Structural features of television elicit involuntary physiological attentional responses in viewers. Mild emotional content in televised messages intensifies these responses, possibly through mediation of emotion-elicited arousal, which was also demonstrated. Heart rate data were collected and analyzed using novel techniques to show both short-term attentional responses and longer term arousal in subjects viewing commercial messages.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Anderson, D. R.
(1985). Online cognitive processing of television. In L. F. Alwitt & A. A. Mitchell (Eds.), Psychological processes and advertising effects: Theory, research, and application. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
2.
Anderson, D. R.
, & Levin, S. R. (1976). Young children's attention to Sesame Street. Child Development, 47, 806-811.
3.
Anderson, D. R.
, Levin, S. R., & Lorch, E. P. (1977). The effects of TV program pacing on the behavior of preschool children. AV Communication Review, 25, 158-166.
4.
Anderson, D. R.
, & Lorch, E. P. (1983). Looking at television: action or reaction. In J. Bryant & D. R. Anderson (Eds.), Children's understanding of television (pp. 1-34). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
5.
Anderson, D. R.
, Lorch, E. P., Field, D. E., & Sanders, J. (1981). The effects of TV program comprehensibility on pre-school children's visual attention to television. Child Development, 52, 151-157.
6.
Bryant, J.
, & Zillmann, D. (1979). Effect of intensification of annoyance through unrelated residual excitation on substantially delayed hostile behavior. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 15, 470-480.
7.
Bull, K.
, & Lang, P. J. (1972). Intensity judgments and physiological response attitude. Psychophysiology, 9, 428-436.
8.
Calvert, S. L.
, Huston, A. C., Watkins, B. A., & Wright, J. C. (1982). The relation between selective attention to television forms and children's comprehension of content. Child Development, 53, 601-612.
9.
Cantor, J. R.
, & Zillmann, D. (1973). The effect of affective state and emotional arousal on music appreciation. Journal of General Psychology, 89, 97-108.
10.
Collins, W. A.
(1981). Cognitive processing and television viewing. In Television and social behavior (NIMH Ten-Year Update). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
11.
Donnerstein, E.
, Donnerstein, M., & Barrett, G. (1976). Where is the facilitation of media violence: The effects of nonexposure and placement of anger arousal. Journal of Research in Personality, 10, 396-398.
12.
Friestad, M.
, & Thorson, E. T. (1985, May). Effects of four types of emotioneliciting TV messages on memory and judgment. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association, Honolulu, HI.
13.
Graham, F. K.
(1979). Distinguishing among orienting, defense, and startle reflexes. In H. D. Kimmel, E. H. Van Olst, & J. F. Orlebeke (Eds.), The orienting reflex in humans. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
14.
Kahneman, D.
(1973). Attention and effort. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
15.
Jennings, J. R.
, Cohen, M., Ruchkin, D. S., & Fridlund, A. (1987). Editorial policy on analyses of variance with repeated measures. Psychophysiology, 24, 474-478.
16.
Lacey, B. C.
, & Lacey, J. (1974). Studies of heart rate and other bodily processes in sensorimotor behavior. In P. A. Obrist, A. H. Black, J. Brenner, & L. V. DiCara (Eds.), Cardiovascular psychophysiology: Current issues in response mechanisms, biofeedback, and methodology. Chicago: Aldine.
17.
Lacey, J. I.
(1967). Somatic response patterning and stress: Some revisions of activation theory. In M. H. Appley & R. Trumbull (Eds.), Psychological stress. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
18.
Lacey, J. I.
, & Lacey, B. C. (1970). Some autonomic central nervous system interrelationships. In P. Black (Ed.), Physiological correlates of emotion. New York: Academic Press.
19.
Lang, A.
(in press). Emotion, formal features, and memory for televised political advertisements. In F. Biocca (Ed.), Political advertisements: Psychological processes (Vol. 1). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
20.
Lang, A.
, & Thorson, E. (1989). The effects of television videographics and lecture familiarity on adult cardiac orienting responses and memory. Paper presented to the Information Systems Division of the International Communication Association, San Francisco.
21.
Lang, P. J.
(1984). Cognition in emotion: Concept and action. In C. Izard, J. Kagan, & R. Zajonc (Eds.), Emotion, cognition, and behavior (pp. 193-226). New York: Cambridge University Press.
22.
Lang, P. J.
(1985). The cognitive psychophysiology of emotion: Fear and anxiety. In A. H. Tuma & J. Maser (Eds.), Anxiety and the anxiety disorders. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
23.
Lang, P. J.
, & Hnatiow, M. (1966). Stimulus repetition and the heart rate response. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 55, 781-785.
24.
Lynn, R.
(1966). Attention, arousal and the orientation reaction. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
25.
Ohman, A.
(1977). The orientation response, attention and learning: An information-processing perspective. In H. D. Kimmel, E. H. Van Olst, & J. F. Orlebeke (Eds.), The orientation reflex in humans (pp. 443-472). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
26.
Reeves, B.
, Lang, A., Thorson, E., & Rothschild, M. (1989). Hemispheric specialization and emotional television scenes. Human Communication Research, 15, 493-508.
27.
Reeves, B.
, Thorson, E., Rothschild, M., McDonald, D., Hirsch, J., & Goldstein, R. (1985). Attention to television: Intrastimulus effects of movement and scene changes on alpha variation over time. International Journal of Neuroscience, 25, 241-255.
28.
Rothschild, M., Thorson, E., Hirsch, J., Goldstein, R., & Reeves, B. (1983). EEG activity and the processing of television commercials. Unpublished manuscript, Graduate School of Business, University of Wisconsin.
29.
Siddle, D. A.
, & Turpin, G. (1980). Measurement, quantification, and analysis of cardiac activity. In I. Martin & P. H. Venables (Eds.), Techniques in psychophysiology. New York: John Wiley.
30.
Singer, J.
(1980). The power and limitations of television: A cognitive-affective analysis. In P. Tannenbaum (Ed.), The entertainment functions of television. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
31.
Thorson, E.
, & Lang, A. (1989). Effects of videographic complexity on recall for televised information. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association, San Francisco.
32.
Thorson, E.
, Reeves, B., & Schleuder, J. (1985). Message complexity and attention to television. Communication Research, 12, 427-454.
33.
Vasey, M.
, & Thayer, J. (1987). The continuing problem of false positives in repeated measures ANOVA in psychophysiology: A multivariate solution. Psychophysiology, 24, 479-486.
34.
Watt, J. H.
, & Krull, R. (1977). An examination of three models of television viewing and aggression. Human Communication Research, 3, 99-112.
35.
Zillmann, D.
(1981). Television viewing and arousal. In Television and social behavior (NIMH Ten-Year Update). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
