The effect of plot explicit,educational explicit,and implicit inference information and coviewing on children's internal and external cognitive processing |
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| Authors: | Justin Robert Keene Eric E. Rasmussen Collin K. Berke Rebecca L. Densley Travis Loof Robyn B. Adams |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Journalism &2. Creative Media Industries, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA;3. Public Relations, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA;4. NET—Nebraska’s PBS &5. NPR Stations, Lincoln, NE, USA;6. Media and Journalism, University of South Dakota, Vermillion, SD, USA;7. Information and Media Department, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA |
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| Abstract: | Parental coviewing – the act of being present when a child is watching television – can influence the child’s cognitive processing and emotional reactions. This study investigated the role coviewing has on the child’s cognitive processing – which is evidenced by the phasic psychophysiological orienting response to three types of information: plot explicit, educational explicit, and implicit inference. An experiment was conducted that measured the heart rate of children (N?=?88; mean age?=?9.12 years) while watching messages either with or without a parent present in the room. It was predicted, and found, that coviewing leads to greater resource allocation to encoding the message – as indicated by phasic cardiac deceleration, and that information that required internal processing, such as plot explicit or implicit inferential content, leads to greater resources allocated to internal processing – as indicated by phasic cardiac acceleration. Implications for parental mediation strategies and educational television programming are given. |
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| Keywords: | Coviewing educational content psychophysiology cognitive processing children and media |
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