The neurobiology of attention

This study examined children's attention to formal features and other attributes during television viewing. Subjects were 40 children, ages 2, 5, 8 and 11 years old, who were videotaped watching television at home during a 10-day period. Among other attributes, children's visual attention to television was coded, along with television program attributes including movement, cuts, animation, text, nonhuman characters, men, women, and children. Also coded were two content-related features: purposeful action by a character (other than talking) and violence. Analysis revealed that the children's attention increased significantly in the presence of movement, animation, cuts, purposeful action, violence, and nonhuman characters. Attention was depressed in the presence of text and adult human characters. (1M) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * from the original document