This study of children's understanding of commercial audio and video network techniques which are designed to communicate the balanced breakfast concept indicates that children show a general lack of concept understanding. Thirteen references are cited. (Author/MER)

This study of children's responses to television advertising employed personal interviews to determine a family group's consumer teaching orientation and viewing habits and patterns, and participant observation to study the formative aspects of children's interaction with the content of television commercials in the family group viewing situation.…

Presents findings of two studies that sought to clarify the issue of the comparative effectiveness of two different methods of prosocial teaching for the very young: depicting the desired behavior in a totally prosocial setting v depicting the desired behavior as a strategy for resolving an explicitly portrayed conflict situation. (Author)

Describes a study which used the heart rate of subjects as the measure of physiological arousal to assess the effect of forewarning on emotional reactions and physiological responses to a frightening television film. Results indicate that although forewarning did not significantly affect anxiety, it did promote more intense fright and upset. (MBR)

Reviews prior research on television programers' information processing in making decisions on what programs to broadcast, focusing on attribute information, information integration, and information processing styles. A field experiment conducted to determine importance programers attach to programing information, how they make judgments, and…

This study explored patterns of pastime activities that stand as alternatives to television viewing among middle school children. Findings are compared with those of Robinson's study (1981) for alternative media, video games, and sleeping variables, as well as dichotomous measures for group membership, playing a musical instrument, and hobbies.…

Reviews findings of recent television research and discusses two dominant issues: the nature and determinants of children's attention to television, and the amount and kind of content retained by different age groups. It is recommended that research on media effects incorporate age-related and individual difference factors. Nineteen references are…

Comparison among several measures of children's television viewing revealed few age differences in ability to produce consistent self-report viewing data, but wide discrepancies between mother and child viewing estimates. Eleven references are cited. (Author)

Presents findings of research that studied the influence of television's behavioral models on young Puerto Rican children, including (1) types of models children chose; (2) their perceptions and moral judgments of the appropriateness of certain types of antisocial behavior; and (3) occupational aspirations and their perceptions of Puerto Rican…

Discusses methodology and results of a study focusing on improving television's informing process by examining effects of combining visual and captioned information with a reporter's script. Results indicate redundant pictures and words enhance learning, while adding redundant print information either had no effect or detracted from learning. (MBR)

Analyzes changes in the popularity (ratings) of television programs over the duration of the television viewing season among fourth, sixth, and eighth graders. Results indicate that ratings are quite stable and increase as the season goes on, especially among younger viewers. (Author/JJD)

An examination of 18 children's reality-fantasy judgments about television indicated that such judgments shift with age from a focus on physical features and a rigid assessment of actuality, to a sensitivity to the plausibility of characters and plotlines, and an appreciation of authorial intent. Sixteen references are cited. (Author/MER)

Examines the relationship between both the sex-role and the sex of viewers and viewer perception of the sex-role depicted by five female characters in prime-time television programs. Perception of character sex-role was significantly related to subject sex-role, yet unrelated to subject sex or gender. (MER)

Discusses methodology, results, and implications of a study testing three hypotheses and investigating perceptions of social, political, and economic conflicts (organized according to complexity, intensity, and solvability) as they occur in society and as portrayed by television news. Findings indicate viewers are able to differentiate between…

A study of the effects of television drama on learning of prosocial and antisocial behavior analyzes programs in terms of sex of the actor, apparent motivation for the actor's behavior, and portrayed importance of the action. Results show that the effects on viewers differ according to their sex. (EAO)