ehavior or story unfolding on the screen. Children's abilities to accurately select essential plot information from a dramatic program has been shown to increase with increasing age. Across several studies, Collins (1970, 1973, 1979) and his colleagues have utilized a procedure to examine children's memory for central plot information. This procedure involves showing groups of adults a dramatic or situation comedy program and then interviewing them about the program-- specifically, about which scenes they considered essential to understanding the plotline. A series of multiple choice recognition items are then constructed about the program. Some of the items measure information central to understanding the plot, while others are incidental to the plot. Groups of children of various ages are then shown the television program and after viewing are given the multiple-choice tests. Across several studies, two findings emerge: first, that, overall, children's memory for the scenes in the program increases substantially with age; and, second, that children's memory for the "essential" information for understanding the plot also increases with age. For instance, in one study where second, fifth, and eight graders were tested on their recognition of essential plot information from a detective program, second graders recognized an average of only 66 percent of the essential scenes; fifth graders 84 percent; and eighth graders 92 percent (or nearly all). Similar age differences were found for children's memory for central information from a situation comedy program (Collins, 1970). Other researchers have noted similar differences in children's memory for central plotline information for television programs (Hale et al., 1968; Hawkins, 1973; Katzman, 1972). Moreover, young children have been found to have difficulty even placing scenes of a plotline into the correct order. Leifer et al. (1971) showed children aged four, seven, and ten a short narr...
