Less is more: How manipulative features affect childrenʹs learning from picture books

Picture books are ubiquitous in young childrenʹs lives and are assumed to support childrenʹs acquisition of information about the world. Given their importance, relatively little research has directly examined childrenʹs learning from picture books. We report two studies examining childrenʹs acquisition of labels and facts from picture books that vary on two dimensions: iconicity of the pictures and presence of manipulative features (or “pop-ups”). In Study 1, 20-month-old children generalized novel labels less well when taught from a book with manipulative features than from standard picture books without such elements. In Study 2, 30- and 36-month-old children learned fewer facts when taught from a manipulative picture book with drawings than from a standard picture book with realistic images and no manipulative features. The results of the two studies indicate that childrenʹs learning from picture books is facilitated by realistic illustrations, but impeded by manipulative features.