Day 065 - 09 Dec 94 - Page 42

     
     1        is reference 138 (which I think we find on page 47) done in
     2        1981 and also included in June Esserman's book.  You will
     3        find it -- I would like you to do so, if you will -- as the
     4        last reference No. 10 in the first bundle of pale green
     5        references; do you have it?
     6        A.  Yes, I do.
     7
     8   Q.   It is by Paul Zuckerman and Lawrence Gianinno -- perhaps
     9        one can infer from their names that they might be American,
    10        I do not know; it may not matter -- a chapter in the
    11        Esserman book entitled, "Measuring children's response to
    12        television advertising.  Abstract.   This study was
    13        designed to determine whether the way questions are asked
    14        will change conclusions about how well children understand
    15        the differences between television programmes and
    16        television commercials.
    17
    18        64 children, ages 4, 7 and 10 years, were presented with a
    19        series of tasks which involved verbal or non-verbal
    20        responses.  The children were required to (a) name or
         recognise pictures of television programmes and commercial
    22        characters; (b) explain what commercials are, and (c)
    23        respond to various definitions of the term 'commercial' by
    24        selecting appropriate character pictures.
    25
    26        Performance on each of the measures improved with age.  For
    27        each age group children's non-verbal responses indicated
    28        that they had a better understanding of what commercials
    29        are than their verbal responses alone suggested.  The
    30        disparity between verbal and non-verbal responses was most
    31        pronounced amongst the four year-olds.  The study suggested
    32        that conclusions would be more correct if researchers made
    33        greater use of non-verbal measures when assessing the
    34        impact of television on young children".
    35
    36        May we then turn over, please, to the column headed
    37        "Results" on the third page of this copy, after the
    38        pictures of the cartoon characters.  I do not know whether
    39        that is Tony the Tiger at the bottom right-hand side?  I
    40        think it may be.
    41
    42   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It is.
    43
    44   MR. RAMPTON:  These two authors write:  "Results.  As in
    45        previous studies addressing children's perceptions and
    46        understanding of commercials, age difference emerged from
    47        the data.  In each of the four measures children's ability
    48        to demonstrate or articulate their understanding of the
    49        concept of a commercial improved with age.  Unlike other
    50        studies this study assessed children's non-verbal as well 
    51        as verbal responses concerning their perception and 
    52        understanding of commercials. 
    53
    54        "In general, the data indicated that while many children
    55        could not articulate their understanding of what a
    56        commercial is, they were able to use the term 'commercial'
    57        to respond to each of the various tasks, i.e. children's
    58        non-verbal responses indicated that they had a better
    59        understanding of what commercials are than their verbal
    60        responses suggested".