CHICAGO
(AP) - The cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants is in hot water from
a study suggesting that watching just nine minutes of that program can
cause short-term attention and learning problems in 4-year-olds.
The
problems were seen in a study of 60 children randomly assigned to
either watch "SpongeBob," or the slower-paced PBS cartoon "Caillou" or
assigned to draw pictures. Immediately after these nine-minute
assignments, the kids took mental function tests; those who had watched
"SpongeBob" did measurably worse than the others.
But we knew that already, before the study was published.
