ArticleFrontiers in psychology2020
Viewing Fantastical Events in Animated Television Shows: Immediate Effects on Chinese Preschoolers' Executive Function.
Article in Frontiers in psychology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 27 citations in OpenAlex.
- Meta-Analytic Review of the Short-Term Effects of Media Exposure on Children's Attention and Executive Functions.Developmental science · 2025Pooled it
- Early Childhood Screen Use Contexts and Cognitive and Psychosocial Outcomes: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.JAMA pediatrics · 2024Pooled it
- The immediate impacts of TV programs on preschoolers' executive functions and attention: a systematic review.BMC psychology · 2024Pooled it
- Psychological Impact and Influence of Animation on Viewer's Visual Attention and Cognition: A Systematic Literature Review, Open Challenges, and Future Research Directions.Computational and mathematical methods in medicine · 2022Pooled it
- Associations Between Early Screen Exposure and Neurocognitive Outcomes in Children Aged 2-5 Years: A Systematic Review.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- An eye tracking examination of fantasy television's immediate influence on children's executive functions.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Short-term impacts of TV viewing on executive functions in children with reading difficulties: an eye tracking study.BMC pediatrics · 2025Article
- Toddlers Viewing Fantastical Cartoons: Evidence of an Immediate Reduction in Endogenous Control Without an Increase in Stimulus-Driven Exogenous Control.Developmental science · 2025Article
- Validating the Problematic Media Use Measure in Preschool-Aged Children: Associations With Children's Screen Media Use, Bothersome Pestering to Use Screen Media, and Emotional Self-Regulation.Technology, mind, and behavior · 2024Article
- Environmental opportunities facilitating cognitive development in preschoolers: development of a multicriteria index.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2023Article
- Prospective associations between child screen time and parenting stress and later inattention symptoms in preschoolers during the COVID-19 pandemic.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Depression and Cognitive Impairment: Current Understanding of Its Neurobiology and Diagnosis.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Three experiments were conducted to test whether watching an animated show with frequent fantastical events decreased Chinese preschoolers' post-viewing executive function (EF), and to test possible mechanisms of this effect. In all three experiments, children were randomly assigned to watch a video with either frequent or infrequent fantastical events; their EF was immediately assessed after viewing, using behavioral measures of working memory, sustained attention, and cognitive flexibility. Parents completed a questionnaire to assess preschoolers' hyperactivity level as a potential confounding variable. In Experiment 1 (
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.