Visual motion keeps children engaged with YouTube videos, but not necessarily learning: ISB study
Hyderabad, Oct 30 (TNT): Visual motion in online videos plays a significant role in keeping children engaged with digital content, but increased screen attention does not necessarily translate into better learning, according to a study conducted by researchers from the Indian School of Business (ISB) and Santa Clara University.
The study, titled ‘Attention Trap? How Visual Motion Shapes Children’s Screen Time and Engagement on Video Platforms’, analysed more than 32,000 YouTube videos marked ‘made for kids’, besides conducting a randomised experiment and an eye-tracking study involving children aged six to 10 years.
The research found that a 10 per cent increase in visual motion was associated with approximately 1.1 per cent more views, the School saidin a release on Friday.
In the experiment, educational videos with medium and high levels of added background motion recorded 1.6 per cent and 2.0 per cent higher view rates respectively than videos without additional motion.
The eye-tracking study further revealed that background motion increased the time children spent looking at screens by 3.4 to 3.6 percentage points by reducing longer periods of looking away.
However, much of the additional attention was directed towards moving backgrounds rather than the actual instructional content.
The study was co-authored by Professors Sumeet Kumar and Madhu Viswanathan of ISB and Professor Ravi Bapna of Santa Clara University and published in the journal Information Systems Research.
Madhu Viswanathan, Associate Professor of Marketing at ISB, said visual motion was a powerful design tool but needed to be used carefully.
Instead of maintaining continuous stimulation throughout a video, content creators could use targeted motion to regain children’s attention at points where they were more likely to lose focus, she said.
The findings underline the distinction between retaining children’s attention and engaging them in educational content.
The researchers noted that viewing time alone cannot be considered an indicator of a video’s educational value.
The study also suggested that platforms and content creators could use computer-vision techniques, including optical flow, to measure visual motion and incorporate such assessments into children’s digital content evaluation and parental control systems.
TNT TS
