The Effects of Television Commercial Form and Commercial Placement on Children's Social Behavior and Attention

Abstract

GREER, DOUGLAS; POTTS, RICHARD; WRIGHT, JOHN C.; and HUSTON, ALETHA C. The Effects of Television Commercial Form and Commercial Placement on Children's Social Behavior and Attention. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1982, 53, 611-619. Pairs of preschool children saw television commercials that varied in formal features (high vs. low perceptual salience) and placement in a television program (dispersed through the program vs. clustered at the beginning and end). Salient formal features were defined as high action, rapid change of scene and character, and frequent use of camera techniques such as cuts and pans. Each pair participated in baseline and postviewing free-play sessions. Social behavior was scored for aggression, imaginative play, positive social interaction, and activity level. Children who saw high salience commercials were more aggressive after viewing than those who saw low salience commercials. There was a weaker tendency for imaginative play to increase after high salience commercials that were shown in clustered arrangements. There were no differences in positive social interaction or activity level. Salient formal features maintained attention throughout commercials better than nonsalient features, particularly in the dispersed format.