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Otago Uni study finds fast-paced cartoons like Spongebob Squarepants are not bad for kids' attention spans

February 23, 2018

Dr Damian Scarf looked in to a 2011 US study which said the quick editing of the cartoon was bad for kids – and found it was not true.

An Otago University psychology researcher says a 2011 US study which found that fast-paced cartoons like Spongebob Squarepants are bad for kids' attention spans is incorrect.

Dr Damian Scarf, speaking this morning to TVNZ 1's Breakfast programme, said his team found no ill effects in children who watched episodes of the popular cartoon.

"We basically reviewed the evidence in the area and actually found there's no risk at all," Dr Scarf said.

"The pace of the program doesn't actually impact."

Dr Scarf said one aspect of a cartoon which could exhaust children, therefore degrading their executive function, was how "fantastical" or difficult to comprehend it was - similar to a child coming home exhausted after a mentally-draining day at school.

"Seeing a sponge that lives at the bottom of the sea is quite difficult, so children sit there confused and trying to figure it out - and that's where you kind of get any deficit in memory and learning from," he said.

Parents could help their children improve mental executive function by getting them into things like games or even martial arts.

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