A TEMPORAL ANALYSIS OF FREE TOY PLAY AND DISTRACTIBILITY IN YOUNG-CHILDREN

Hypothesizing that children become attentionally engaged during play in a manner similar to that found during television viewing, the temporal structure of free toy play by 5-year-olds was examined. In Study 1, 10 children were videotaped during 3 h of play. Play episode lengths were lognormally distributed for each child, with no autocorrelation. Lengths of play episodes were not predicted by time into play session, cumulative play with the particular toy, likelihood of choosing the toy, time since last play with the toy, or sex. Hazard functions for each child were quite similar, increasing to a point between 3 and 14 s after play was initiated, then greatly decreasing thereafter. Study 2 tested the hypothesis that these hazard functions reflect attentional engagement by presenting audiovisual distractors during free toy play by thirty 5-year-olds. Probability of distraction increased to a peak at about 12 s after a play episode began and steadily declined thereafter. Reaction times of headturns toward the distractor, moreover, inversely paralleled the probability of distraction. Attentional engagement is initially fragile and becomes more so for a period of about 12 s into toy play episodes and strengthens thereafter. A model assuming toy play consists of a chain of actions linked by attentional inertia is sufficient to account for these findings. Parallels between toy play and looking at television are discussed. © 1991.