Reality perceptions of television: a preliminary comparison of emotionally disturbed and nonhandicapped children

The performance of emotionally disturbed children was compared to that of nonhandicapped children on a newly developed measure of perceived television reality, the Videotest. Emotionally disturbed children scored significantly lower than the comparison group even when IQ was controlled, indicating that handicapped children are less able to distinguish between what is real and what is not real on television. Implications for behavioral effects and possible remedial action are discussed.