No Idiot Box This

SO you think TV is bad for children? Think again. A Dutch study has revealed that children absorb more information from TV than from a book. Researchers from the Leiden University presented five news stories from children's TV programmes to 152 schoolchildren aged 10 or 12. Half the children received the information in the original televised form and the other half were given a transcript for the story word-for-word. Moreover, the televised pieces were shown only once for two minutes while the printed versions could be read as often as the children wanted. The findings: while the TV group answered 51 per cent of the questions about the programmes correctly, the reading group could only get 42 per cent right.

Although the test didn't check the children's ability to retain information for longer periods, the researchers suspect the effect would last at least for a couple of weeks. Curiously, adults exhibit a contrary pattern. But why this difference between adults and children exists is not clear. Possible explanation: today's children may be more comfortable with TV.