nce from their experimental studies in which children are shown commercials and then interviewed about the factual information in the commercials produces even higher estimates of the percentage of kindergartners who understand selling intent. They report that in response to an end-of-interview question, "What does this commercial for (product X) want you to do?" approximately half of the kindergartners in various viewing conditions (and as high as 62 percent of the kindergartners in one condition) say that the commercial wants them to buy or try the product. As children develop beyond kindergarten into late elementary school, more complete understanding develops of the notion of persuasive intent and commercials' role in broadcasting. Several researchers put the demarcation between rudimentary understanding and grasp of the persuasive aspect of advertising at age eight or older (Atkin, 1979; Roberts, 1979; Robertson and Rossiter, 1974). For instance, a slightly different criterion than that used by Ward et al. (1977) and Wackman et al. (1979) is offered by Roberts (1979) for what constitutes understanding of persuasive intent. Roberts argues that just understanding that commercials want someone to buy or try a product is not sufficient evidence of understanding the purpose and persuasive aspect of advertising. From general cognitive developmental notions and research on children's development of role-taking skills, Roberts develops an argument that not until about age nine or 10 can children take the advertiser's motivations into account when considering the advertisement. Children who lack role-taking skills are not able to recognize that because advertisers are trying to sell them products, the presentation of the product information may be biased. Roberts' argument is that children below at least eight years of age cannot be wary consumers sages. His argument reasons from general cognitive development theory and research, but it has...
