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= Kids' Cognition May be Harmed by Fired Up Cartoons =

Research suggests fast-paced animation negatively impacts young children's attention spans.
By Michael Smith, North American Correspondent, MedPage Today In a randomized controlled study, kids who watched the fast-paced cartoon about sea creatures for nine minutes did less well on tests of attention and cognition than those who spent the same amount of time drawing, according to Angeline Lillard, PhD, and Jennifer Peterson of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. They also did less well than children who watched a more realistic, slower-paced educational cartoon about a pre-school boy, Lillard and Peterson reported online in //Pediatrics//. Parents should be aware that such fast-paced cartoons — in "SpongeBob SquarePants" the scene shifts about five times a minute — "could at least temporarily impair young children's executive function," they concluded. But the researchers cautioned that it's not clear how long the effects last or whether older children might be affected the same way. Indeed, in an accompanying commentary, Dimitri Christakis, MD, of the University of Washington in Seattle said the study has some "notable weaknesses," including a small sample size of just 60 children. Christakis said questions raised, but not answered by the research, included whether the effects are transient and if the age of the child matters, as the researchers noted. Also, the children only watched nine minutes of the show which was less than a complete episode and typically much less than total TV daily time for [|kids] of that age, he said. "Does the amount of exposure make a difference?" Christakis said. The researchers drew their participants from a group of [|families] who had said they were willing to take part in research. Most were white and from middle- to upper-income families. They were randomly assigned to watch the fast-paced show, the slower educational show, or to draw with crayons. Immediately afterward, they were tested using four tasks that require executive function. Half the children were tested by an assessor who was blinded to their assignment and half were not; the researchers reported that there was no evidence that the blinding or lack of it affected results. The researchers noted that the fast-paced show changed scenes every 11 seconds on average, while the other cartoon changed scenes every 34 seconds. Despite the flaws in the study, Christakis argued that it holds some insights, because more children are now [|"digital natives"] who have always been highly exposed to media and are at [|home] with the various forms. The issue for parents, educators, and clinicians, he said, is going to be reducing the harm that some media can cause, while enhancing the benefits of other media types. Last Updated: 09/12/2011
 * MONDAY, Sept. 12 (MedPage Today)** — A few minutes of watching "SpongeBob SquarePants" appeared to have negative effects on executive function in 4-year-olds, researchers reported.