Examines the visual attention of undergraduate students to the television screen. Finds that varying relatedness of episodes, for which strategic inertial processes should vary in strength, produces a corresponding difference in inertia of looks crossing boundaries. Suggests that results previously interpreted as reflecting nonstrategic processes…

Investigates the visual attention of children (ages 3.5 to 6.5 years) to short segments of the television program "Sesame Street." Finds an early increase in attention to random segments, suggesting an attempt to deal with difficult but seemingly accessible content. Finds a quick decrease of attention to segments with incomprehensible…

Investigates the cultivation hypothesis by testing two cognitive processes hypothesized to allow viewers to construct television-biased beliefs. Finds the basic cultivation result replicated, but neither process hypothesis was supported. (SR)

To understand how children respond to and make use of portrayals of the sexes on television, 192 third and eighth grade students participated in a study to determine what they notice and how important these distinctions are to them. The study obtained children's same/different paired comparisons of eight concepts--me, my mother, an average woman,…

Based on a review of television's influence on social reality beliefs, a model is proposed to examine how individuals use television to construct such beliefs. Evidence suggests that television has some influence on attitudes related to violence, sex, old age, and family values and structure. Twenty-two references are cited. (Author/MER)

Elaborates on the cultivation hypothesis: that heavy television viewers incorporate biases present in television content into their own constructions of reality. Suggests that the integration of discrete television events into social reality beliefs requires cognitive skills not available to or unused by younger children. (JMF)

Challenges two assumptions of the Gerbner cultivation analysis: that commercial television content is uniform in its symbolic messages about society's values, and that television viewing is habitual (ritual) rather than selective. Overall, both assumptions are found flawed; discarding them, however, serves to strengthen rather than weaken the…

Two underlying assumptions of the Cultural Indicators approach to television research were examined, using data on the television viewing habits of 76 second grade, 150 fifth grade, 509 eighth grade, and 350 eleventh grade students in Perth, Australia. The assumptions were that commercial television presented an organically composed total world of…

Describes a 1979 study of fifth-, eighth-, and eleventh-grade students that was conducted to investigate television viewing behaviors. The study focused on overall viewing activity, content decisions (i.e., loyalty to individual series or to a genre), and program stability (i.e., how often viewers change channels during a program). (14 references)…

One hundred seventy-one middle school students participated in a study to assess cognitive activity during television viewing. Students completed a questionnaire about their favorite programs, viewing habits, and social reality beliefs, then viewed a 17-minute professionally edited episode of a family drama and answered a multiple choice…