Differential effects of film on preschool children's behaviour dependent on editing pace

Abstract

Aim: Evidence on how the pace of television and film editing affects children's behaviour and attention is inconclusive. We examined whether a fast-paced film affected how preschool-aged children interacted with toys. Methods:The study comprised 70 children (36 girls) aged 2-4.5 years who attended preschools in Essex, United Kingdom. The children were paired up and tested with either a fast-or a slow-paced film of a narrator reading a children's story. The fast-paced version had 102 camera cuts and 16 still images and the slow-paced version had 22 camera cuts and four still images. Each dyad took part in two video-recorded free-play sessions, before and after they watched one of the specially edited four-minute films. The number of toys the children played with before and and after the film sessions was recorded.Results: Before they watched the films, the children's behaviour did not differ between the groups. However, after watching the film, the children in the fast-paced group shifted their attention between toys more frequently than the children who watched the slow-paced film. Conclusion:Even a brief exposure to differently paced films had an immediate effect on how the children interacted with their toys.Keywords: attention, film editing, play, preschool children, television. Key notes• Evidence on how the pace of television and film editing affects children's behaviour and attention is inconclusive.• We examined how watching a fast-paced or slow-paced film of a narrator reading a story affected how 70 children aged 2-4.5 years interacted with their toys. 3• This showed that the children who watched the fast-paced film shifted their attention between toys more frequently than the children who watched the slow-paced film.

Watching television in a home environment: effect on children’s attention, comprehension and behavior

“…For 3-year-olds, viewing the fast-paced program led to slight negative effects on subsequent behavior in terms of attention and effort. This somewhat supports previous findings (Geist & Gibson, 2000;Kostyrka-Allchorne et al, 2017) that a faster-paced program negatively impacted sustained attention directly after viewing. Although these studies included children of a similar age to the current research (4-to 5-and 2.5-to 4-year-olds respectively) they were not designed to investigate age differences.…”

“…Therefore, it seems that it is the occurrence of these fantastical events that may reduce EF rather than the pace of the program. Furthermore, it seems that depending on the EF skills being tested the pace of the program may have a facilitative effect, as found in this study and also by Cooper et al (2009) and Kostyrka-Allchorne et al (2017). Although Lillard et al (2015) found no effect of pace, their EF tasks predominantly required sustained attention and following of rules (e.g.…”

“…More recent evidence suggests that pace is influential, as fewer errors were made by 4-year-olds on an attention task after watching a fast-compared to slow-paced 3.5-min clip of an adult reading a story (Cooper, Uller, Pettifer, & Stolc, 2009). However, Kostyrka-Allchorne, Cooper, Gossmann, Barber, & Simpson, (2017) found that fast-paced programs could have negative consequences for younger children's sustained attention, as after viewing a fast-paced program 2-to 4-year-old children were observed to shift their attention between toys more frequently than children who had watched a slow-paced program. Consequently, although faster pace may increase the attention that preschoolers give to the screen, differences in their attention and arousal behavior after watching may be less consistent, with some studies finding a facilitative effect of increased pace and others a negative effect.…”

“…Garon, Bryson, & Smith, 2008). It was hypothesized that differences in behavior and performance on the problem solving task after watching the fast compared to slow paced program might be evident, however due to the conflict in previous research between a facilitative (Cooper et al, 2009) and a harmful effect (Geist & Gibson, 2000;Kostyrka-Allchorne et al, 2017;Lillard & Peterson, 2011) of fast-paced programs, the direction of this hypothesis was unclear. As comprehension of programs watched has been found to improve with age (Wright et al, 1984) it was hypothesized that 4-year-olds would perform better than 3-year-olds on the comprehension task.…”

A collaborative approach to adopting/adapting guidelines - The Australian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for the early years (Birth to 5 years): an integration of physical activity, sedentary behavior, and sleep

“…Three additional studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in this update. These comprised one RCT [ 31 ] and two longitudinal studies [ 32 , 33 ]. In the RCT, 70 preschoolers were randomized to watching a fast or slow-paced film to examine the subsequent effect on children’s attention.…”