Over the past half century the mass media, including video games, have become important socializers of children. Observational learning theory has evolved into social-cognitive information processing models that explain that what a child observes in any venue has both short-term and long-term influences on the child's behaviors and cognitions. C.…

This study tests the hypothesis that children who viewed videotaped aggression would imitate aggressive behaviors more frequently than would children who were not exposed to aggressive displays. A cognitive factor, reinforcement value, was also hypothesized to be a significant variable in the behavior of the children. Prior to treatment, subjects…