This is an initial examination of findings from laboratory and field studies done in Israel on the cognition-cultivating functions of media. The studies reasoned that highly explicit presentations of film-mediated operations can be imitated by observers, and that once imitated, they are internalized and can serve as modified mental skills. Two laboratory experiments provide empirical support. A field study of "Sesame Street" in Israel sought to determine if, in fact, a mass medium can produce cognitive changes. The absence of an adequate control group was solved by the methodological technique of multiple regression. A few of the findings of this complex study are that media can be made to affect mental skills, and that given sufficient novelty and cognitive stress, media does cultivate specific abilities. Second, television is an important force in cognitive development, although little is yet known about exactly how this takes place, with whom, and under what conditions. Third, the distinction made between formats that accomplish the function of modeling skills has received empirical support; and finally, the findings show who learns more through modeling and who from skill activation. (WMC)