This experiment tests the hypothesis that background, adult television is a disruptive influence on very young children's behavior. Fifty 12-, 24-, and 36-month-olds played with a variety of toys for 1 hr. For half of the hour, a game show played in the background on a monaural TV set. During the other half hour, the TV was off. The children…

Assesses television influences on infants six months of age at home. Sound only, picture only, sound plus picture, or a control stimulus of unpatterned sound plus picture conditions were designed. Findings demonstrate that infants attend to the naturalistic presentation of television stimulation and respond differentially to its visual and…

Investigates the relationship between the moment-to-moment occurrence of selected visual and auditory formal features of a prosocial cartoon and two aspects of information processing (visual attention and comprehension). Subjects, 128 White kindergarten and third- to fourth-grade children, were equally distributed by sex and age and viewed the…

Thirty-six five- to six-year-old girls viewed one of three television network cartoons, either high or low stereptyped or neutral. They were then tested for sex-role stereotyping on a 24-item measure, each item showing a male and a female and asking a question about them. (JMB)

Children aged 14 and 24 months were shown television depictions of adults manipulating toys in novel ways. Infants at both ages showed imitation of television models, even after 24-hour delays. This deferred imitation has social and policy implications as it suggests that television viewing can potentially affect infant behavior and development…

Effects of the importance of plot-relevant information on 4- to 6-year-old children's memory for four televised stories was examined in two experiments. Free recall and cued recall of idea units rated for importance by college students were assessed. Recognition following failed cued recall was also assessed. (Author/BN)

Pairs of preschool children saw television commercials that varied in formal features (high versus low perceptual salience) and placement in a television show (dispersed through the program versus clustered at the beginning and end). Sixty-four subjects (32 female and 32 male) from a university preschool participated in the study. (Author/RH)

The ability of 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children to correctly identify videotaped segments as programs or commercials was examined. Results indicate that, when a task requiring minimal verbal response is used, preschoolers demonstrate an awareness of commercials as distinct from programs. (Author/MP)

Five experiments with 12-, 15-, and 18-month-olds examined 276 infants' ability to learn from television under semi-naturalistic conditions. Findings indicated that infants of all ages imitated live-modeled actions. There were age- and task-related differences in infants' ability to imitate the same television-modeled actions. Findings highlighted…

Examines the relationship between children's attention and comprehension of auditory and visual information on television. After viewing a videotape of "Sesame Street" with visual, auditory, or no distractors, 60 five-year-olds were asked comprehension questions. Findings indicated that children could process auditory and visual…

Presents a cognitive-developmental analysis of the effects of televised, sex-stereotypic information on children's behavior and attitudes towards toy play. Subjects were 100 children, ages four to six divided into groups exhibiting high and low gender-constancy. (Author/CM)

Assesses third-grade children's comprehension of traditional and nontraditional female sex-role portrayals in television programs. For both programs, children demonstrated accurate memory for role-relevant information, but children with higher levels of sex-role stereotyping remembered less role-relevant information than did children with lower…

Decribes age trends in television viewing time and visual attention of children and adults videotaped in their homes for 10-day periods. Shows that the increase in visual attention to television during the preschool years is consistent with the theory that television program comprehensibility is a major determinant of attention in young children.…