Rs. Feldman et al., TELEVISION EXPOSURE AND CHILDRENS DECODING OF NONVERBAL BEHAVIOR, Journal of applied social psychology, 26(19), 1996, pp. 1718-1733
Two studies considered rite way in which the magnitude of exposure to
television relates to children's understanding and interpretation of o
thers' nonverbal behavior. In the first study, 6th graders made judgme
nts regarding other children whose nonverbal facial behavior did not m
atch their internal emotional state. Results showed that heavier telev
ision viewers held a less differentiated, more simplistic view of the
consequences of nonverbal self-presentation strategies. In the second
study, children in Grades 2 through 6 made judgments of others' nonver
bal expressions of emotion. As predicted, heavier television viewers w
ere better at decoding others' nonverbal expressions than lighter view
ers, presumably because of their greater exposure to nonverbal display
s of emotion on television. In addition, nonverbal decoding skills imp
roved with age.