Measuring Television Message Complexity as Available Processing Resources: Dimensions of Information and Cognitive Load

    Authors

    A. Lang; S. Kurita; Y. Gao;B. Rubenking

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    J. Thermophys. Heat Transf.

    Keywords

    AROUSING CONTENT; ATTENTION; MEMORY; CAPACITY; EMOTION; FEATURES; STIMULI; COMMERCIALS; OVERLOAD; CAPTURE; Communication; Film, Radio, Television; Psychology, Applied

    Abstract

    This article further tests the theoretical hypotheses supporting the use of number of camera changes (cc) and information introduced (ii) as indicators of resources allocated and resources required to process television messages. These two measures, combined, yield an indicator of available resources and can, therefore, be used as an indicator of television message complexity. Previous research has validated their use, averaged over time, as a global measure of message complexity. The two studies reported here test the underlying local complexity predictions and present support from two studies for the ii, cc combination as a valid indicator of local message complexity. Study 1 demonstrates that when a camera change has an increasing number of ii dimensions available resources become scarcer, eventually reaching cognitive overload. Study 2 examines the relative level of resources required for each of the seven dimensions, and demonstrates that specific theoretical groupings of dimensions (novelty, motivational, and cognitive) show differential impact on available resources. Results show that the individual dimensions increase required resources as predicted and that emotion change is the most cognitively taxing dimension. Together, the two studies increase our understanding of how the number of dimensions each individual dimension of ii increases cognitive load and provide strong support for the measure as an indicator of local message complexity.

    Journal Title

    Media Psychology

    Volume

    Media Psychol.

    Issue/Number

    2

    Publication Date

    1-1-2013

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    129

    Last Page

    153

    WOS Identifier

    16

    ISSN

    1521-3269

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