In this paper I hope to discuss the ways in which television and the media has negatively played a part in the cognitive development in children.

The Effects of Television Watching on Children’s Cognitive Development

In this paper I hope to discuss the ways in which television and the media has negatively played a part in the cognitive development in children. In our society, the media is now a raging force in how we get our information. Television sets are now a fixture in most homes. Because of this, children are more and more being exposed to the media and television entertainment as a whole. This paper seeks to uncover whether or not television has indeed effected the cognitive development in children. It will also explain if these effects have been negative. This paper will also look at the types of media that has most affected the cognitive development in children.

This paper will use 3 major sources in order to best explain and describe the effects of television watching on cognitive development. The article, Relations of television viewing and reading, is a longitudinal study that investigates the cognitive changes in reading and learning skills in children over a 4 year period. The study looks at some of the negative aspects of entertainment television watching on children’s cognitive development. Another source that will be introduced in this paper is the article, Video comprehensibility and attention in very young children, in which children are tested for their comprehension and attention after television watching. Finally, the article, Media use vs. work and play in middle childhood, discusses the aspects of the media as a whole, and how it impedes on sleep patterns and amount of sleep in children of middle childhood. With the help of these sources, this paper will help us to gain a better understanding of how television has severely impacted the mental development and thought processes of children and how this might impact their future.

It is easy to see that television and the media is a raging force in our society today. These days however, more and more children are introduced at an early age to the media and television programs. But what are the long term effects of television watching on learning? One such study seeks to uncover this very important question. Learning involves a very detailed process, one in which there is a fair amount of attention, memory, and processing (Carlson, 2011). According to Ennesoger & Schneider( 2007), television may be blocking the learning process in four specific ways. These scientists discovered four inhibition hypotheses as to the way in which television inhibits reading and learning (Ennesoger & Schneider( 2007). The first of these hypotheses, the displacement hypothesis, states that television watching merely takes the place of reading (Ennesoger & Schneider 2007). This, according to Ennesoger & Schneider(2007) will eventually lead to a decline in reading abilities. Two other hypotheses explain that television may actively interfere with information processing (Ennesoger & Schneider 2007). The first of the two, the passivity hypothesis states that the minimal amount of brain power it takes to watch television, may interfere with the cognitive processing it will take to read and write, making the task more difficult (Ennesoger & Schneider 2007). The deterioration hypothesis similar to the previous, involves an attack on cognitive processing. It states that the rapid flashes and constant movement of television programs, may make it difficult for children to concentrate on specific tasks, which would also affect their concentration in reading (Ennesoger & Schneider 2007). And lastly, the reading depreciation hypothesis believes that the positive experiences that children get from watching television, will inevitably lead to depreciation in interest of school work (Ennesoger & Schneider 2007).

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This longitudinal study involved the use of 2 groups of German children (N1= 165; N2= 167), which were tested in reading speed and reading comprehension during a four year period (Ennesoger & Schneider 2007). The study tested both groups of children on an entertainment program vs. educational program basis (Ennesoger & Schneider, 2007). It was found that TV genre produced different effects in children’s cognitive development. Educational television produced less negative effects, while entertainment television proved that television can severely impact the cognitive development in children. Also the amount of television watching had an enormous impact on the learning abilities of children. Those children who did not spend large amounts of time in front of the television ( about 35 min a day), had less affects on their ability to read and write unlike children who spent about 115 min per day who showed signs of “lower progress in reading over time” (Ennesoger & Schneider, 2007, pp 349). This study was able to prove one of the four inhibiting hypotheses, the displacement hypothesis as a main cause in the decline of reading and learning abilities in children. Television watching did seem to interfere with the time that children could spend reading, which in turn inhibits learning and reading capabilities (Ennesoger & Schneider 2007).

Another issue involving the media and child cognitive development is the early exposure to television. It has been suggested by the American Academy of Pediatrics, that children not be exposed to a television screen before the age of 2 years (Pempek, Kirkorian, Richards, Anderson, Lund & Stevens, 2010). This guideline by the AAP was set in light of empirical evidence that TV exposure at an early age can negatively impact young children. Though educational programming seems safe for infants and toddlers, very little research has been done to prove this (Pempek, Kirkorian, Richards, Anderson, Lund & Stevens, 2010).

In a recent article, researchers conducted a study to test the very effects of early exposure of small children to television. The study wanted to decipher whether or not educational television programs was even at all beneficial to children under a certain age, due to lack of comprehension abilities. Anderson and Pempek (2005) had hypothesized that children learn better in real life situations rather than media experiences (Pempek, Kirkorian, Richards, Anderson, Lund & Stevens, 2010). This may merely mean that infant’s comprehensibility to video at that age is non-existent (Pempek, Kirkorian, Richards, Anderson, Lund & Stevens, 2010). These researchers set out to discover whether children of infancy and toddler age are able to comprehend and learn from educational videos.

Because they were not able to test the actual comprehensibility of the material watched, they measured comprehensibility to the amount of attention an infant paid to an educational video(Pempek, Kirkorian, Richards, Anderson, Lund & Stevens, 2010). In an earlier study, they found that children at 30 months were more able to pay attention longer to a Sesame Street video than their younger counterparts. This was due to the fact that cognitive development and language are beginning to develop at this age (Pempek, Kirkorian, Richards, Anderson, Lund & Stevens, 2010). In their more recent study however, Pempek, Kirkorian, Richards, Anderson, Lund & Stevens, 2010, tested a total of 103 infants in the age categories of 6,12,18 & 24 month old to observe their ability to comprehend and pay attention to a segment of Teletubbies. The Teletubbies series was chosen by researchers, because it was one of the few reported to have been designed specifically for infants and toddlers (Pempek, Kirkorian, Richards, Anderson, Lund & Stevens, 2010) The participants of this study were of a mixture of ethnicities including Caucasian (77%), African American ( 16%), Hispanic (4%), and of mixed race (3%) (Pempek, Kirkorian, Richards, Anderson, Lund & Stevens, 2010). The researchers of this study wanted to see at what age television begins to have an effect on learning in young children (Pempek, Kirkorian, Richards, Anderson, Lund & Stevens, 2010). They had each age group watch a normal episode and a distorted episode with backwards dialogue and/or dialogue in Greek. Children who were 6 and 12 months showed no differences between the two videos, whereas children 18 and 24 months showed less attention to the distorted video (Pempek, Kirkorian, Richards, Anderson, Lund & Stevens, 2010). This proves that children under the age of 18 months do not yet have the ability to comprehend television programs. Until a child is around the age of 18 months, they will be unable to show control over attention, making true comprehension of any television program less likely (Pempek, Kirkorian, Richards, Anderson, Lund & Stevens, 2010).

Finally, the media can also have a negative impact on the cognitive well being of children by disrupting the amount of sleep that children should get. Media such as television, computers, video games etc, has taken the place of physical activities in children. But sleep has also been heavily affected. According to Hofferth ( 2009), “media use is nested in children’s everyday lives” (pg. 127). In light of the new media that has been introduced into our society, educators are worried that school children are going to become like zombies (Hofferth, 2009). In this particular article, the displacement theory is once again mentioned as a possible explanation of how sleep in middle childhood children can be directly affected by the media (Hofferth, 2009). Once again, the displacement hypothesis states that media takes the place of or rather displaces other activities, such as play and sleep (Hofferth, 2009).

This study compared data between 2 separate experiments conducted in 1997 and then in 2003, where they used a nationally representative sample. In 1997, a total of 1,448 children between the ages of 6-12 were observed. In 2003 a total of 1,317 between the ages of 6-12 were also observed(Hofferth, 2009). Experimenters attempted to measure the time spent by children on certain activities such as media, play, and sleeping (Hofferth, 2009). They obtained a 24hr diary, in which they monitored how time was spent on a weekend day and also a weekday(Hofferth, 2009). Other variables that were accounted for was the season, year of the study, ethnicity of participants, their socioeconomic status, gender/age of the child, and whether or not they live in a warm state (Hofferth, 2009). The study in fact reported that between the years of 1997 and 2003, video game and television watching increased, while “other play, sleep, sports and outdoor activities declined” (Hofferth, 2009, pg. 128). These, researcher’s say, “Suggests a harmful media affect” (Hofferth, 2009, p. 128). The results of the study showed that children who spent 1hr per week watching television and/or videogame playing, did in fact show a decrease of 7 to 10 less minutes sleeping, and doing other positive activities (Hofferth, 2009). Just an additional hour spent on videogames as well as television watching in a week, could limit the amount of outdoor activities by 25 minutes (Hofferth, 2009). Also, just 1hr spent a week on the computer by itself, was enough to lessen sleep by 9 minutes. The displacement hypothesis explains easily why sleep is a particular target for loss of time, because it represents such a seemingly large amount of available time (Hofferth, 2009). Because of this, media takes a chunk out of sleep, which is essential in life.

In conclusion, media, though can be beneficial in certain areas, can indeed be harmful to the cognitive development of children. Learning, reading, memory, sleep etc, are all detrimental to the growth and well-being of children. Media such as television watching, videogame playing and computer use to name a few have altered some of the processes necessary for children’s cognitive growth. Children’s learning and reading abilities can directly be altered by the displacement of reading by television watching. We have also learned that children at a certain age, though parents encourage them to watch, are not yet cognitively ready to comprehend the so-called educational, infant programs on television. It has been noted by the American that children learn much more from real life situations(Pempek, Kirkorian, Richards, Anderson, Lund, & Stevens,2010).The displacement hypothesis was even able to explain how children are missing out on essential sleep and play due to television, video games and computer usage. Studies such as these are essential to helping us understand the importance of declining the media usage by children. It is imperative to their overall growth and cognitive development.

References

Ennesoger, M., & Schneider, W., (2007). Relations of television viewing and reading: Findings from a 4-year longitudinal study. Journal of Educational Psychology, 99(2), 349-368

doi: 10.1037/0022-0663.99.2.349.

Pempek, T., Kirkorian, H., Richards, J., Anderson, D., Lund, A., & Stevens, M., (2010). Video comprehensibility and attention in very young children. Developmental Psychology, 46(5), 1283-1293. doi: 1037/a0020614.

Hofferth, S. ( 2009). Media vs. work and play in middle childhood. Social Indicators Research, 93(1), 127-129. doi: 10.1007/S11205-008-9414-5