References to internal states (e.g., thoughts, feelings, and desires) indicate children's appreciation of people's inner worlds. Many children spend time playing video games; however, the nature of children's speech when doing so has received little attention. We investigated the use of internal state language (ISL) as 251 seven-year-olds played with toy figures and a video game designed for the study. Although children used ISL more when playing with toy figures, children used ISL in both contexts, highlighting video game play as a context where children demonstrate their appreciation of inner worlds. Children's speech in the two contexts differed in how ISL was used: references to children's own internal states were more common when playing the video game, and the characters' internal states more common when playing with the toy figures. These findings are discussed with reference to the format of the play activities affording different opportunities to discuss internal states.

中文翻译：

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七岁孩子在玩玩具和电子游戏时提及的内部状态


对内部状态（例如，思想、感受和欲望）的提及表明儿童对人们内心世界的欣赏。许多孩子花时间玩电子游戏；然而，儿童这样做时言语的性质却很少受到关注。我们调查了 251 名 7 岁儿童玩玩具人物和专门为该研究设计的视频游戏时内部状态语言 (ISL) 的使用情况。虽然孩子们在玩玩具时更多地使用 ISL，但孩子们在这两种情况下都使用 ISL，强调视频游戏是孩子们展示他们对内心世界的欣赏的环境。两种背景下儿童的言语在 ISL 的使用方式上有所不同：在玩电子游戏时更常见的是提及儿童自己的内部状态，而在玩玩具人物时更常见的是人物的内部状态。这些发现是参考游戏活动的形式进行讨论的，提供了不同的机会来讨论内部状态。