Sponge Bob Square Pants Study

A study published in September 12^th, 2011 American Journal of Pediatrics is the one of the first to examine the effects of a specific show on children, and the first to suggest how immediate the effects can be. The study draws the conclusion that cartoon Sponge Bob Square Pants negatively impacts children’s attention spans. It’s a theory that can be expanded to other fast paced children’s cartoons.

For the study, 4-year-old children were randomly assigned to three groups. Group 1 watched 9 minutes of Sponge Bob, Group 2 watches nine minutes of the program “Calliou”, and Group 3 spent time drawing (not watching TV). Tests were given immediately after the nine minutes, and were designed to assess children’s executive function. How well they could think ahead, stay on task, and recall information were measured. The children in Group 1 who watched Sponge Bob Square Pants performed at half the capacity compared to the two groups, with the children who didn’t watch TV at all scoring the highest.

Why are they performing at lower capacity? The faced-paced change of scenes (every 17 seconds in Sponge Bob, compared to 34 seconds in Calliou), is suggested to be too much for the brain to process and handle. The brain is left spent of energy, sorting and processing what it just took in.

Dr. Rahil Briggs, a psychologist and director of the Healthy Steps Program at Children’s Hospital at Montefiore in the Bronx commented on the study by saying, “you may be priming the brain to be almost A.D.H.D.-like impulsive.”

The criticism of the study is of its small size of 60 children, white, upper-middle class demographic and that the children were not evaluated prior to the study, the study relied on parent reports. Nickelodeon, the network that produces the show, insists the show is intended for 6-11 year-olds. Though according to Nelson ratings, 39% of the 1.74 million children who have watched the show in the last 8 months, are between the ages of 2-5 years old.

Its seems it's not only how much you watch, but what you watch that has an effect too. Though it's not looking too good for those Baby Einsteins either. See Time Science, 8/6/2007.

Sources:

1. Turgeon, Heather. “Kids and TV Time – How Much Television is Too Much?” Babble.com, August 22^, 2011. Online. Available: http://www.babble.com/toddler/toddler-development/how-much-tv-time-television-kids/
2. Rabin, Roni Caryn. “Is Sponge Bob Square Pants Bad for Children?” The New York Times, September 12, 2011. Online. Available: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/12/is-spongebob-squarepants-bad-for-children/
3. Turgeon, Heather. “Breaking Down the Sponge Bob Study.” Babble.com, September 12, 2011. Online. Available: http://www.babble.com/toddler/toddler-development/spongebob-kids-cartoons-television-how-much/
4. http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/current