Abstract

This study examined young children's attention and comprehension when viewing television programs designed for them The television programs varied in format (live vs. animated) and pace (low vs. high). Children aged 4, 6 and 8 year olds. And they watched four kinds of young children's television programs combined with format (live vs. animated) and pace (low vs. high) which are all magazine-style(low continuity) programs. The main results are as follows: First, the children's attention and comprehension were significantly higher when viewing animated than live. Second, children's attention did not differ between low-paced and high-paced programs but their comprehension was significantly better at low-paced than high-paced programs. Third, there was positive correlation between children's attention and comprehension after language comprehension was controlled. Children showed negative correlation between language comprehension and attention to television but showed positive correlation between language comprehension and comprehension of television content.