A Closer Look at Enhanced eBooks:
Compatible Versus Distracting Games
Julia Hrobon
Under the Direction of Dr. Georgene Troseth
What is an eBook?
• Electronic books that can be
read on computers,
smartphones, tablets, etc.
• Two types of eBooks: basic
and enhanced
Current Literature: Pros
• Pros:
• Can improve emergent literacy levels when games or dictionary
are included (Korat & Shamir, 2008)
• Young children are more engaged reading an eBook than print
book (Chiong, Ree, & Takeuchi, 2012)
Current Literature: Cons
• Cons:
• Children who read an eBook + games…
• Remember less of the story than eBook – games
• Much less than those who read a print book
(deJong & Bus, 2002)
• As reading tools…
• Basic eBooks and print books similarly effective
• Enhanced eBooks less so
(Chiong, Ree, & Takeuchi, 2012)
• Example of problematic enhanced eBook
Why the Conflicting Findings?
• Past research may have looked at most extreme
kinds of enhanced eBooks
• All enhanced eBooks might not be bad for learning;
some poorly designed to promote literacy
development
• Compare eBooks with compatible versus distracting
games
Research Question &
Prediction
• Research Question:
• Does the quality of an enhanced eBook’s interactivity
affect how much a child learns from the story?
• Does co-reading play a role in children’s learning from
the eBook?
• Prediction:
• Reading comprehension and story vocabulary will be
strong for eBooks with compatible games, weak for
eBooks with distracting games
Design Strategy
• One enhanced compatible story, one enhanced
distracting story
• Problem with two eBooks:
• More differences between books than just interactivity
• Created basic versions of enhanced eBooks
• Became baseline of comparison
Compatible
story
Distracting
Story
Revised Prediction
• Children who read an enhanced compatible eBook will
learn more vocabulary words and remember more from
the story than those who read the basic version
• Children who read an enhanced distracting eBook will
learn less vocabulary and remember less from the story
than those who read the basic version
Demonstration of Prediction:
• Parker Penguin
• When I Grow Up
Method
• Participants: 29 children, 51-71 months
• Two-day study, each visit 2-3 days apart
• Four conditions: Enhanced Compatible PP, Basic PP,
Enhanced Distracting WIGU, Basic WIGU
• 8 children in BC Condition, 7 each in the other three conditions
• Procedure:
• Pretest: Story Vocabulary Assessment
• Read eBook
• Posttest
• Co-reading
Pretest: Vocabulary
Assessment
• Measures what
words child already
knows before
reading story
• 18 cards total
• 2 practice
• 8 from each
story
Left card: compatible story (“down”), Right card:
distracting story (“professions”)
Read eBook
• 2 times on first day, 1
time on second day
• Child and parent read
together narrated story
Top pictures: compatible story,
bottom pictures: distracting story
Posttest
• Vocabulary Assessment:
measures what words child
learned from story
• Reading Comprehension:
measures what child
remembers from story
• Peabody Picture Vocabulary
Test (PPVT): measures
child’s general vocabulary
knowledge
Co-Reading
Content-Related Exchanges
Non-Content Related Exchanges
Parent label object/define word
Parent/Child tells other to turn
page/press narration
Parent/Child prompts with questions
related to text
Point out games/hotspots
Parent asks child to discuss book from
own experiences
Other labeling/pointing that is
irrelevant to the story line
Parent/Child comments about story
Off-topic conversation
Prediction Revisited
Compared with basic versions, reading
comprehension and vocabulary acquisition
strong for eBook with compatible games, weak
for eBook with distracting games
Results: Vocabulary
• No significant condition difference in the number of
vocabulary words learned from the story they read
(F(3, 25) = 1.025, p = 0.399)
Vocabulary Acquisition:
Distracting (WIGU)
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
Vocabulary Acquisition:
Compatible (PP)
1.5
1
0.5
0
Basic
Enhanced
Basic
Enhanced
Results: Reading
Comprehension
• No significant difference between story
comprehension with or without games for both
compatible stories (t(13) = 0.337, p = 0.742) and distracting
stories (t(8.248) = -0.608, p = 0.559)
10
8
6
Basic
Enhanced
4
2
0
Compatible
Distracting
Results: Co-Reading
Compatible (PP)
• NCR: Significant difference between basic (M = 6.000, SD = 3.899)
and enhanced (M = 20.833, SD = 12.384); t(5.981) = -2.799, p = 0.031, d = -1.615)
• CR: No significant difference between basic (M = 48.167, SD = 33.102)
and enhanced (M = 21.833, SD = 19.385); t(10) = 1.681, p = 0.124, d = 0.971)
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Non-ContentRelated
ContentRelated
Basic
Enhanced
Results: Co-Reading
Distracting (WIGU)
• NCR: Significant difference between basic (M = 9.14, SD = 6.203)
and enhanced (M = 44.60, SD = 38.991) (t(10) = -2.410, p = 0.037, d = -1.270)
• CR: No significant difference between basic (M = 42.71, SD = 38.431)
and enhanced (M = 23.40, SD = 23.362) (t(10) = 1.044, p = 0.321, d = 0.607)
50
40
Non-Content
Related
ContentRelated
30
20
10
0
Basic
Enhanced
Discussion
• Interactivity in these enhanced eBooks did not affect
how many new words children learned from story
• Interactivity in these enhanced eBooks did not affect
how much children remembered from story
• Enhanced eBooks elicited more NCR exchanges due
to games/hotspots
• These interactive aspects tended to not take away
from amount of CR exchanges
Limitations
• Small sample size
• Co-reading coding unreliable
• Difficult to control for the differences between the
two eBooks
Future Directions
• Partner with eBook designer to create one eBook
that has both compatible and distracting games
• Further investigate effects of co-reading on children’s
learning from eBooks
• Parents trained on effective co-reading vs. do not
communicate (Strouse, O’Doherty, & Troseth, 2013)
Acknowledgements
Thank you to…
• Dr. Georgene Troseth
• Graduate student Colleen Russo
• Dr. Megan Saylor
• Research assistants in Early Development Lab
• VUSRP