Daniel R. Anderson

Television and Very Young Children

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has recommended that children younger than 24 months of age not be exposed to television. Nevertheless, television programs and home videos are increasingly produced for very young children. This article reviews the extant research concerning television and very young children with respect to the AAP recommendation. More very young children are currently watching television than in the recent past; they pay substantial attention to TV programs and videos made for them. When learning from videos is assessed in comparison to equivalent live presentations, there is usually substantially less learning from videos. Although one study finds positive associations of language learning with exposure to some children’s TV programs, other studies find negative associations of viewing with language, cognitive, and attentional development. Background TV is also a disruptive influence. Evidence thus far indicates that the AAP recommendation is well taken, although considerably more research is needed.

On the road to obesity: Television viewing increases intake of high-density foods.

Television viewing (TVV) has been linked with obesity, possibly through increased sedentary behavior and/or through increased ingestion during TVV. The proposition that TVV causes increased feeding, however, has not been subjected to experimental verification until recently. Our objective was to determine if the amount eaten of two familiar, palatable, high-density foods (pizza and macaroni and cheese) was increased during a 30-min meal when watching TV. In a within-subjects design, one group of undergraduates (n = 10) ate pizza while watching a TV show of their choice for one session and when listening to a symphony during the other session. A second group of undergraduates (n = 10) ate macaroni and cheese (M&C). TVV increased caloric intake by 36% (one slice on average) for pizza and by 71% for M&C. Eating patterns also differed between conditions. Although the length of time to eat a slice of pizza remained stable between viewing conditions, the amount of time before starting another slice was shorter during TVV. In contrast, M&C was eaten at a faster rate and for a longer period of time during TVV. Thus, watching television increases the amount eaten of high-density, palatable, familiar foods and may constitute one vector contributing to the current obesity crisis.

The impact of background television on parent-child interaction.

This study investigated the hypothesis that background television affects interactions between parents and very young children. Fifty-one 12-, 24-, and 36-month-old children, each accompanied by 1 parent, were observed for 1 hr of free play in a laboratory space resembling a family room. For half of the hour, an adult-directed television program played in the background on a monaural television set. During the other half hour, the television was not on. Both the quantity and quality of parent-child interaction decreased in the presence of background television. These findings suggest one way in which early, chronic exposure to television may have a negative impact on development.

The Effects of Background Television on the Toy Play Behavior of Very Young Children.

This experiment tests the hypothesis that background, adult television is a disruptive influence on very young childrens 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 looked at the TV for only a few seconds at a time and less than once per minute. Nevertheless, background TV significantly reduced toy play episode length as well as focused attention during play. Thus, background television disrupts very young childrens play behavior even when they pay little overt attention to it. These findings have implications for subsequent cognitive development.

A developmental study of the effects of irrelevant information on speeded classification

Abstract The study examined how well subjects were able to ignore the presence of irrelevant stimulus information as a function of age. Children aged 6, 9, and 12, as well as adult subjects sorted cards with one binary dimension relevant, and zero, one, or two dimensions irrelevant. Speed of classification was measured. Significant effects of age, sex, number of irrelevant dimensions, and relevant dimension on speed of classification were obtained, as well as a number of interactions of these variables. The most important finding was that the presence of irrelevant information interfered with the performance of the task by child subjects and that the magnitude of the interference declined with age. The results were interpreted as implying that developmental trends in attention may be most clearly demonstrated in tasks which require speeded processing of stimuli. The ease of administration of the speeded classification task, coupled with the clear developmental trends obtained, recommend this paradigm as a useful one with which to study the development of selective attention.

Researching Blue's Clues: Viewing Behavior and Impact

Blues Clues is a preschool television series designed to promote mastery of thinking and problem-solving skills. This paper summarizes a series of studies concerning the impact of the program on television viewing behaviors and on cognitive development. Three studies of viewing behavior indicate that as preschool children were in the process of learning from the program they were relatively quiet and highly attentive. As they mastered the content they became increasingly vocal and interactive. Their tendency to interact with Blues Clues transferred to another program from a different series. A longitudinal study comparing children who regularly watched Blues Clues to demographically similar children who could not receive the program indicated that the program had a positive impact on cognitive development.

Watching Children Watch Television

The national pastime of American children is watching television. They spend perhaps 20% of their waking hours in front of TV sets, cumulatively more time than they spend in school (Lyle & Hoffman, 1972a, b). Although there has been some research interest in the social and cognitive impact of television (cf. Liebert, Neale, & Davidson, 1973; Stein & Friedrich, 1975), there have been few studies on the nature and development of TV viewing itself. There has been little information on how children watch, why they watch, or what they watch.

Young Children's Comprehension of Montage.

2 studies examined childrens comprehension of brief stop-animation televised segments incorporating elements of cinematic montage such as pans, zooms, and cuts. Children reconstructed the action and dialogue in these segments using the same dolls and settings depicted. In Study 1, there was no effect of cinematic techniques on reconstruction performance of 3- and 5-year-olds as compared to control segments filmed without these techniques. The results challenged the assumption that the use of such techniques per se contributes to young childrens poor comprehension of television shows. In Study 2, 12 new segments were produced in which comprehending the montage required inferences of character perspective, implied action sequences, spatial relationships, and simultaneity of different actions. Averaging across all segments, 62% of the 4-year-olds and 88% of the 7-year-olds demonstrated clear comprehension of the montage. Inferences concerning implied action sequences were easiest for both ages. Inferences of simultaneity were most difficult for 4-year-olds, whereas inferences of character perspective were most difficult for 7-year-olds. Preschool children are thus capable of understanding cinematic events conveyed through camera techniques and film editing, despite previous assertions to the contrary. This ability nevertheless substantially increases with age.

Form and content: looking at visual features of television.

Television viewing at home by 50 individuals in 5 age groups (2-, 5-, 8-, 12-year-olds, and adults) was recorded on 1-s time-lapse videotapes over 10-day periods. Coding was based on 5-min point samples. Analysis examined looking at the TV screen in relation to the visual presence of the features cuts, movement, animation, man, woman, child, and nonhuman; content features were child vs. adult programming and overt purposeful character behavior. Cuts, movement, and overt purposeful character behavior were positively related to looking independent of child vs. adult programming. Associations with looking for the remaining features depended on the viewers age or sex or type of content within which they occurred.

A temporal analysis of free toy play and distractibility in young children

Abstract Hypothesizing that children become attentionally engaged during play in a manner similar to that found during television viewing, the temporal structure of free toy play by 5-year-olds was examined. In Study 1, 10 children were videotaped during 3 h of play. Play episode lengths were lognormally distributed for each child, with no autocorrelation. Lengths of play episodes were not predicted by time into play session, cumulative play with the particular toy, likelihood of choosing the toy, time since last play with the toy, or sex. Hazard functions for each child were quite similar, increasing to a point between 3 and 14 s after play was initiated, then greatly decreasing thereafter. Study 2 tested the hypothesis that these hazard functions reflect attentional engagement by presenting audiovisual distractors during free toy play by thirty 5-year-olds. Probability of distraction increased to a peak at about 12 s after a play episode began and steadily declined thereafter. Reaction times of headturns toward the distractor, moreover, inversely paralleled the probability of distraction. Attentional engagement is initially fragile and becomes more so for a period of about 12 s into toy play episodes and strengthens thereafter. A model assuming toy play consists of a chain of actions linked by attentional inertia is sufficient to account for these findings. Parallels between toy play and looking at television are discussed.