Abstract
Digital media are sensory-rich, multimodal, and often highly interactive. An extensive collection of theories and models within the field of media psychology assume the multimodal nature of media stimuli, yet there is current ambiguity as to the independent contributions of visual and auditory content to message complexity and to resource availability in the human processing system. In this article, we argue that explicating the concepts of perceptual and cognitive load can create progress toward a deeper understanding of modality-specific effects in media processing. In addition, we report findings from an experiment showing that perceptual load leads to modality-specific reductions in resource availability, whereas cognitive load leads to a modality-general reduction in resource availability. We conclude with a brief discussion regarding the critical importance of separating modality-specific forms of load in an increasingly multisensory media environment.
Highlights
Using media is often a rich, multisensory experience
Based on our theoretical model regarding the modalityspecific effects of perceptual load, we expected that the visual perceptual load induction would influence secondary task reaction times (STRTs) in the visual modality but not in the auditory modality
We expected that cognitive load would lead to slower STRTs regardless of the modality in which the STRT was measured
Summary
Using media is often a rich, multisensory experience. Video games, movies, and other digital environments contain numerous streams of audiovisual information that must be processed quickly and simultaneously (Fisher, Huskey, Keene, & Weber, 2018; Lang, 2000). Humans dynamically allocate limited processing resources to encoding, storing, and retrieving information in an environment (Lang, Bradley, Cuthbert, & Simons, 1997; Lang, Sanders-Jackson, Wang, & Rubenking, 2013) and the resources that are allocated are required (consumed) at a rate commensurate with the complexity of the information. This resource allocation process has been shown to predict message processing outcomes like memory, enjoyment, and learning (for a recent review and meta-analysis, see Fisher, Keene, Huskey, & Weber, 2018; Huskey, Wilcox, Clayton, & Keene, 2019). Because of this, understanding resource allocation is critical for understanding how individuals process multimedia messages as well as how alterations in resource allocation processes influence outcomes of interest
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