This study is a part of 'program effect and formative researches for 2-years-olds', which were conducted in April and September, 1980, as one of the activities of the Research Project on Television Programing for 2-Year-Olds. The first study analyzed the attention and other viewing behavior of 2-year-old children to the television program segments on the habit of 'brushing teeth,' skills on daily routines such as 'washing' and 'cleaning' and fine skills with hands and fingers. Based on these themes, 9 program segments were produced by NHK. These segments were randomly incorporated in the stimuli -programs with other segments produced by NHK and other commercial channels. 45 in April and 50 in September children were shown those program segments and their attention, modeling behavior, negative and positive verbal and nonverbal reactions during viewing were measured and analyzed. There was also a play session after viewing and children's behavior during play session was recorded. The main finding on this research was the difference on attention between boys and girls. On the segment of 'brushing teeth' girls showed significantly higher attention than boys. Also, on the segments on 'washing' and 'cleaning,' girls showed higher attention. However, on the segments on carpentering and 'passing strings, this tendency was not found and slightly reversed. This result was discussed from the sex role differentiation of 2 - year -old children. On the other hand, there was more modeling behavior on 'cleaning' segments among boys during play session. This fact allows another interpretation on the former results. Girls have more interests in the daily habits and daily routines simply because of their faster pace of development than boys during this age. For the definite answer on the sex role, this question needs to be investigated further with the larger number of subjects and by including older children. The second study analyzed the 2-year-old children's attention and comprehension on the television story programs as a function of age, sex and 4 program segments' attributes. The four attributes, which were experimentally controlled, were 'length of segment,' 'complexity of narration,' 'complexity of drawings' and 'camera movement I still/motion'. On the stories of 'Big Radish' and 'Adventure of Little Sparrow' three variations for each were produced by controlling the four attributes variously. In addition to these 6 segments 'Makkuroke (all dirty) and 'Titch' were produced for the comparison. All 80 children viewed one of the versions of 'Big Radish' and 'Adventure of Little Sparrow.' Some children are also shown either 'Makkuroke' or 'Titch' These stories are viewed as a part of a program which included some other non-story segments. After viewing children were interviewed on the stories just viewed and answers and reactions to the questions were recorded. Based on the valid data, attention and other behavioral measurements were obtained. The main findings were the rather clear effects of 'narration' and 'segment's length' among older children (2 yrs. 7 months - under 3 yrs.). Those children watched significantly more if the language used in the stories' narration was simpler and the length of the segment was shorter. (However, this result on segment's length could have been contaminated by other factors also.) The difference between older and younger children on attention and comprehension was also eminent throughout various versions. According to these results, it is possible to interpret that older children watch and react more if the stories are comprehensive, while the younger children's attention are more susceptible to the
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