The study, which involved 266 pre-school and primary school children between the ages of three and nine, found that the longer the daily use of screen media, the slower the capacity to develop mental imagery. This finding applied not only to passive screen use, such as television, but also to 'active media', such as smartphones, tablets or PCs.
Dr Sebastian Suggate of the University of Regensburg, who co-wrote the report, said, 'Mental imagery enables us to depict events or objects as if they were in front of an "inner eye". These imagination and mental imagery abilities are an important component of cognitive development, including thinking, problem solving, language, and imagination.
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