The Visual and Social Dimensions of Story Presentation: Their Impact on Children’s Imagination and Creativity

Background/Objectives: As digital media becomes central to children’s lives, understanding its cognitive effects is essential. Children increasingly experience stories without parental involvement (e.g., through digital video stories), and highly visualized content may require less imagination. This study examined how the social context of story presentation (parental reading vs. audio narration) and the level of visualization (animation, pictures, and text-only stories) affect children’s creativity and mental imagery. Methods: The study included 70 children aged 5–8 years (32 girls, 38 boys). Using a mixed experimental design, researchers assigned children to one of six story presentation conditions and assessed creativity and mental imagery before and after the intervention. Results: The change in figural creativity scores was more positive in the parental-reading condition than in the audio-narration condition, although neither condition showed a statistically significant change from zero. Exploratory post hoc analysis revealed that mental imagery performance improved after stories with pictures, with a more positive change than after animations, but not significantly different from text-only stories. No significant effects were found for divergent thinking. Conclusions: These findings highlight the need for further research into how the level of visualization and the social context of story presentation may influence children’s mental imagery and creativity.