The effects of appeal on children's comprehension and recall of content in educational television programs ☆ Natalie Gabrelian a, ⁎, Fran C. Blumberg a , Tracy M. Hogan b a Graduate School of Education, Fordham University, USA b Ruth S. Ammon School of Education, Adelphi University, USA article info abstract Available online 10 February 2009 This exploratory study investigated the effects of audience appeal on fourth-graders' (n = 25) and fifth-graders' (n = 24) comprehension of and selective attention to narrative and academic content in educational program segments. Students were shown two program segments that focused on one of two math concepts, perimeter or scale, and that were rated as high or low in appeal. After each segment, they provided written answers to questions designed to elicit recall of educational and narrative content. Findings indicated that most students recalled relevant narrative content. Students showed greater conceptual understanding of the math concepts after viewing segments featuring the concept of perimeter and segments rated low in appeal. Contrary to expectations, students indicated greater confidence in their ability to solve problems shown in the low appeal segments. Greater confidence was also displayed for segments featuring the concept of perimeter. © 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Appeal Children's comprehension Educational television programs Math concepts Recall of content Selective attention 1. Introduction Evidence of television's educational value clearly emerged during the 1970s and 1980s. This evidence was based on children's responses to a number of highly innovative and popular educational programs produced in the United States by the then Children's Television Workshop (Clifford & Gunter, 1997), and the current Sesame Workshop. According to Lesser (1972), the expertise of educational, research, and program professionals was combined to create a series of highly popular and effective educational programs. One such educational program produced by the Children's Television Workshop, Square One TV, was used in the current study. The study of educational television programs' impact on children's learning has largely addressed program aspects that affect comprehension, with particular emphasis on formal features. Wright and Huston (1983) and Calvert (1999) have defined formal features as the auditory and visual production and editing techniques used within the medium, encompassing action and pace, sound effects, narration, pans, and zooms, for example. These production techniques have been linked to enhanced attention and notably, to selective attention, which has ramifications for comprehension and recall of program content (Bickham, Wright, & Huston, 2001; Calvert, 1999; Calvert, Huston, Watkins, & Wright, 1982; Fisch, 2004; Wright & Huston, 1983). Selective attention, in this context, is defined as attention to relevant program content (e.g. mathematics content) as opposed to attention to extraneous or irrelevant program content (e.g. the comic voice of a story narrator). Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology 30 (2009) 161–168 ☆ Portions of this paper were presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Atlanta, Georgia, April 2005. The authors wish to thank the students and teachers at Holy Martyrs Armenian Day School, William Spyropoulos Greek American School at St. Nicholas Church, and St. Illuminator's Armenian Day School in New York City for their participation. The authors also wish to thank Nancy Friedlander for her assistance coding data. ⁎ Corresponding author. Graduate School of Education, Division of Psychological and Educational Services, Fordham University,113 W. 60th Street, New York, NY 10023, USA. Tel.: +1917 744 7793; fax: +1 212 636 6416. E-mail address: gabrelian@fordham.edu (N. Gabrelian). 0193-3973/$ – see front matter © 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.appdev.2008.12.009 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology