PSY359 Chapter 8: Child Development & the Internet

what kind of environment do children grow up in

• a web of intersecting environments that interact with one another and that the children themselves can influence

• need to look at the whole ecology of human development, taking a systems approach that recognizes all the different contexts and their relationships to one another

• As part of the microsystem, technologies emerge as:

• Connected computers and laptops, smartphones, tablets, video game consoles, e-books, and all the environments that the internet has to offer

Facts and stats about child tween and teen use of devices and its affect etc

in the notes

Developmental Psychology

• Branch of psych that deals with cognitive emotional and physiological develop of people from birth until adolescence or young adulthood 

• UK Government Study (Ages 10–16)

  • Examined computer and internet use at school and home vs. scores in national English, math, and science tests

• what did they find about students who used computer and internet the most?

Students who used computers and the internet the most made the largest test score gains over time

what was the result of Disadvantaged Students & Nebraska One-Laptop Policy

• A Nebraska school provided laptops with broadband to every student, benefiting poorer students who previously lacked home access

• After one year, these lower-income students showed the largest gains on standardized tests compared to higher-income peers (regardless of prior home access)

what was the key finding of PISA Study (2003, Ages 15–16) —> students who used the internet the most scored ______

•  Students who used the internet the most scored lower than "medium" users

• Ohio Tenth-Graders Study

• Found zero relationship between total time on the internet and student GPAs

• Found zero relationship between specific online activities (games, homework, social communication, surfing) and GPAs

Moderate internet use correlates with______

heavy Internet users _______

• Moderate internet use correlates with higher academic achievement

• Heavy internet users perform worse than students who rarely access the internet

reasons students enroll in online learning

• Used for credit recovery, supplementing regular school curriculum, or making progress when school is out

  • Expands academic course options for students whose local schools lack broad offerings

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs):

• Free, large-scale online courses open to global users based on interest

according to U.S. Department of Education Meta-Analysis comparing online vs F2F insturction….

• Online students performed _______

• Independent online course performance was ________

• Online students performed slightly better overall than face-to-face peers

  • Online advantage was largest when teacher-led with virtual collaboration options

• Independent online course performance was equal to face-to-face performance

Benefits of online learning for Specific Younger Student Populations

• Especially useful for non-traditional learners, such as high-ability students or those needing extra time/support

• Courses can be tailored to individual academic needs and interests

• High-ability students in grades K–12 can move ahead at their own pace without waiting for the class or skip already mastered topics

Psychological Advantages & Social Dynamics of online learning

• Shy or awkward students often become more confident and outgoing in virtual settings

• Asynchronous discussion forums give students extra time to formulate thoughts and reduce self-consciousness

  • Students also have more time to think about what to contribute- ex. In discussion forums

• Absence of physical appearance pressures makes students more willing to share innovative ideas and resist classroom social norms

• Proteus Effect: Increased online confidence can carry over into the child's real-life interactions

Proteus Effect:

 Increased online confidence can carry over into the child's real-life interactions

Media multitasking

why is it problematic?

Active engagement with two or more forms of media or goal-oriented tasks simultaneously

• Millennials report simultaneously doing 5-7 activities 

• Why is multitasking problematic?

  • Cannot simultaneously do two behaviours that demand your cognition

  • Ex. read name of color of word that appears, but the word is also in a diff color font, and you have to say the word, but this is all happening while you’re listening to music - you would not be able to repeat the lyrics of the music!

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the active engagement with multiple forms of media simultaneously

• Existing research tells us that, on average, individuals born after 1980 typically multitask between 5 and 7 tasks at the same time

Cognitive Costs of Multitasking

STUDY

• In one study, subjects watched a screen and when a number appeared, they pressed a key to indicate whether the number was odd or even

• This task was mixed in with a second task, in which the subject pressed one key if the number is high and another if it was low

• RESULT: showed that the cost of cognitively changing gears to handle a different task is significant:

  • The subjects’ response times increase each time the task is switched, and they also made more errors

affect of listening to music while doing multitasking

• Some studies find that listening to music that you like can improve cognitive performance on certain tasks, but others find negative effects

  • It seems to depend on your personality, age, and the nature of the main task you are trying to accomplish

best type of music to multi task with according to a study

• The subjects performed best when it was quiet, followed by the condition in which instrumental music was playing; music with lyrics, which is what teens typically play, caused significant drops in reading comprehension

multi tasking results on learning new material, and how the brain activity corresponded with it

based on a study

• A 2006 study demonstrated that subjects who did not multitask while studying and learning new materials did much better when applying the materials as opposed to subjects engaged in multitasking while studying

• FINDING:

• Brain scans revealed that when not distracted, the subjects showed most activity

• in the medial temporal lobe, an area that supports memory and recall

  • One of its important structures is the hippocampus, which is well known as a critical region for memory formation, 

• But when the subjects were multitasking, their brains showed more activity in the striatum, which is involved in the formation of habits

• One hypothesis is that learning while multitasking can lead to a kind of learning that looks more like the way we acquire habits, with little flexibility to apply the knowledge in a new context

Digital divide

belief that as culture becomes more reliant on computer and computing technologies, people who have access to them and are able to adopt them tend to be middle and upper class, whereas lower class people get left behind

• Ex. having broadband internet at home

• Has sort have been dealt with via phones, bc most ppl have them with a internet data plan

Technology Internet + Academic Achievement

Inflection point of this —> what does it mean

Academic performance increases as technology access/adoption increases

• Technology overuse (disordered or problematic patterns of use) correlate with decreased academic achievement 

  • Problematic - ex. Alcoholism vs recreational alcohol use 

• Statistically, in a classroom, the half that has access to technology performs better in academics 

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  • Technology use increases academic performance up until a certain inflection point 

    • Goal should be to keep ppl on the left side of the inflection point! 

hippocampus

•  well known as a critical region for memory formation, 

medial temporal lobe

• an area that supports memory and recall

two main areas of concern regarding internet use and physical development

• (1) sleep patterns

• (2) obesity

Sleep + technology use

Physiological component of this

cognitive arousal results in deteriorating sleep quality and duration

• Physiological component - screen lights suppress the release of melatonin, which is especially present in early sleep  

• Studies show that people who actively use their phones in bed sleep worse and fewer hours

High accessibility to tech in bedrooms _______

Heavy computer and internet use is linked to _________

• High accessibility to tech in bedrooms negatively impacts sleep duration and bedtimes.

• Heavy computer and internet use is linked to poorer sleep quality, though exact mechanisms remain unclear.

affect of bright screens

• Bright displays emit blue light, which suppresses the evening rise of melatonin (the hormone that regulates sleep cycles).

sedentary technology use is highly correlated with ________

higher body-mass index across lifetime (meaning at every age)

• Most tech we use requires us to be in one place, smartphones are unique in that they are mobile and can be used in a variety of environments and not seated situations, but generally even on phones you stay stationary or sedentary

Computer use was not directly linked to current body weight, but any computer use correlated with _______

thicker skinfolds (suggesting an emerging path toward lower activity and weight gain).

"Exergaming"

• (e.g., Nintendo Wii) - promotes physical motion and opposes sedentary trends.

"Flanker" test

• judging the directional orientation of a target fish among distracting fish.

• Social enhancement hypothesis /// The “rich get richer” hypothesis:

• long term + short term

the proposition that extroverted, socially-adept individuals are more likely to use internet-based communications to further cultivate and develop social ties (also referred to as the rich get richer hypothesis)

• Short-term → Can lead to slower social evaluative pressure and an increased sense of belongingness (a basic human need)

• Long-term → Correlates with lower subjective well-being (happiness) and increased rate of depressive disorders

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• Outgoing, extraverted teens who are socially adept and have strong face-to-face connections will also be the ones to use the Internet the most to communicate with friends, further strengthening their ties

• The “rich,” in terms of how close they felt to their friends, → were also the ones who used the Internet to communicate with them the most

What happens to the “poor,” the young people who are more socially anxious or shy in face- to-face settings?

• choose to use the Internet to communicate with their peers because they have difficulty with face-to-face interactions

• , the Internet is less important as a means to maintain a lot of friendships than as a place where they can talk about intimate topics that they can’t discuss offline

  
  

Predicting Cyberbullying Attitudes & Behavior based on anonymity

Teens who felt more anonymous online developed more positive attitudes toward cyberbullying and were more likely to engage in it.

Mobile Apps & Accountability

• Apps supporting anonymous messaging lower personal accountability, directly linking them to increased cyberbullying.

Lack of Empathy & Bystander Inaction ONLINE

• Perpetrators cannot observe the victim’s emotional reaction, preventing empathetic responses.

• Bystanders also cannot see the real-world impact, making them less likely to intervene and more likely to trivialize the harm (e.g., viewing digital text as less serious than physical violence).

• Moral Panic & Availability Bias

• Concerns over internet risks can lead to "moral panic" 

  • driven by availability bias (judging event likelihood based on how easily examples come to mind).

• Reading about extreme cases (e.g., suicide from cyberbullying) leads people to overestimate the frequency and actual risk of online harms.