 CTW 's researchers were strongly influenced by behaviorism , a popular movement in psychology during the late 1960s ; therefore , many methods and tools used were primarily behavioral . Palmer developed " the distractor " , which he used to test if the material shown on Sesame Street captured young viewers ' attention . Two children at a time were brought into the laboratory and shown an episode on a television monitor and a slide show next to it . The slides would change every seven seconds ; researchers recorded when the children 's attention was diverted from the episode . They were able to assess almost every second of Sesame Street this way ; if an episode captured children 's interest 80 – 90 percent of the time , producers would air it . However , if it only worked 50 percent of the time they would change ( or remove ) content . 
