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 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 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 children's play behavior even when they pay little overt attention to it. These findings have implications for subsequent cognitive development.
Schmidt
Marie Evans
ME
Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USA.
Pempek
Tiffany A
TA
Kirkorian
Heather L
HL
Lund
Anne Frankenfield
AF
Anderson
Daniel R
DR
D001288:Attention; D002652:Child Behavior; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009622:Noise; D010988:Play and Playthings; D012919:Social Behavior; D013690:Television