This study employs a developmental perspective to test and link children's ability to discriminate between commercial and noncommercial content on the Internet, their ability to attribute persuasive intent to online commercial content, and the effects of exposure to Internet advertising. Hypotheses test a Developmental Model of Children's Cognitive Processing of Internet Advertising by predicting relationships between fundamental developmental abilities, children's applied cognitive defenses against Internet advertising, and effects outcomes. Finally, research questions explore the predictive value of fundamental cognitive processing variables versus age.

Conceptual differentiation and perspective-taking are measured for 185 elementary school students ages 5-7 and ages 9-12. Participants are randomly assigned to a banner, a pop-up, or advergame condition, and exposed to commercial content and noncommercial content on a novel website. Commercial/noncommercial discrimination, attribution of persuasive intent, and effects outcomes are assessed.

All children ages 5 to 12 have only modest ability to discriminate commercial from noncommercial content online. Older children have no advantage over younger children in identifying commercial content, but older children perform significantly better at identifying noncommercial content. For both age groups, advergames are significantly more difficult to identify than pop-up or banner advertisements. Children have low overall ability to attribute persuasive intent to an Internet advertisement. Older children perform significantly better than younger children, with no significant differences between treatment conditions.

Conceptual differentiation and prior Internet exposure predict commercial/noncommercial discrimination ability for Internet advertising. Visual perspective-taking and social perspective-taking interact with commercial/noncommercial discrimination to predict attribution of persuasive intent to an Internet advertisement. Age is a stronger predictor than fundamental developmental skills of commercial/noncommercial discrimination and attribution of persuasive intent. Attribution of persuasive intent and product memory do not predict effects outcomes as expected. Nonetheless, children in any treatment group are significantly more likely to select the advertised product versus children in a baseline group. Overall, this study provides elaborate assessment of age-related differences in children's understanding of basic types of Internet advertising. It also provides partial support for the theoretical assertions underlying the Developmental Model of Children's Cognitive Processing of Internet Advertising.