The relationship of television viewing to creativity and intelligence in young school children

• Main Author: Harrison, Linda Faye
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/19463

An experiment was conducted in order to clarify the relationship of television exposure to cognitive development in young children. Measures of creativity and measures of intelligence (WISC Block Design and Vocabulary subtests) were administered to 160 Grade four and Grade seven children in three British Columbia towns which differed in television accessibility. The results suggested that television exposure has differential effects on the two traits 'creativity' and 'intelligence'. In terms of intelligence, a positive relationship was found between television viewing and vocabulary scores. The relationship between televiewing and creativity was found to be complicated by the type of stimulus material employed. In the case of verbal stimulus materials, children growing up without television obtained significantly higher mean creativity scores than children who grow up with television. In the case of figural stimulus materials, no clear relationship of television exposure to creativity emerged. === Arts, Faculty of === Psychology, Department of === Graduate