Continuous Emotional Responding to Audio, Video, and Audiovisual Sensory Channels during Television Viewing

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to examine the independent and interactive influence of the audio and visual channels of information in television on viewers’ emotional experience. Audio-only, video-only, and audiovisual television content was presented as psychological stimuli, while participants completed continuous-response measures (CRMs) to index over-time changes in emotional experience of positive valence, negative valence, and arousal. Positive valence and arousal means were significantly influenced by channel over time. Participants reported the most positive emotional experience during audiovisual exposure. The channel and time interaction did not significantly affect negative valence ratings. However, positive valence, negative valence, and arousal ratings were significantly influenced by the interaction of channel and specific message content.