From: CBS News
SpongeBob SquarePants zaps kids’ attention span? What study says
CBS News:
Who lives in a pineapple under the sea – and is potentially ruining your kid’s attention span?
A new study says watching Nickelodeon’s popular cartoon, “SpongeBob SquarePants”, can negatively affect a 4-year-old’s focus and memory – and it only takes less than 10 minutes of tube time.
For the study – published in the September 12 issue of Pediatrics -60 four-year-old kids were assigned to either draw, or watch nine minutes of a “fast-paced” cartoon “featuring an animated kitchen sponge,” or a slower-paced educational cartoon, “Caillou.” Seventy percent of the kids who drew passed the problem-solving tests with flying colors, compared with 35 percent who watched “Caillou.” Only 15 percent of the fast-paced cartoon viewers passed.
The researchers also looked at impulsiveness, measuring kids on how long they could wait before eating snacks when a researcher left the room. “SpongeBob” kids waited an average of 2.5 minutes, while kids in the other two groups waited for an average of four minutes.
Read the whole story: CBS News
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