The question about whether and how television viewing affects children's imagination has been debated since the medium became part of everyday life, and there is still no consensus on this issue. On the one hand, television viewing is believed to produce a passive intellect and reduce imaginative capacities. On the other hand, there has been enthusiasm about educational television viewing fostering children's imaginative skills.

Before reviewing the effects literature, it is necessary to define two aspects of children's imagination that have been addressed in earlier studies, namely imaginative play and creativity. In imaginative play, children pretend that they are someone else, that an object represents something else, or that they are in a different place and time. According to Greta Fein (1981), imaginative play usually emerges at around twelve months of age, reaches its height between five...