关键词: 电子游戏, 传统游戏, 双人游戏, 合作游戏, 同伴, 分享, 助人

Abstract: In the digital age, video gaming has emerged as an ordinary routine for the young generation. A growing body of literature has identified the pros and cons of video games. Recent evidence has shown that brief exposure to two-player cooperative video games can enhance peer communication and the prosocial behavior of young children. It remains unknown, however, whether this finding can be generalized to traditional game playing. As gender can play a mediating role in the social development of preschoolers and because game intervention can exert different impacts on boys and girls, the aim of this study was to examine the influences of video and traditional game playing on peer communication and prosocial behavior in preschoolers as well as to explore gender differences within the scope of social development and game training. A total of 90 preschoolers (44 boys; mean age M = 6.07 years, SD = 0.33) participated in this study. Before starting the experiment, we asked the children to name all their friends inside the kindergarten. On the basis of these responses, two same-gender and non-friend peers, a partner and a non-partner, were assigned to each participant. All the children in the pre-test responded to two questions regarding their peer communication, namely partner fondness and communication desire. In the meanwhile, we also evaluated the prosocial behaviors of young children towards their partners and non-partners by using a sharing dictator game and a helping tangram test. We randomly assigned participants to one of three groups in our training sessions. One group played a two-player cooperative video game (Fingle), the second played a two-player cooperative traditional game (Little Horses Transporting Rice), and the third served as a control group and did not play a game. The children in the training groups were asked to play allocated games for five minutes per day for five consecutive days. Once games were played for the first time, we then asked players a battery of questions regarding emotional arousal and cognitive engagement. In this post-test, all participants completed the same peer communication and prosocial behavior tests as in the pre-test. Participants also nominated all their friends within the kindergarten for a second time. The results of this study show that: (1) The two types of training games were equivalent in the level of emotional arousal and cognitive engagement; (2) Video and traditional games, although not different in training effects, enhance the peer communication and prosocial behavior of preschoolers. To be specific, children in training groups liked their partners better and became more willingly to play and share from the pre- to post-test, while attitudes in the control group did not change over time. At the same time, compared to non-partners, players exhibited a higher desire to play, share, help, and make friends with their partners from pre- to post-test. (3) Girls tended to be fonder of their partners and keener to play and share with their peers than boys. Video and traditional games did not influence boys and girls differently in the intervention. Findings suggest that short periods, 25 minutes in total, of either two-player cooperative video or traditional games are beneficial for peer communication and prosocial behavior in preschoolers. Game intervention may therefore be a promising tool to facilitate the social development of young children.

Key words: video game, traditional game, two-player game, cooperative game, peer, sharing, helping