Can't See the Forest for the Trees? The Effect of Media Multitasking on Cognitive Processing Style

Media multitasking represents an important aspect of the recent evolution in media consumption habits. While some experimental research exists, it has primarily focused on the detrimental effects of multitasking on task performance. We go a step further by examining the impact of media multitasking on information processing style. Study I demonstrates that media multitasking, compared to sequential media consumption, leads to a more local perceptual processing style. Furthermore, the frequency of media switching predicts the level of perceptual processing. Study II extends these findings by showing that media multitasking also affects conceptual processing style. Specifically, media multitasking leads to lower-level (or more concrete) construal of behaviors in a subsequent task. It further shows that conceptual rather than visual switching between media drives the observed differences in conceptual processing. These findings suggest that, as a growing phenomenon, media multitasking behavior may substantially alter the way media viewers process media content.     

Test of a brief theory of planned behaviour‐based intervention to promote adolescent safe sex intentions

The present study tested a brief (303 word) intervention designed to change attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioural control regarding a safe sex behaviour in a sample of 16‐ to 18‐year‐olds. Participants (N = 288) were randomized to receive either an experimental intervention or a control (knowledge only) intervention and completed measures of their reactions to the stimuli as well as pre‐ and post‐test measures of theory of planned behaviour variables. The experimental intervention significantly increased message processing (mean between‐group difference = 0.73, 95% CI = 0.40, 1.06; Cohen's d = .52), message acceptance (mean between‐group difference = 0.82, 95% CI = 0.57, 1.07; Cohen's d = .77), subjective norm (adjusted Mean between‐group difference = 0.54, 95% CI = 0.26, 0.81; Cohen's d = .37; mean within‐group difference for intervention condition = 0.59, 95% CI = 0.36, 0.81; Cohen's d = .38) and intention (adjusted Mean between‐group difference = 0.27, 95% CI = 0.02, 0.53; Cohen's d = .20; mean within‐group difference for intervention condition = 0.54, 95% CI = 0.33, 0.75; Cohen's d = .31), but not attitude or perceived behavioural control. The effects of the experimental intervention on intention were mediated solely through subjective norm. The present findings: (a) compare favourably in terms of the effect sizes reported in previous research in this area (mean Cohen's d for within‐group difference for intervention conditions = .009 and .09, for norms and intention, respectively, see Albarracín et al. (2003) ), (b) imply that subjective norms are causally related to intentions, and (c) suggest that interventions designed to change subjective norms (as opposed to communication of risks and fear appeals) might ultimately be effective in changing behaviour.     

How Readability Shapes Social Media Engagement

We suggest that text readability plays an important role in driving consumer engagement on social media. Consistent with a processing fluency account, we find that easy‐to‐read posts are more liked, commented on, and shared on social media. We analyze over 4,000 Facebook posts from Humans of New York, a popular photography blog on social media, over a 3‐year period to see how readability shapes social media engagement. The results hold when controlling for photo features, story valence, and other content‐related characteristics. Experimental findings further demonstrate the causal impact of readability and the processing fluency mechanism in the context of a fictitious brand community. This research articulates the impact of processing fluency on brief word‐of‐mouth transmissions in the real world while empirically demonstrating that readability as a message feature matters. It also extends the impact of processing fluency to a novel behavioral outcome: commenting and sharing actions.     

Talking Health With a Machine: How Does Message Interactivity Affect Attitudes and Cognitions?

By affording interactive communication and natural, human‐like conversations, can media tools affect the way we engage with content in human–machine interactions and influence our attitudes toward that content? A between‐subjects experiment (N = 172) examined the effects of two communication variables: (a) message‐interactivity and (b) conversational tone, in an online health information (Q&A) tool. Findings suggest that informal conversational tone lowers perceptions of relative susceptibility to health risks. Perceived contingency positively mediates the influence of message interactivity on individuals' health attitudes and behavioral intentions whereas perceived interactivity negatively mediates the relationships between these variables. These contrasting mediation effects are further explored via a phantom model analysis that tests two theoretically distinct paths, with implications for both theory and practice.     

When Small Means Comfortable: Relations Between Product Attributes in Two‐Sided Advertising

The processes that mediate the effectiveness of 2‐sided advertising were studied. We predicted that (a) 2‐sided (vs. 1‐sided) advertisements increase perceived source credibility and that (b) the logical relation between the negative and positive product attributes mentioned in the 2‐sided ad (e.g., little space, implying a cozy atmosphere) facilitates favorable inferences about the positive attributes, especially when recipients have sufficient time to process the message content. Results supported these predictions. However, the effects of message type and processing time on attitudes were mediated by inferences about positive attributes but not by perceived source credibility. Implications of these findings for consumer judgment and decision making are discussed.     

Processing of facial and non‐facial visual stimuli in 2–5‐year‐old children

The present experiments examined the degree to which analytic and holistic modes of processing play a role in the way 2–5‐year‐old children process facial and non‐facial visual stimuli. Children between 2 and 5 years of age were instructed to categorize faces (in Experiment 1) and non‐facial visual stimuli, such as birds and planes (in Experiment 2), into two categories. The categories were so constructed as to allow the children to categorize the facial and non‐facial stimuli either analytically (by focusing on a single attribute) or holistically (in terms of overall similarity). The results demonstrated that the previous conclusions concerning older children's (from 6 years onwards) holistic mode of facial processing could not be generalized to younger children because most of the 2–5‐year olds processed the faces by taking single facial attributes into account. A similar pattern of results emerged for the processing of objects, showing that the majority of the children focused on single attributes. Thus, for both visual domains, holistic processing was the exception rather than the rule. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The malleable bicultural consumer: effects of cultural contexts on aesthetic judgments

• Grounded in the cognitive framework of processing fluency, this study proposes further support for the experiential perspective in aesthetics by positing that aesthetic response to the same object may be malleable, depending on how the symbolic properties of the object interact with different cultural contexts which either facilitate or debilitate the processing experience of the perceiver. The study employed an Internet experiment to test the hypotheses among 105 female Hispanic college‐aged students enrolled at a large midwestern university. The findings revealed that symbolic attributes of products interact with cultural contexts to affect aesthetic judgments of (Hispanic) consumers. Aesthetic judgments were more positive when evaluating culturally symbolic product attributes after exposure to congruent contextual cues that facilitate fluent processing. The study furnishes support for the impact of environment/context on consumer behavior and aesthetic judgment, thus establishing further support for the cognitive framework of conceptual fluency in explaining aesthetic response. The study also contributes to recent literature on “frame‐switching” among bicultural consumers by suggesting that these consumers navigate between competing cultural frames in response to visual primes, with resultant shifts in aesthetic judgments. Important marketing insights emerge from these findings.

Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Distinctiveness Benefits Novelty (and Not Familiarity), but Only Up to a Limit: The Prior Knowledge Perspective

Novelty is a pivotal player in cognition, and its contribution to superior memory performance is a widely accepted convention. On the other hand, mnemonic advantages for familiar information are also well documented. Here, we examine the role of experimental distinctiveness as a potential explanation for these apparently conflicting findings. Across two experiments, we demonstrate that conceptual novelty, an unfamiliar combination of familiar constituents, is sensitive to its experimental proportions: Improved memory for novelty was observed when novel stimuli were relatively rare. Memory levels for familiar items, in contrast, were completely unaffected by experimental proportions, highlighting their insensitivity to list‐based distinctiveness. Finally, no mnemonic advantage for conceptual novelty over familiarity was observed even when novel stimuli were extremely rare at study. Together, these results imply that novel and familiar items are processed via partially distinct mechanisms, with (at least some facets of) novelty not providing a mnemonic advantage over familiarity.     

Competent Enough,But Would You Vote for Her? Gender Stereotypes and Media Influences on Perceptions of Women Politicians

Though research has demonstrated that media coverage of men and women politicians differ, fewer studies have examined the dual influence of gender stereotypes and types of media coverage in influencing public perceptions of women politicians. Study 1 (N = 329) examined how pre‐existing attitudes toward women leaders and valence of media message impacted perceptions of a woman senator and evaluations of the media source. Study 2 (N = 246) explored how media focus on a woman politician's personality or ability impacted perceptions of her warmth/likability and competence. Results suggest the media has particular influence on judgments of women politicians' likability (the “competent but cold” effect), providing evidence that women politicians need to be vigilant in monitoring their media depictions.     

The influence of evidence type and product involvement on message‐framing effects in advertising

• Extrapolating from prior research that describes the persuasive effects of gain‐ versus loss‐framed messages via the heuristic‐systematic model (HSM), the current study incorporated two advertising‐related factors – evidence type (informational vs. exemplar) and product involvement – and examined their influence on message‐framing effects in advertisements for commonplace consumer products. A significant interaction in Experiment 1 indicated that loss‐framed messages were persuasive in a higher‐involvement context only when coupled with informational evidence, which enhanced systematic processing among participants and thereby elicited the framing effect. No interaction effects occurred in the lower‐involvement context of Experiment 2, in which the hypothesized thought‐processing patterns did not evince. Consistent with recent theoretical advancements, these results indicate that message‐framing effects can be attenuated when both systematic and heuristic processing occur simultaneously. Practical implications are discussed.

Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The moderating role of attribute accessibility in conditioning multiple specific attributes

Attribute conditioning (AC) refers to people's changed assessment of stimuli's (conditioned stimuli, CSs) attributes due to pairings with stimuli possessing these attributes (unconditioned stimuli, USs). Up to now, research only showed conditioning of only one attribute within a conditioning session (e.g., athleticism) and measured assessment changes in only this single attribute. The current study shows attribute‐specific AC effects in multi‐attribute environments and shows that attribute accessibility determines which of a US's multiple attributes are conditioned. Experiment 1 shows AC effects for artificial logos with attributes varying across USs (e.g., athletic, intelligent, or funny). Experiment 2 shows that these AC effects persist over time. Experiment 3 directly manipulated accessibility for attributes varying between and within USs (e.g., a US being sexy and familial) with a priming procedure. Priming‐specific attributes prior to conditioning determined which attribute of a US was conditioned to paired CSs. We discuss theoretical implications for AC, as well as practical implications for brand image formation and advertising. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Interplay of News Frames on Cognitive Complexity

This research considers how distinct news frames work in combination to influence information processing. It extends framing research grounded in prospect theory (Tversky & Kahneman, 1981) and attribution theory (Iyengar, 1991) to study conditional framing effects on associative memory. Using a 2 × 3 experimental design embedded within a probability survey (N= 379), tests examined the effects of two different frame dimensions—loss‐gain and individual‐societal—on the complexity of individuals' thoughts concerning the issue of urban growth. Findings indicate that news frames interact to generate more or less complex cognitive responses, with societal‐gain frame combinations generating the most detailed cognitions about the causes, components, and consequences of urban growth. Directions for research on media framing are discussed.     

Who Fights,Who Flees? An Integration of the LC4MP and Psychological Reactance Theory

ABSTRACT

This study tests the hypothesis that defensive message processing, like defensive behaviors in the real world, has two directions, fight-and-flight. The Limited Capacity Model of Motivated Mediated Message Processing (LC4MP) characterizes defensive message processing by increases in unpleasantness and arousal reports, and accelerated heart rate indicating either a focus on internal processing (internal thoughts) or the active withdrawal of cognitive resources from processing highly arousing and unpleasant media messages. However, the LC4MP has not included direct measures that allow discrimination between fight-and-flight responses. Psychological reactance theory (PRT) predicts defensive responses including anger and counterarguments (reactance) when media messages threaten viewers’ freedom and autonomy. We hypothesized that PRT provides the LC4MP with the appropriate measures (anger and counterarguments) needed to discriminate fight-or-flight responses. Results supported this prediction. Participants (N = 49 adult-smokers) high in defensive and low in appetitive reactivity (risk-avoiders) withdrew from the message (fled: characterized by low anger and counterarguments) while those high in appetitive and low in defensive reactivity (risk-takers) experienced reactance (fought: characterized by high anger and counterarguments) in response to freedom threatening antitobacco messages that are highly arousing and unpleasant. Moreover, both reactance and message withdrawal yielded the same cognitive, emotional, and physiological responses predicted by the LC4MP as indicators of defensive message processing. Theoretical and message design recommendations are discussed.     

Biassed processing of persuasive information: on the functional equivalence of cues and message arguments

Research on persuasion has shown that inferences based on heuristic or peripheral cues can bias the subsequent processing of persuasive messages. Two studies (total N = 296) examined the additional possibilities that a message argument can serve as a biassing factor and cue‐related information can serve as the target of processing bias. It was demonstrated that a message argument can bias (a) the processing of subsequent other message arguments (Study 1) and (b) the processing of subsequent cue information (Study 2). Results are discussed within dual‐process models and the recently developed unimodel of persuasion. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Amalgamation of future time orientation,epistemological beliefs,achievement goals and study strategies: Empirical evidence established

Background Recently research evidence emphasizes two main lines of inquiry, namely the relations between future time perspective (FTP), achievement goals (mastery, performance‐approach, and performance‐avoidance) and study processing strategies, and the relations between epistemological beliefs, achievement goals and study processing strategies. To date, however, there have been very few attempts made to amalgamate these two strands of inquiry within one study and how they in totality determine the success of academic learning. Aims This study proposed and tested a conceptual model of relationships among FTP, epistemological beliefs, achievement goals (mastery, performance‐approach, and performance‐avoidance), study processing strategies and academic performance. Sample Two hundred and seventy‐five tertiary second‐year students (167 females, 108 males) enrolled in a university in the Pacific participated in this study. Method Likert‐scale inventories were used to elicit relevant data from students; for example, the epistemological questionnaire (EQ; Schommer, 1990 ) and the Zimbardo time perspective inventory ( Zimbardo & Boyd, 1999 ). Academic performance was collated from students' course and final exam marks in the course educational psychology. LISREL 8.72 and SPSS 15 was used to test and evaluate the conceptual model proposed. Results Latent variables procedures supported the conceptual model in general, although not all hypothesized paths were significant. MANOVA indicated no gender differences in the five theoretical frameworks or academic performance. Discussion The determinants of academic performance from our findings are deep and surface processing strategies. Furthermore, the established supports the mediating roles of deep processing strategies, mastery goals, and performance‐approach and performance‐avoidance goals.     

Appetitive and Defensive Arousal in Violent Video Games: Explaining Individual Differences in Attraction to and Effects of Video Games

Evidence surrounding the attraction to media violence is mixed and the effects of violent video game play on players varies across experimental participants. Differences in both may be explained by differences in experienced positive or negative arousal. This study utilizes the limited capacity model of motivated mediated message processing (LC4MP) and the motivation activation measure (MAM), which measures resting activation of the appetitive and aversive arousal systems, to explore the relationship between attraction to media violence, arousal, and aggression. In part 1, a questionnaire found that men and frequent players of violent games expected to enjoy violent games more than nonviolent games. In addition, participants whose scores on the MAM characterized them as risk takers (high scores on appetitive arousal and low scores on aversive arousal) indicated a stronger preference for violent games compared to the other three arousal types, which is in line with the LC4MP. In the experimental portion of the research, after playing a violent game, those participants characterized as risk avoidant (high on aversive arousal and low on appetitive arousal) were significantly less aggressive than all other arousal groups. Overall, results show that individual differences in the appetitive and aversive arousal systems can explain attraction to violent media. Furthermore, arousal resulting from violent video game play can be experienced as pleasant or aversive, and it is this experience of arousal that explains variations in aggressive responses to violent video games.     

Mitigating Psychological Reactance: The Role of Message‐Induced Empathy in Persuasion

This article examines the role of message‐induced state empathy in persuasion. Message‐induced empathy is conceptualized as a perception–action process that consists of affective, cognitive, and associative components. Twenty professionally produced public service announcements (PSAs) were used as stimuli messages in a 2 (high vs. low empathy) × 2 (antismoking vs. drunk driving) × 5 (messages) mixed‐design quasi‐experimental study. The 289 participants were randomly assigned to each cell and watched five PSAs presented in a random sequence. Results showed that state empathy has unique contribution to predicting persuasion outcomes above and beyond the individual's affective and cognitive responses to the messages. In addition, state empathy also has an indirect effect on persuasion via mitigating psychological reactance.     

Liking the (Funny) Messenger: The Influence of News Parody Exposure,Mirth, and Predispositions on Media Trust

ABSTRACT

This article features a multi-study research effort (Study 1 N = 331; Study 2 N = 317) examining how predispositions toward a humor source and the perceived humor (i.e., mirth) of a related comedic message can, together, influence media trust-based expectations. Noting the revered status and cultural prominence of various news parody show hosts, this article proposes that feelings of favorability for a news parody humor source (for example, Jon Stewart or John Oliver) can translate into positive perceptions of the press upon exposure to news parody messages. Drawing from principles of the heuristic-systemic information processing model (HSM) and affective disposition theory, the study findings indicate that one’s affective disposition toward a news parody source can have an indirect effect on media trust, as mediated by a feeling of mirth. Upon conducting a test of moderated mediation, the effect is demonstrated to be conditioned by one’s news parody orientation. That is, affective disposition’s mediated effect is most pronounced among those who are least inclined to see news parody as a legitimate/appropriate source of news. Ultimately, this exploratory research contributes to a more nuanced understanding of how news parody programming may influence perceptions of the news media as an institutional entity.     

Content and person effects in media research: Studying differences in cognitive,emotional, and arousal responses to media content

ABSTRACT

Cognitive, emotional, and arousal responses to media content stem from two sources of variation: differences in content and differences between individuals. Although the first source of variation (content effects) has been well-studied, individual differences (person effects) in responses to media are investigated much less within communication science. To help build this comparatively thin area of scholarship, this study investigated how four theoretically relevant variables (need for cognition, affective empathy, sensation seeking, and sensory processing sensitivity) affected responses to positively and negatively valenced media entertainment. In a within-subjects design, 243 youth aged 7–15 years (49.4% female) responded to a positive and negative film clip using both self-reported and physiological measures (heart rate and skin conductance), while parents reported on individual differences. Multilevel analysis was used to distinguish between media content effects and individual differences in responses. Results showed that more variation in responses was due to differences between participants than to differences between stimuli. However, need for cognition, affective empathy, sensation seeking, and sensory processing sensitivity did not significantly explain this between-participant variation in responses. Several conceptual and methodological take-aways are offered to advance our understanding of the relationships between stable individual differences and state responses to media.     

The Implications of Computer‐Mediated Communication (CMC) for Social Support Message Processing and Outcomes: When and Why Are the Effects of Support Messages Strengthened During CMC?

Widespread use of computer‐mediated communication (CMC) for exchanging social support has raised questions about the support‐related implications of CMC. This study drew from the dual‐process theory of supportive message outcomes and examined the implications of CMC for support message processing and outcomes. We hypothesized that the reduced social cues in CMC would encourage greater elaboration on support message content and lead support messages to have a greater impact than in face‐to‐face interaction. The results of the experiment showed that, although the support message was held constant, participants in the CMC condition reported the strongest motivation to receive support, engaged in the greatest level of message elaboration, and experienced the most beneficial changes in worry and uncertainty discrepancy.