In a study conducted to measure children's visual attention to a television program and relate it to comprehension of content, 64 children equally distributed by sex from kindergarten and fifth grade, were randomly assigned to one of four treatment conditions. These conditions crossed two levels of content cues with two levels of sound effects…

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…

The purposes of this study were to provide information about how formal features of television are related to children's selective attention and to determine how selective attention is related, in turn, to comprehension of content. Formal features are defined as attributes of television productions that are relatively content-free and that result…

Children's temporal comprehension was assessed after viewing a television program containing flashbacks that shifted the events to much earlier times. Flashbacks were marked or not marked with sound effects, and time relations were represented with either dreamy dissolves or abrupt camera cuts. A total of 64 children, equally distributed by sex…

In this study, children's selective attention to, and comprehension of, variably-paced television programs were examined as a function of sound effects. Sixty-four children, equally distributed by sex and by preschool and fourth grades, were randomly assigned to one of four treatment conditions which crossed two levels of sound effects (presence…

This paper places research findings within a social learning framework to demonstrate that television influences the development of sex typing in children. First, the presence of sex-typed content in television programming and advertising is documented. Then, the nature of children's attention to and comprehension of televised messages is…

The "preplay" technique, an advance organizer summarizing important plot events before sections of a story, is examined for its effectiveness in facilitating children's selective attention to and comprehension of televised stories. One hundred and sixty first through fourth grade children, equally distributed by grade and sex, were…

A study was conducted to determine whether children think about the verbal messages embedded in songs, or merely sing the words without thinking about them. A total of 48 preschool girls and boys viewed a televised vignette of the song "Frere Jacques" under varying conditions of language comprehensibility, rehearsal, and repetition. The visual…

The purpose of this study was to assess developmental differences in children's visual attention to, and comprehension of, a prosocial television program as a function of varying "preplay" formats. (Preplays were defined as advance organizers designed to help a child select, order, and integrate critical televised content into a memory…

Preplays (critical material presented before a televised program) were inserted before three sections of a televised story to determine if they would improve children's attention and comprehension by providing overall plot structure for selecting and integrating important story events. The preplays varied on two orthogonal dimensions: presence or…

Discussion of comprehension and attention processes of children viewing television programs highlights a study that was conducted to examine the potential impact of sound effects on children's visual orientation to television programs which varied in the rate of program pace. Results for four treatment groups of preschool children and fourth…