--- title: Study: Fast-Moving Cartoons Like SpongeBob May Impair Kids’ Focus description: What kids watch — and not just how much — matters when it comes to television viewing, according to new research that finds that preschoolers... canonical: https://time.com/archive/7140522/do-your-kids-find-it-hard-to-focus-after-watching-spongebob-research-bears-that-out/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2011-09-12T12:30:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-16T10:49:13.549Z article:section: Health og:title: Study: Fast-Moving Cartoons Like SpongeBob May Impair Kids’ Focus og:description: What kids watch — and not just how much — matters when it comes to television viewing, according to new research that finds that preschoolers... og:url: https://time.com/archive/7140522/do-your-kids-find-it-hard-to-focus-after-watching-spongebob-research-bears-that-out/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd1c6016846d82712/698a943d929fad7b0fc02c51/94985908-resize.jpg?branch=production&width=307&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 307 og:image:height: 173 og:image:alt: 94985908.resize og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Study: Fast-Moving Cartoons Like SpongeBob May Impair Kids’ Focus twitter:description: What kids watch — and not just how much — matters when it comes to television viewing, according to new research that finds that preschoolers... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd1c6016846d82712/698a943d929fad7b0fc02c51/94985908-resize.jpg?branch=production&width=307&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Health](/section/health/) # Study: Fast-Moving Cartoons Like SpongeBob May Impair Kids' Focus > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=afaa7842-6428-4cca-a8e6-a1df67dd289e&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Sep 12, 2011 12:30 PM UTC  by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Sep 12, 2011 12:30 PM UTC What kids watch — and not just how much — matters when it comes to television viewing, according to new research that finds that preschoolers who watch fast-paced shows have far more trouble concentrating than other children.more The research, published Monday in the journal _Pediatrics_, finds that kids who watched just nine minutes of a “very popular fantastical cartoon about an animated sponge that lives under the sea” (that sounds like code for _SpongeBob SquarePants_) were “significantly impaired” in tests of executive function — essentially a person’s ability to stay on task and not get distracted — compared with children who were assigned either to watch an educational cartoon (in this case, _Caillou_) or to draw. The University of Virginia study was fairly small — it tracked just 60 4-year-olds — but it’s notable because the decline found in children’s focus was immediate, in contrast to other research that has found long-term attention deficits. “If television has long-term effects on executive function, then one might see small short-term effects; even adults report feeling less alert immediately after watching television,” wrote the authors. Right after viewing either cartoon clip or drawing for nine minutes, the kids were given a variety of tests of executive function: solving problems, delaying gratification, following rules and remembering other information. The problem-solving test asked children to move disks from one peg to another. The gratification test measured how long the children were able to resist eating snacks. The kids who watched the fast-paced cartoon performed worse across the board than the other two groups. While 15% of _SpongeBob_ viewers passed the problem-solving task, for instance, 35% of those who watched the educational cartoon did, compared with 70% of the kids who spent the time drawing. After viewing the fast-paced cartoon, kids also showed less ability to delay gratification and to follow rules than the other groups. **MORE:** [TV, Video Games at Night May Cause Sleep Problems in Kids ](http://healthland.time.com/2011/06/27/tv-video-games-at-night-may-cause-sleep-problems-in-kids/) Why are fast-paced shows more detrimental than slower-paced programs? They affect different parts of the brain, posit the researchers, and “the effort to encode rapidly presented events could tax children’s executive resources.” For the purposes of the study, the fast-paced show had complete scene changes every 11 seconds compared with 34 seconds for the slower-paced program. “If these findings are borne out, it means that content is as important as quantity,” says Dimitri Christakis, director of the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development at Seattle Children’s Research Institute and author of an accompanying commentary in _Pediatrics_. “It’s not just about turning off your TV but about changing the channel. What kids watch is as important as how much they watch.” Executive function is key to learning. It’s also what helps people maintain focus, plan, organize and control inappropriate behaviors. But aren’t there also some benefits to being able to distract your attention from one task to another? In his commentary, Christakis considers that point of view: --- > “” --- **MORE:** [Want to Live Longer? Turn Off Your TV](http://healthland.time.com/2011/08/17/want-to-live-longer-try-turning-off-your-tv/) Many parents lay down the law when it comes to how much programming their children can indulge in, but far fewer legislate what they can watch, says Christakis. If your child watches two hours of television each day, educational content is preferable to fast-paced cartoons. “Too many children watch too much TV,” says Christakis. “But it’s at least as important to figure out _what_ they should watch. _SpongeBob_, for what it’s worth, isn’t even supposed to be viewed by kids between the ages of 3 to 5\. That alone is a guide for parents: watch age-appropriate content.” Apparently, lots of parents are having their own problems with executive function: despite its age-viewing recommendations, _SpongeBob SquarePants_ is the most-watched TV show among kids between the ages of 2 to 11. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7140522/do-your-kids-find-it-hard-to-focus-after-watching-spongebob-research-bears-that-out/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7140522/do-your-kids-find-it-hard-to-focus-after-watching-spongebob-research-bears-that-out/"},"headline":"Study: Fast-Moving Cartoons Like SpongeBob May Impair Kids' Focus","datePublished":"2011-09-12T12:30:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-16T10:49:13.549Z","description":"What kids watch — and not just how much — matters when it comes to television viewing, according to new research that finds that preschoolers...","url":"https://time.com/archive/7140522/do-your-kids-find-it-hard-to-focus-after-watching-spongebob-research-bears-that-out/","keywords":["Television","Cartoons","learning","focus"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd1c6016846d82712/698a943d929fad7b0fc02c51/94985908-resize.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd1c6016846d82712/698a943d929fad7b0fc02c51/94985908-resize.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"94985908.resize","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/7140522/do-your-kids-find-it-hard-to-focus-after-watching-spongebob-research-bears-that-out/","name":"Study: Fast-Moving Cartoons Like SpongeBob May Impair Kids' Focus"}}]}] ```