Technologies

Dolls, Not Tablets, Shine in Teaching Vital Skills to Children, Study Reveals

Order up a Raggedy Ann or a Barbie doll: Playing with dolls helped children develop a stronger tolerance for diverse perspectives.

Empathy, tolerance and the ability to see the world from others’ perspectives are crucial skills — and they begin developing early in life. New research suggests that playing with dolls rather than tablets may be more effective at fostering these abilities.

Researchers from Cardiff University in the UK found that children ages 4-8 who played with dolls showed better improvement than those who played open-ended games on digital tablets in developing what is called «false-belief understanding.» The study was a randomized trial and was conducted over six weeks.

False-belief understanding is our ability to recognize that others can hold false beliefs or be mistaken about the world. Developing this cognitive skill helps us appreciate that others can have different beliefs and opinions — about politics, religion, among many things — and be able to tolerate and empathize with that.

Children who develop this cognitive ability can better navigate increasingly complex social situations and deal with conflicts. Psychologists believe that kids begin to develop this ability primarily between ages 4 and 8, and some studies have shown that development can start even before age 2.

The classic example of false-belief understanding is the Sally Anne task, conducted by researchers in London in 1983. Children were shown two dolls — Sally, who had a basket, and Anne, who had a box. The Sally doll then puts a marble in her basket and leaves the room. Anne takes the marble from the basket and hides it in her box. Sally then returns to the room.

The children in the study were asked three questions, the main one being, «Where will Sally look for her marble?» If the kids answered «the basket,» then they understood that Sally’s view of the world — that the marble was still in her basket — did not reflect reality.

The experiment

For the six-week trial, children ages 4-8 played with either dolls or digital tablets loaded with creative, open-ended games. There were 81 children, with an average age of 6, from South Wales. The kids were randomly selected to play with either dolls or tablets; they could not choose on their own. The parents kept diaries of the play sessions, which lasted hours.

After the trial period, researchers found that the children who had played with dolls had a stronger improvement in false-belief understanding and an ability to separate their knowledge from what others believed to be true. To measure this improvement, the researchers used the Sandbox Task, a psychological tool created in 2011. It’s similar to the Sally Anne task but involves relocating and burying an item in a sandbox.

The researchers also saw that the children in the doll group often included friends, siblings and parents in their play. The children in the tablet group mostly played alone. The children who played with dolls also often gave them personalities, talking about what they thought the dolls wanted, believed or felt.

The researchers concluded that playing with dolls might help children practice and improve social-processing skills.

«The mechanism underlying this improvement requires further investigation, but we speculate that dolls may encourage social interaction and further practice of these skills outside of social interactions,» according to the study.

Tablet use is widespread among kids

Busy parents may be tempted to use tablets to keep their children occupied. The Pew Research Center found that 63% of children ages 2-4 interacted with tablets, and that number rose with age — 81% in children ages 5-7 and 80% in children ages 8-10. The research also showed the majority of children used smartphones at young ages — 59% in ages 2-4, 58% in ages 5-7 and 64% in ages 8-10.

A majority of parents — nearly 60% — said they were «doing the best they can,» while a little more than 40% said they «could be doing better» at managing their kids’ screen time, according to the study.

Are tablets bad?

So, is it time to ditch the tablets and order some dolls? Sarah Gerson, co-author of the study and a developmental psychologist at Cardiff University, said the study isn’t an indictment of children using tablets or other devices.

«My general advice is about letting children embrace the kinds of play that they find most natural,» Gerson told CNET. «Although tablet games were our ‘control’/comparison group in this study, we make a point of saying this doesn’t mean anything negative about tech. Instead, different types of toys and play can be beneficial for different kinds of learning/development.»

Although Gerson and her team used dolls in the experiment, children might also improve their understanding of false beliefs through play with other inanimate objects.

«Humanoid dolls are an easy access point in that it naturally propels children to use them to practice social interactions,» Gerson said. «There’s likely a lot of variability in which children extend these kinds of social interactions to stuffed animals, dinosaurs, superheroes, etc. What I think is interesting about dolls is that they don’t necessarily have a prescribed role or script — unlike, say, superheroes — so it allows children to play however they’d like in open-ended ways.»

Technologies

Ring Finally Goes Wire-Free for Its Latest 4K Video Doorbells

The launch of battery-powered versions of the company’s powerful AI doorbells has been highly anticipated.

Security company Ring on Wednesday announced a significant expansion of its video doorbell line, notably battery-powered versions of both its 4K and 2K models, priced from $80.

Both Amazon’s Ring and Google Nest debuted high-resolution video doorbells with new AI features in the fall of 2025. But they were wired only, and in my tests, I kept thinking, «I sure wish there were battery models available.»

Wireless video doorbells are far better for most front doors than models that require connecting to your existing doorbell wiring, which is often poorly positioned for a security camera. Mine, for example, is located on a wall beside my door that’s useless for any kind of video views, no matter how you angle a lens.

«Enhancing image quality in battery-powered doorbells means customers can enjoy reliable performance with the flexibility to install devices in a way that suits their space, whether renting or living in homes without existing wiring,» a Ring spokesperson said.

At first, I wondered whether the higher 4K resolutions and more advanced AI features would use too much power to support batteries. If so, Ring is the first to fix that issue with this suite of doorbells, including these models available for preorder right now:

Ring Battery Doorbell Pro — $250: This model offers up to 4K resolution and 10x zoom, and Ring says it features a redesigned internal architecture to support battery power.
Ring Battery Doorbell Plus (2nd-gen) — $180: This model includes a quick-release battery pack along with 2K video.
Ring Battery Doorbell (2nd-gen) — $100: This video doorbell includes 2K video, a 6x zoom and what Ring calls a «streamlined, rechargeable design,» which means you take the entire video doorbell to charge it, not just the battery — a design I greatly prefer, since Ring’s battery packs can get fiddly.

There’s also a new version of a Ring wired doorbell with 2K resolution, starting at $80. It wouldn’t be Ring without a plethora of doorbell devices to confuse newcomers, which is why I have a guide specifically for Ring video doorbells that will need some updating once I finish testing these new models.

Resolution plus an intelligence upgrade

Ring’s ordinary subscriptions of the Ring Protect plan give you cloud video storage and intelligent alerts for people, packages and vehicles, which are important but not really advanced AI. But spring for the $20-per-month Ring AI Pro cam, and this new generation of cameras opens up other capabilities.

Ring’s AI features include AI video descriptions, so if you get an alert, you can also get a summary of what the doorbell saw, including people and activities. A similar feature lets you search your video history with specific terms, such as «bike,» «truck» and so on. You also get the beta version of Ring’s Familiar Faces feature, which can ID logged faces of people who approach.

If these AI features make you uneasy and you’d rather protect your privacy, the best option is to avoid a subscription altogether or choose a lower-tier plan that gives you cloud storage without AI.

I also have a guide on how to turn off Ring’s detection and data-sharing features that might make you nervous, so you can keep what you like while ditching what you don’t.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Thursday, March 26

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for March 26.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Baseball is back! You’ll see baseball images patterned throughout today’s Mini Crossword grid, and when you solve the puzzle, they’ll spell out a certain word. Play ball! Er, read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Degrees for boardroom execs
Answer: MBAS

5A clue: «___ want for Christmas …»
Answer: ALLI

6A clue: What Hamlet holds while giving his «Alas, poor Yorick!» speech
Answer: SKULL

7A clue: Wild, as an animal
Answer: FERAL

8A clue: Sphere
Answer: ORB

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Word after «match» or «mischief»
Answer: MAKER

2D clue: Bit of writing on a book jacket
Answer: BLURB

3D clue: Penne ___ vodka
Answer: ALLA

4D clue: Window ledge
Answer: SILL

6D clue: Bay Area airport, for short
Answer: SFO

Technologies

McDonald’s KPop Demon Hunter Meals Include Bright Purple Nugget Sauce

The Derpy McFlurry mixes popping boba pearls and berry sauce into a soft-serve dessert.

McDonald’s has seen success with themed combo meals, including its holiday Grinch Meal. Now, the fast-food chain is capitalizing on Netflix’s Oscar-winning animated film, KPop Demon Hunters, with new upcoming menu items and both a breakfast meal and a lunch/dinner offering. Let’s hope you like the color purple.

The HUNTR/X Meal, named for the K-pop girl group in the movie, is a 10-piece chicken McNuggets meal that includes a medium drink and three special menu items.

Ramyeon McShaker fries come with a small bag of soy, garlic, sesame and spice seasoning, along with regular McDonald’s french fries. You sprinkle the seasoning into the provided bag, dump in the fries, shake it all up and eat.

The meal includes two new sauces for the fries and nuggets. Hunter sauce is a sweet chili sauce mixing notes of chili, garlic and pepper. But my favorite item on this new menu is Demon sauce, a bold mustard sauce with some heat and a bold purple color. There’s just not enough dark purple food out there.

There’s also a new dessert, the Derpy McFlurry, which blends creamy vanilla soft serve with berry-flavored popping boba pearls, served with a swirl of wild berry sauce. McDonald’s named it for the supernatural feline, Derpy Tiger, from the movie.

If breakfast is your bag, the new morning meal is the Saja Boys Breakfast Meal, named for the movie’s boy band.

It includes a Spicy Saja McMuffin sandwich, which is a sausage McMuffin with egg and a spicy Saja sauce, hash browns and a small drink.

Both meals come with a photocard for one of the bands and a Derpy card. The Derpy card includes a QR code you can scan to unlock online content about the film.

The full KPop Demon Hunters menu should be available at participating McDonald’s beginning March 31.

The McDonald’s Grinch meal (and its accompanying patterned socks) sold out quickly, so KPop Demon Hunters fans may want to mark their calendars and nab a meal when they are released.