Materials
Tablet computers
Figure 1. Testing room with desktop mount eye tracker
The two tablet computers in the study represent a sample from the range of devices commercially available at the time of data collection, and also represent tablet computers that are most likely to engage children. In a previous
study assessing children’s interaction with tablet computers (i.e., iPad, LeapPad, Acer Iconia Tab, and VTech InnoTab), it was found that tablet computers designed for a general user audience (iPad & Iconia Tab) appear to be more engaging—are played longer, are used in a more goal-directed manner, and are judged as more enjoyable by both researcher observation and user’s self-reports—than tablets specifically designed for use by children (e.g., LeapPad & InnoTab; McEwen & Dubé, 2015), with the iPad and LeapPad garnering the most engagement in their respective categories.