Children's cognitive and affective responses about a narrative versus a non-narrative cartoon designed for an active videogame

Authors: DAVIES, VANESSA - Universidade De Sao Paulo; MAFRA, RAFAELLA - Universidade Federal De Santa Catarina (UFSC); BELTRAN, ALICIA - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC); BARANOWSKI, TOM - Children'S Nutrition Research Center (CNRC); LU, AMY - Northeastern University

Submitted to: The Games for Health Journal: Research, Development, and Clinical Applications
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/15/2016
Publication Date: 4/1/2016
Citation: Davies, V.F., Mafra, R., Beltran, A., Baranowski, T., Lu, A.S. 2016. Children's cognitive and affective responses about a narrative versus a non-narrative cartoon designed for an active videogame. The Games for Health Journal: Research, Development, and Clinical Applications. 5(2):114-119.

Interpretive Summary: Children tend to actively engage with an exergame for only a short period of time (a few days) before they lose interest. There is reason to believe that a properly designed story (also called a narrative) could capture their attention, immerse them in the narrative, and maintain active engagement in the exergame beyond a few days. It is not clear, however, how such a narrative might be structured, or whether it is better than just providing health information about physical activity. This study tested two comic book type character sequences, one with an action type (sword fighting) narrative/story, and one simply providing information on physical activity, that were designed to be viewed just before playing a Wii sword fighting video game (same types of characters). The children were interviewed about their likes and dislikes of the cartoon sequences. Most children liked the action type narrative, but wanted even more sword fighting. A small number of girls did not like the fighting and aggressiveness. To our surprise, the children also tended to like the non-narrative cartoon presentation of physical activity information. These cartoon sequences will be revised to reflect child stated preferences, where possible, and be tested in an experiment to test their effect on physical activity.

Technical Abstract: This article presents the results of interviews conducted with children regarding their cognitive and affective responses toward a narrative and a non-narrative cartoon. The findings will be used to further explore the role of a narrative in motivating continued active videogame play. Twenty children (8-11 years old of mixed gender) watched two cartoons (narrative and non-narrative) and were subsequently interviewed. A thematic matrix was used to analyze the interviews. The narrative cartoon (n=11) was only slightly preferred compared with the non-narrative one (n=9), with little difference among the participants. The theme categories identified during the analyses were plot, characters, and suggestions. The fight scenes were mentioned by the children as a likeable aspect of the narrative cartoon. In the non-narrative cartoon, the vast majority (n=17) liked the information about physical activity that was provided. The children enjoyed the appearance and personalities of the characters in both cartoons. A discrepancy in the data about the fight scenes (narrative cartoon) and characters (both cartoons) was found among the female participants (i.e., some girls did not like the fight and thought the characters were too aggressive). However, most of the children wanted to see more action in the story, an increase in the number of fight scenes (narrative cartoon), or more information about exercise and examples of exercises they could do (non-narrative cartoon). They also suggested adding a game to the non-narrative cartoon, including more characters, and improving the animation in both cartoons. The children preferred the narrative cartoon because of the story and the fight. Some gender differences were found, which further studies should investigate.