Children's reported investment of mental effort when viewing child and adult television programs

The present study was designed to examine developmental differences in children's active, conscious cognitive processing of television program information during home viewing. Specifically, the study focused on examining (1) relationships among children's ages, the types of television programs Viewed, and reported amounts of invested mental effort when televiewing, and (2) contributions of factors in children's home viewing environments to reported levels of mental effort investment. Subjects were a convenient sample of 40 second-grade, 42 fourth-grade, and 34 sixth-grade children and their parents. Parental questionnaires provided data on parental participation during the children's televiewing. Individual interviews with the children provided information on the child's performance of other activities such as playing when viewing, the child's familiarity with different television programs, and reported amounts of mental effort invested when viewing child and adult types of programs