The Relationship between Reading and Cognitive Proeessing of Television and Radio

PEZDEK, KATHY; LEHRER, ARIELLA; and SIMON, SARA, The Relationship between Reading and Cognitive Processing of Television and Radio. GHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1984, 55, 2072-2082, This study compares the relationship between comprehension and memory for text and television, and comprehension and memory for text and radio, 2 stories were edited to create 3 matched versions of each—-(1) a storybook with pictures, (2) a radio version, and (3) a television version. Third and sixth graders read 1 story and were presented either the television or radio version ofthe other story, counterbalanced for story and order of presentation, A battery of memory and comprehension tests was administered following both the reading and the television or radio conditions. The principal result is that across a range of tasks, performance in the television and reading conditions was not significantly correlated; however, performance in the radio and reading conditions was positively correlated and generally significant. The second important finding is that the absolute levels of performance were similar in the television and reading conditions, and performance was better in both of these conditions than in the radio condition. Hypotheses are discussed to explain why performance in the television condition was not related to reading ability.