A study of the cognitive aspects of children's television watching addressed the following questions: To what degree is processing capability mediated by one's attentional set, as opposed to skills that one brings to the viewing situation? If attention is a significant mediating factor, is this true across various kinds of information one can receive from the stimulus? Is instruction more necessary for some kinds of information than for others? What is the role of both spatial and verbal abilities in this process? Subjects were fourth and fifth graders who were randomly assigned to treatment condition. Three levels of classroom instruction (pictorial elements, characterizations, and control) were factorially combined with two levels of pre-viewing directions (directions and no directions) to yield six cells. Data collection for the study took place in February 1981, so only a few preliminary analyses have been done, and no firm conclusions are offered at this point. Complex interactions among the treatment conditions remain to be inspected, and further analysis is expected to reveal the role that viewer abilities play in the learning process. (Author/LLS)