h recognition and articulation of perceptual differences by kindergarten and first graders, to higher level understanding of functional differences somewhere between kindergarten and second grade. Depending on the criterion for what constitutes "awareness of the difference between programs and commercials", children of different age levels can be said to be aware. Perceptual discrimination, however, does appear to precede conceptual discrimination. Children's understanding of the purpose of commercials. Research on children's understanding of the purpose of commercials has relied on verbal measures of children's abilities to articulate the persuasive aspect of advertising. Results of the various survey studies seem to indicate clearly that the vast majority of children below age six (kindergarten) cannot articulate the selling purpose of advertising. Between kindergarten and second grade (between the ages of about six and seven) children have been shown to articulate the selling intent of advertising with various estimates or percentages at each age level. Variations in the percentage of children between kindergarten and second grade who understand the purpose of commercials appear to be the result of the measurement context of question wordings and scoring systems. Wackman et al. (1979) report estimates that range between one-tenth and one-half of kindergarten-aged children who understand that advertising is trying to sell them products. In a survey study reported in 1977 (Wackman et al., 1977), they interviewed kindergartners in their homes and asked them several different questions about the purpose of advertisements. In response to the question "What is a commercial?" only 10 percent of the kindergartners mentioned the persuasive aspect of advertisements. In the same interview, 22 percent of the kindergartners reported that commercials try to get them to buy products in response to the question "What do commercials try to do?" Evide...
