One or more? Big or small? Number and size of animate characters in picture books from Japan and the U.S.

We examined the number and size of animate characters illustrated in picture books targeting preschoolers from the U.S. and Japan. Our hypotheses were based on cross-cultural differences found in previous studies of visual attention and visual products. The results found that U.S. picture books had fewer animate characters illustrated than Japanese books, supporting our hypothesis. Our results also found that texts of the U.S. picture books placed more emphasis on animate characters than texts of Japanese books, also supporting our hypothesis. These results highlight that visual products that young children are exposed to early might be an important environmental factor contributing to their development that should be studied further.