New Delhi: Visual motion in children's videos brings their attention back to the screen, but much of that focus is directed to the moving background rather than the educational content, according to a new study by researchers at the Indian School of Business (ISB) and Santa Clara University.
For parents and educators, the study underlined that viewing time alone does not establish a video's educational value.
The study, 'Attention Trap? How Visual Motion Shapes Children's Screen Time and Engagement on Video Platforms' examined how visual motion affects children's screen time and engagement.
Co-authored by ISB's Professor Sumeet Kumar and Professor Madhu Viswanathan, and Santa Clara University's Professor Ravi Bapna, it was published in Information Systems Research, according to a release.
The researchers combined three methods -- an analysis of over 32,000 YouTube videos marked 'made for kids', a randomised experiment, and an eye-tracking study of children aged 6 to 10.
In the video analysis, a 10 per cent increase in visual motion was associated with roughly 1.1 per cent more views, even after accounting for audio, visual, emotional and textual features.
In the experiment, educational videos with added background motion drew higher view rates, up 1.6 per cent for medium motion and 2 per cent for high motion compared with versions without it.
The eye-tracking study found that background motion reduced longer spells of looking away, raising the share of time children spent looking at the screen by about 3.4 to 3.6 percentage points.
Strikingly, however, the extra attention went largely to the moving background, not the instructional content per se.
"Motion is a powerful design lever, but it must be used intentionally," Viswanathan, Associate Professor of Marketing at ISB, said.
He advised creators to use targeted motion where attention is most likely to drift, rather than continuous stimulation.
"While visual motion keeps children attached to the screen, our research does not show that screen retention automatically translates into improved focus on learning content. More work may be needed to explore this," Viswanathan added.
For parents and educators, the findings emphasised that viewing time alone does not establish a video's educational value.
"For platforms and creators, measuring visual motion through computer-vision techniques such as optical flow could offer an additional way to assess children's digital content," the release said adding that such measures could potentially complement existing content assessments and parental controls.
This report was published from a syndicated wire feed. Apart from the headline, the EdexLive Desk has not edited the copy.