Children's Perception of Television Time: An Exploratory Investigation

Abstract

160 children (ages 4 to 13 yr.) in eight age categories were questioned about their understanding of the techniques used to manipulate time on television. Previous cognitive-developmental work suggested that children's understanding of certain television concepts, such as advertising intent, cartoon reality, and production knowledge, increases with age. Based both on the findings of these studies and on theory related to the development of the time concepts, it was hypothesized that responses to questions about time manipulations would yield age-related trends. Four semi-structured questions were posed. Responses were recorded and scored according to the level of understanding evidenced by the response. Interrater reliability for four raters ranged from .68 to .72 for the four questions. Analysis of variance with polynomial tests for trend indicated significant increases across the eight age categories. In addition, mean responses for each question conformed to a linear trend over the ages tested. The results suggest that children's understanding of the production techniques used in time manipulation gradually increases into early adolescence.