Attentional Inertia Reduces Distractibility during Young Children's TV Viewing

Abstract

The longer a look at TV is maintained, the conditional probability that it will be further maintained rapidly increases for about 15 sec, after which it increases slowly. This increase in the conditional probability of maintaining a look is called "attentional inertia." An external audiovisual distractor stimulus was presented during 3- and 5-year-olds' TV viewing. The distractor was less effective in eliciting a head turn from the TV if it was presented after a look at the TV had been continuously maintained for at least 15 sec. If a head turn to the distractor following such a maintained look did occur, moreover, its reaction time was significantly increased. Parallel effects were found for the nonviewing pauses between looks. The results provide evidence of increasing attentional engagement as a look at TV is maintained.

Distractibility during infants' examining and repetitive rhythmic activity

“…Thus, level of distractibility, per se, cannot be used to assess whether or not an infant is focused intently on an object because other factors, such as a high degree of motor involvement, could be operating. While this may not be an issue for older, preschool children (Anderson, Choi, & Lorch, 1987), or for any study where motor activity is constrained (Oakes & Tellinghuisen, 1994), it clearly is a factor for infants and other young organisms playing freely. Although we continue to think of infants' examining as reflecting focused visual attention and exploration, the concept of distractibility requires that we acknowledge that the motor involvement in some activities may preclude responsiveness to events outside the sphere of that activity.…”

Is perseveration caused by inhibition failure? Evidence from preschool children’s inferences about word meanings

“…A few prior findings suggest that adding trials to a task increases the difficulty of shifting to a new response or strategy (Anderson, Choi, & Lorch, 1987). Marcovitch and Zelazo (1999), for example, found that infantsÕ perseverative searching increases with the number of successive trials in which an object was found at the first location.…”

Strategy and style in attention to television

“…More recently, Burns and Anderson (1993) provided similar evidence for adults across completely-unrelated boundaries between dramatic programs and commercials (however, related analyses by Hawkins, Tapper, Bruce, & Pingree, 1995, raise some questions about the interpretation of these results as a general, nonstrategic tendency). Evidence of greater engagement can be found in reduced distractibility with time (Anderson, Choi, & Lorch, 1987;Choi & Anderson, 1991). In addition, content occurring more than 15 seconds into a look is retained better than content occurring early in a look, regardless of the eventual length of the look (Burns & Anderson, 1993).…”