PERCEIVED TELEVISION REALITY AND CHILDRENS EMOTIONAL AND COGNITIVE RESPONSES TO ITS SOCIAL CONTENT

Children's emotional and cognitive responses to factual and fictional television programs depicting family conflict were investigated. 97 th ird and fourth graders saw one of three 15-min versions of the same co ntent: documentary, drama, or realistic drama. Self-reports of emotion and facial expressions varied with the content portrayed, and emotion s were similar to those perceived for the people shown. Although child ren perceived the documentary as more factual than the other versions, neither the experimental manipulations nor individual perceptions of factuality had much influence on emotional responses. Children who con sidered the content factual recalled more complex, inrerential content and more psychological states (e.g., intentions, motives) of characte rs than those who did not. Perceived social realism was positively rel ated to reporting affect similar to that of the characters and to reca ll of concrete actions and dialogue. The results indicate that childre n experience vicarious