3‐year‐olds. Overall, the results indicated that by age 3 years, individuals prefer assigning experimental toys (but not controls) with joint labels that are a conjunction of two single category labels. By age 4 years, individuals prefer assigning experimental toys (but not controls) with dual properties that are a conjunction of two single properties. These results document the development of how different types of toys elicit preferences for conjunctions of labels that denote membership in two distinct categories and conjunctions of properties that combine features of these categories. Highlights This study examines children's preferences in labeling and attributing properties to cross-classifiable toys. Children labeled and attributed properties to toys that belonged to two categories (experimental) and one category (control). The results reveal that by 4 years, children prefer both label and property conjunctions for the experimental toys that can be cross‐classified into more than one category, but not for the control toys.

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Kids See Human Too: Adapting an Individual Differences Measure of Anthropomorphism for a Child Sample

Cited by 72 publications

References 26 publications

Do Young Chinese Children Gain Anthropomorphism after Exposure to Personified Touch-Screen and Board Games?

Do Young Chinese Children Gain Anthropomorphism after Exposure to Personified Touch-Screen and Board Games?

The role of religious context in children's differentiation between God's mind and human minds

A ladybug bear can fly and climb trees: Children prefer conjunctions of labels and properties for cross‐classifiable toys

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