The Relationship between Narrative Processing Demands and Young American Children's Comprehension of Educational Television

Abstract

Fisch's capacity model provides a theoretical explanation for how children comprehend educational content within an educational television program. The model focuses on children's allocation of their limited cognitive resources, with attention to the resources used for comprehending the narrative versus the educational content within the show. The model predicts that, when narrative processing demands are reduced, narrative comprehension will be improved. Reduced narrative demands are also expected to support educational content comprehension as greater cognitive resources are available to process the content. This prediction was tested with 172 American children (102 females, M = 4.2 years). Narrative processing demands were operationalized via story schema. Results from a correlational analysis supported predictions. Advanced story schema was associated with improved narrative and educational content comprehension. Implications are discussed.