A reealuation of the attentional inertia concept

Anderson's theory about children's attention behavior during television viewing hypothesizes that attention behavior is affected by (a) positive feedback (the inertia hypothesis), and (b) the degree to which a child understands the television program. During an experiment neither component of Anderson's theory was upheld. It was found that children's attention behavior is patterned and stable over time; children either have short or long attention spans. The implications for advertisers are examined.