Does colour affect the quality or quantity of children’s stories elicited by pictures?

Abstract

The current study investigated the effect of colour vs. black-and-white pictures on the stories children told using the pictures as stimuli. Participants were 22 preschool children aged 4—6 (M = 59.98, SD = 7.52) attending day-care centres in a Western Canadian city. Two story sets of five pictures each, depicting stories with similar structure, were used as stimuli. Two versions of each story were made, one in colour and one in black and white. Each child was presented with one of the stories in colour and the other in black and white; versions and stories were counterbalanced across children. Stories were analysed for differences in content using story grammar, in amount using total number of words used in telling the story, and in vocabulary variety using number of different words used. Children were also asked which of the two stories they had preferred and why they preferred that story. Results indicated that stories children told did not differ on any of the variables; children told stories that were similar in content, length, and word variety regardless of whether the pictures used to elicit stories were in colour or black and white. When asked which story they preferred, roughly equal numbers of children expressed a preference for each version; when asked why that story was preferred, only four children ascribed it to colour, while the majority of children gave content-related reasons for their preference. We conclude that colour or lack thereof in picture stimuli does not appear to affect stories told by preschool children who are typically developing.