Visual processing of televised information was compared for 85 Japanese and 111 American boys and girls at the kindergarten and fourth-grade levels. It was predicted that in a television program without narration or dialogue, Japanese children's amount and concentration of visual attention and comprehension would be higher than that of American children, particularly at the fourth-grade level. The results confirmed the predictions for visual attention, suggesting that different television processing strategies were employed. Contrary to the predictions, American children scored higher than Japanese children on the comprehension test, perhaps because of the cultural differences in expectations about the testing procedure.
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