Flanagan, Teresa2024-04-052023-08Flanagan_cornellgrad_0058F_13821http://dissertations.umi.com/cornellgrad:13821https://hdl.handle.net/1813/114622207 pagesInteractive technologies are no longer a thing of science fiction but are part of our lives. This is particularly the case for children, who are exposed to technologies in every facet of their lives: at home asking the Amazon Alexa questions, in their play caring for a robot-dog, at school learning from an online avatar. This dissertation utilizes parental reports, child interviews, and experimental methods to examine how children use, judge, and engage with interactive technologies.The first study investigated the nature of children’s technology use, reported by parents of 3-9-year-olds. Results indicate that children’s technology engagement is treated as a norm: parents reported a high number of technology use throughout the day, particularly with screen devices, regardless of parents thinking that technologies were beneficial. Parents were rarely involved in their child’s technology use, especially if the child was older or had their own technology Furthermore, the results are an initial step at uncovering individual variation in children’s technology use. The second study explored 4-11-year-old’s judgments of two familiar technologies (Roomba and Amazon Alexa) compared to the humanoid robot Nao. Using a diverse set of analyses, results indicated that children endorse some agent-like features for each technology type, but the extent in which they do declined with age. Importantly, there were systematic differences in children’s judgments of the Alexa, Roomba, and Nao, that corresponded to the unique characteristics of each. The third study examined whether 4-7-year-olds and adults trust a technological partner (robot or human) in a word-guessing game, similar to ones children use in their lives, and whether trust is maintained once the technology starts making mistakes, either accidentally, remorsefully, or intentionally. Results indicate that children are slightly less trusting than adults, particularly if the technology is intentionally uncooperative. Older children, however, were less trusting after specific instances of unintentional inaccuracy, suggesting that as children begin formal education, they are more critical of technologies for their learning. Together, these results uncover the high-level, sophisticated nature in which children are engaging with interactive technologies. I end with discussing the implications of interactive technologies on children’s social, cognitive, and moral development. Interactive technologies are no longer a thing of science fiction but are part of our lives. This is particularly the case for children, who are exposed to technologies in every facet of their lives: at home asking the Amazon Alexa questions, in their play caring for a robot-dog, at school learning from an online avatar. This dissertation utilizes parental reports, child interviews, and experimental methods to examine how children use, judge, and engage with interactive technologies. The first study investigated the nature of children’s technology use, reported by parents of 3-9-year-olds. Results indicate that children’s technology engagement is treated as a norm: parents reported a high number of technology use throughout the day, particularly with screen devices, regardless of parents thinking that technologies were beneficial. Parents were rarely involved in their child’s technology use, especially if the child was older or had their own technology Furthermore, the results are an initial step at uncovering individual variation in children’s technology use. The second study explored 4-11-year-old’s judgments of two familiar technologies (Roomba and Amazon Alexa) compared to the humanoid robot Nao. Using a diverse set of analyses, results indicated that children endorse some agent-like features for each technology type, but the extent in which they do declined with age. Importantly, there were systematic differences in children’s judgments of the Alexa, Roomba, and Nao, that corresponded to the unique characteristics of each. The third study examined whether 4-7-year-olds and adults trust a technological partner (robot or human) in a word-guessing game, similar to ones children use in their lives, and whether trust is maintained once the technology starts making mistakes, either accidentally, remorsefully, or intentionally. Results indicate that children are slightly less trusting than adults, particularly if the technology is intentionally uncooperative. Older children, however, were less trusting after specific instances of unintentional inaccuracy, suggesting that as children begin formal education, they are more critical of technologies for their learning. Together, these results uncover the high-level, sophisticated nature in which children are engaging with interactive technologies. I end with discussing the implications of interactive technologies on children’s social, cognitive, and moral development.endissertation or thesishttps://doi.org/10.7298/n8gg-gy24