opposed to "stage-related" changes in understanding. The concept of age-related growth in understanding the medium of television is considered in section II. Evidence from attention research (mainly research on children's television-watching behavior) indicates that attention is influenced by the age of the child, the particular content attended to, and distractions in the viewing situation. First, by about age five, children's patterns of looking and not looking at the television set begin to approximate adult styles of viewing. While at times children may appear glued to the television set (zombie-like), these periods appear to be of relatively short duration--at least in laboratory studies. Second, there is evidence of selective viewing of television. Viewing involves monitoring of the television screen which appears to be elicited and maintained by various kinds of visual and auditory elements on television. In particular, changes in the audio elements appear to have the greatest impact in drawing children's attention back to the set if they are not attending. Finally there is some evidence that the comprehensibility of the television message is important in maintaining the child's attention; when the message is relatively unintelligible for children of a certain age level, continued attention is unlikely. Children appear to be actively and selectively attending to television. This conclusion is not, however, evidence that television-watching is inherently as "active" or more "active" than other ways in which the child can engage his or her body and mind. The literature on children's comprehension of television content has found age-related changes in children's understanding of plotlines, perceptions of television characters, perceptions of the reality of television, and comprehension of the economics of the medium. First, children as old as eight and 10 have been shown less proficient than older children in recalling those scenes...
