Media Stimuli Research Articles

Diseño televisivo a través de la neurociencia

Cognitive neuroscience has provided a better understanding of the impact of media stimuli on cognitive and emotional processing. This article offers an exploratory bibliographic review on the contribution of neuroscience in the design of audiovisual content (N=57). This review was carried out in three stages: a) review of unstructured information; b) analysis, organization, and synthesis of content; c) conclusions. Likewise, interviews with experts in the television field, neuromarketing consultants, and neuroscientists (N=10), support the conclusions from the bibliographic review. Subsequently, the paper provides a set of scientifically endorsed guidelines for the efficient design of TV content for entertainment, education, and information, based on storytelling, edition, and the creation of new platforms. The bibliographic research reveals that emotion and attention are the key indicators of effectiveness for the design of television products.

Suspended Silicon Microphotodiodes for Electrochemical and Biological Applications.

Local electric stimulation of tissues and cells has gained importance as therapeutic alternative in the treatment of many diseases. These alternatives aim to deliver a less invasively stimuli in liquid media, making imperative the development of versatile micro- and nanoscale solutions for wireless actuation. Here, a simple microfabrication process to produce suspended silicon microphotodiodes that can be activated by visible light to generate local photocurrents in their surrounding medium is presented. Electrical characterization using electrical probes confirms their diode behavior. To demonstrate their electrochemical performance, an indirect test is implemented in solution through photoelectrochemical reactions controlled by a white-LED lamp. Furthermore, their effects on biological systems are observed in vitro using mouse primary neurons in which the suspended microphotodiodes are activated periodically with white-LED lamp, bringing out observable morphological changes in neuronal processes. The results demonstrate a simplified and cost-effective wireless tool for photovoltaic current generation in liquid media at the microscale.

Selection and Evaluation of Media for Behavioral Health Interventions Employing Critical Media Analysis.

Although a growing number of psychosocial health promotion interventions use the critical analysis of media to facilitate behavior change, no specific guidelines exist to assist researchers and practitioners in the selection and evaluation of culturally relevant media stimuli for intervention development. Mobilizing Our Voices for Empowerment is a critical consciousness-based health enhancement intervention for HIV-positive Black young gay/bisexual men that employs the critical analysis of popular media. In the process of developing and testing this intervention, feedback on media stimuli was collected from youth advisory board members (n = 8), focus group participants (n = 19), intervention participants (n = 40), and intervention facilitators (n = 6). A thematic analysis of qualitative data resulted in the identification of four key attributes of media stimuli and participants' responses to media stimuli that are important to consider when selecting and evaluating media stimuli for use in behavioral health interventions employing the critical analysis of media: comprehension, relevance, emotionality, and action. These four attributes are defined and presented as a framework for evaluating media, and adaptable tools are provided based on this framework to guide researchers and practitioners in the selection and evaluation of media for similar interventions.

Media-induced recovery: The effects of positive versus negative media stimuli on recovery experience, cognitive performance, and energetic arousal.

Recent research has demonstrated that the use of hedonically positive interactive media content contributes to the satisfaction of recovery needs and is associated with recovery outcomes such as higher levels of cognitive performance and increased energetic arousal. The recovery effects of noninteractive media stimuli as well as of media content with negative affective valence, however, are less clear. The present investigation addressed this limitation of prior research on

A Influência Midiática e do Setor Publicitário no Consumo Precoce: Um Olhar a Partir da Educação Ecológica para um Consumo Sustentável

O trabalho versa sobre os estímulos midiáticos e do setor publicitário no desenvolvimento de crianças e a adolescentes. Objetiva verificar se a exposição à publicidade do consumo influencia no comportamento dos infantes frente ao meio ambiente. Especificamente, descreve o meio ambiente como Direito Fundamental das presentes e futuras gerações sob a ótica da Doutrina da Proteção Integral, bem como a relação das mídias televisiva e online com o consumo precoce. Ainda, analisa o papel da educação ecológica na conscientização para um consumo sustentável. Para tanto, utiliza-se o método de abordagem dedutivo, método de procedimento monográfico e técnica de pesquisa bibliográfica.

Hearing in the Juvenile Green Sea Turtle (Chelonia mydas): A Comparison of Underwater and Aerial Hearing Using Auditory Evoked Potentials.

Sea turtles spend much of their life in aquatic environments, but critical portions of their life cycle, such as nesting and hatching, occur in terrestrial environments, suggesting that it may be important for them to detect sounds in both air and water. In this study we compared underwater and aerial hearing sensitivities in five juvenile green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) by measuring auditory evoked potential responses to tone pip stimuli. Green sea turtles detected acoustic stimuli in both media, responding to underwater stimuli between 50 and 1600 Hz and aerial stimuli between 50 and 800 Hz, with maximum sensitivity between 200 and 400 Hz underwater and 300 and 400 Hz in air. When underwater and aerial hearing sensitivities were compared in terms of pressure, green sea turtle aerial sound pressure thresholds were lower than underwater thresholds, however they detected a wider range of frequencies underwater. When thresholds were compared in terms of sound intensity, green sea turtle sound intensity level thresholds were 2–39 dB lower underwater particularly at frequencies below 400 Hz. Acoustic stimuli may provide important environmental cues for sea turtles. Further research is needed to determine how sea turtles behaviorally and physiologically respond to sounds in their environment.

The Role of Presumed Influence and Emotions on Audience Evaluation of the Credibility of Media Content and Behavioural Tendencies

We propose that emotional responses to a media stimulus (e.g., a news article), in addition to presumed influence, can help explain one’s evaluation of the media stimulus. Our model was evaluated using data collected from 261 college students who read a news article discussing the harmful effects of multitasking. Structural equation modelling (SEM) analysis revealed that the participants’ emotional feelings (i.e., anger, guilt and happiness) after reading the message and perceptions of how professors and administrators’ perceived the researchers interviewed in the article directly predicted the evaluation of the news article. Presumed influence of the news article on neutral Americans and professors and administrators on campus did not directly predict participants’ evaluation of the news article, the influence of which was mediated by anger. Message evaluation and select emotions explained 58 per cent and 26 per cent of the variance in supporting publication of the article and intentions to avoid multitasking, respectively. Results support the inclusion of emotional responses in news evaluation research.

Breaking Out of the Lab: Measuring Real-Time Responses to Televised Political Content in Real-World Settings.

Real-time response (RTR) measurement is an important technique for analyzing human processing of electronic media stimuli. Although it has been demonstrated that RTR data are reliable and internally valid, some argue that they lack external validity. The reason for this is that RTR measurement is restricted to a laboratory environment due to its technical requirements. This paper introduces a smartphone app that 1) captures real-time responses using the dial technique and 2) provides a solution for one of the most important problems in RTR measurement, the (automatic) synchronization of RTR data. In addition, it explores the reliability and validity of mobile RTR measurement by comparing the real-time reactions of two samples of young and well-educated voters to the 2013 German televised debate. Whereas the first sample participated in a classical laboratory study, the second sample was equipped with our mobile RTR system and watched the debate at home. Results indicate that the mobile RTR system yields similar results to the lab-based RTR measurement, providing evidence that laboratory studies using RTR are externally valid. In particular, the argument that the artificial reception situation creates artificial results has to be questioned. In addition, we conclude that RTR measurement outside the lab is possible. Hence, mobile RTR opens the door for large-scale studies to better understand the processing and impact of electronic media content.

Mediated and moderated effects of personalized political communication on political trust

AbstractAlthough most scholars agree that media exposure affects political trust, it is unclear which kind of media contents do so and how these effects come about. Personalized media coverage is especially suspected of having negative effects on political trust. In our study, we empirically analyze the relationship between exposure to personalized media contents, general trust, trust in journalistic assessment and trust in politicians using a model of moderated mediation. This model is tested in an online experiment exposing subjects to media stimuli which portray political actors in an unpersonalized, an individualized or a privatized way. Results indicate that only privatized media coverage causes negative effects on trust in politicians. However, recipients with low levels of general trust are not affected by either treatment, while subjects with high general trust levels lose trust in politicians when being exposed to privatized contents. Moreover, effects of privatized stimuli are mediated by trust in journalistic assessment, indicating a spiral of mistrust towards public institutions.

A comparative study of children's concentration performance on picture books: age, gender, and media forms

The reading development of children depends on various sensory stimuli, which help them construct reading contexts and facilitate active learning and exploration. This study uses sensory stimuli provided by picture books using various forms of media to improve children's concentration performance. We employ picture books using four forms of media: conventional picture books, pop-up books, talking books, and e-books. Children in young (Grade 3) and senior elementary school students (Grade 6) are recruited as participants. The NeuroSky MindBand (electroencephalogram) is used as a tool to measure children's concentration. The results indicate that children in Grade 3 express higher concentration and interest than children in Grade 6 in picture books, and the effect of gender is greater than that of grade on the level of concentration invested in the picture book media form and exhibits a significant interaction and effects on children's concentration performance. As a result, we suggest that talking books or e-books, which provide multisensory stimuli, should be selected for elementary school boys. In addition, talking books should be selected for girls in young elementary school students, while conventional books should be used for girls in senior elementary school students to avoid distraction caused by excessive media stimuli.

How Emotional Media Reports Influence Attitude Formation and Change: The Interplay of Attitude Base, Attitude Certainty, and Persuasion

This study examined the influence of an emotionally arousing writing style on attitude formation and change. It has been proposed that different writing styles induce attitudes based on either affect or cognition and with either high or low certainty. Previous work indicates that the interplay of these attitude characteristics determines the persuasiveness of emotional and rational media appeals. To test the hypotheses, participants in an experimental study read articles from a magazine about a fictitious attitude object. In the first step, 4 different types of attitudes varying in base and level of certainty were induced through a respectively manipulated article. In the second step, these attitudes were challenged by an additional article, which presented either an emotional or rational persuasive appeal. The results supported hypotheses on attitude induction through media stimuli and 3 of 4 hypotheses regarding the persuasiveness of emotionally and rationally written articles.

Cosmopolitanism as a Philosophy for Life in Our Time

Educators the world over struggle with contemporary conditions that militate against their vocation. Endless top-down accountability measures, rapid economic turns and inequality in supportive resources, a torrent of consumerist media stimuli that distract educational focus, and other forces require educators to work that much harder to sustain serious educational values. In this article, I put forward a cultural and ethical vision of cosmopolitanism as an orientation that can help educators in their work. This vision pivots around teachers and students learning to fuse reflective openness to new people, ideas, values and practices with reflective loyalty to local commitments and ways of life. This orientation mirrors how the school can become a cosmopolitan canopy. The school can become a place in which all participants develop ethical strength and perspective in order to respond thoughtfully and actively, rather than react passively, to today’s pressures.

Effects of Repeated Exposure to Science TV Shows on Beliefs About Scientific Evidence and Interest in Science

For scientific laypersons, it is becoming increasingly important to understand the concept of scientific evidence. Prior research shows that the media tend to underrepresent the tentativeness and uncertainty of research findings. Yet presently it remains unclear whether beliefs about the certainty or uncertainty of scientific evidence are affected by the mass media’s science coverage. In this study, we tested cultivation effects of features from German science TV shows on laypersons’ beliefs about science and their interest in science. A sample of adults (N = 700) representative of the German population in terms of age, sex, and education participated in a longitudinal field experiment with an extended Solomon four-group design (two experimental and three control groups). The treatment consisted of six successive media stimuli, which portrayed scientific evidence as either certain or uncertain, over the course of 6 weeks. Results indicate media effects on participants’ beliefs about the certainty of scientific evidence. Additionally, the treatment portraying science as certain enhanced participants’ interest in science, whereas the uncertainty treatment had no effect on interest. These experimental findings demonstrate cultivation effects using real-world stimuli and are interpreted in support of the claim for a greater acknowledgement of uncertainty in science communication.

Testing mood-enhancing interventions in persons with dementia

New research verifies that positive mood is maintained for several hours after persons with severe memory deficits similar to those of dementia observe mood-enhancing video presentations. Positive mood is directly linked to increased cooperation with care and improved cognition in persons with dementia (PWD). Although standardized sets of mood-enhancing photos and video clips have been empirically verified to induce positive moods in persons with normal cognition and those with memory loss, the effects in PWDs are not well established and could be used to improve care. Twenty PWDs will be video recorded while viewing two 15-minute interventions, each composed of 45 photos that induce positive mood from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS), developed for research on emotion by the National Institute on Mental Health Center for the Study of Emotion and Attention. Video recordings of each participant's facial expressions that reveal emotional responses to the photographs will be collected and coded to determine the proportion of time participants pay attention (direct eye gaze) to the media stimuli. In addition, PWD affective responses will be coded from the video recordings using the Lawton Observed Affect Scale and facial expressions indicating positive emotional responses will be coded using the Facial Expression Coding System (FACES). Mean proportions of time the participants attend to each stimulus, observed affect scores, and FACES ratings of the frequency, intensity, and duration of positive responses to each photo stimuli will be computed. If data are normally distributed, t-tests will be used to compare differences between photos with positive emotional valence and control neutral photos, otherwise nonparametric tests will be used. Descriptive statistics will used to describe effects of individual photos and to assess for factors such as gender that may influence response to the intervention stimuli. Results of the study that will be conducted during spring 2011 will be reported to evaluate the feasibility of using positive mood inducing photo interventions to improve mood for PWD in clinical care. If effective in inducing positive moods in persons with dementia, photographs and other media may be used in interventions to improve care and quality of life for persons with dementia.

Entertaining Media Use and the Satisfaction of Recovery Needs: Recovery Outcomes Associated With the Use of Interactive and Noninteractive Entertaining Media

Recent research has linked the enjoyment of entertaining media to the satisfaction of intrinsic human needs (Tamborini, Bowman, Eden, Grizzard, & Organ, 2010; Tamborini, Grizzard, et al., in press). The present investigation addressed the satisfaction of recovery needs through the use of interactive and noninteractive entertaining media stimuli and the resulting recovery outcomes. In an experiment (N = 160), participants were first exposed to a working task to elicit the need for recovery and then randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions: 1) a video game, 2) a video recording of a game, 3) an animated video clip, or 4) the control condition. The results demonstrate that interactive and noninteractive media stimuli elicit different patterns of recovery experience. Furthermore, recovery experience was significantly related to enjoyment as well as subjective (energetic arousal) and objective (cognitive performance) recovery outcomes. Enjoyment mediated the relationship between recovery experience and energetic arousal. The results demonstrate that the effects of need satisfaction associated with the use of entertaining media go beyond enjoyment and may affect recovery and psychological well being. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for research on the recovery effects of entertaining media and for current needs-based approaches to media enjoyment.

Desensitization to media violence: Links with habitual media violence exposure, aggressive cognitions, and aggressive behavior.

This study examined the links between desensitization to violent media stimuli and habitual media violence exposure as a predictor and aggressive cognitions and behavior as outcome variables. Two weeks after completing measures of habitual media violence exposure, trait aggression, trait arousability, and normative beliefs about aggression, undergraduates (N = 303) saw a violent film clip and a sad or a funny comparison clip. Skin conductance level (SCL) was measured continuously, and ratings of anxious and pleasant arousal were obtained after each clip. Following the clips, participants completed a lexical decision task to measure accessibility of aggressive cognitions and a competitive reaction time task to measure aggressive behavior. Habitual media violence exposure correlated negatively with SCL during violent clips and positively with pleasant arousal, response times for aggressive words, and trait aggression, but it was unrelated to anxious arousal and aggressive responding during the reaction time task. In path analyses controlling for trait aggression, normative beliefs, and trait arousability, habitual media violence exposure predicted faster accessibility of aggressive cognitions, partly mediated by higher pleasant arousal. Unprovoked aggression during the reaction time task was predicted by lower anxious arousal. Neither habitual media violence usage nor anxious or pleasant arousal predicted provoked aggression during the laboratory task, and SCL was unrelated to aggressive cognitions and behavior. No relations were found between habitual media violence viewing and arousal in response to the sad and funny film clips, and arousal in response to the sad and funny clips did not predict aggressive cognitions or aggressive behavior on the laboratory task. This suggests that the observed desensitization effects are specific to violent content.

Presence Related Formal Aspects of Hedonic Valence in Mood Management: An Investigation of the Impact of Mediated Experiences on Induced Aggressive Mood

This paper lays out presence related formal aspects of media offerings suited to evoke mood management (Zillmann, 1988). Zillmann proposes that apart from other dimensions, the mood-impacting characteristics of media stimuli vary with the hedonic valence referring to the content (see also Knobloch-Westerwick, 2006). In this contribution, it is claimed that not only does the hedonic value vary with content, but also with formal characteristics of stimuli that refer to different types of media. In contrast to other investigations on mood management, these investigations focus on the reduction of aversive moods when exposed to certain media offerings. The investigations do not focus on the measurement of selected stimuli arrangements in terms of time and intensity. To test this hypothesis, the current paper presents the results of two studies in which 66 participants were presented with film sequences in order to induce aggressive moods. In the first experiment, which served as a treatment check, it was shown that aggressive moods could be reduced more with televised exposures than with a waiting period. In a second experiment, participants having partaken in the experimental induction of aggressive moods were allocated to different experimental conditions that are classified according to formal aspects of hedonic valence: a television exposure condition, an internet surfing condition, and a chat condition. These activities can be numerically classified according to three axes, (i) the amount of sensory information, (ii) the extent of possible interactions, and (iii) the synchrony between sender and recipient. The resulting categorizations of certain media offerings (television exposure: 3, internet surfing: 9–11, and chatting: 8) simultaneously represent certain aspects of the concept of presence. Results show that the induced aggressive moods can be mostly reduced by the treatment (media offerings) with the highest number allocated (internet surfing). Moreover, the findings show an overall decrease of aggressive moods according to the increasing number from television to internet.

Conceptualizing Media Stimuli in Experimental Research: Psychological Versus Attribute-Based Definitions

This paper argues for a clearer conceptualization of media stimuli in experimental research and identifies 3 issues impeding our understanding of message processing: (a) assumptions bolstered by manipulation checks about homogeneity of response to media stimuli, (b) conflation of 2 different classes of variables—media attributes and psychological states, and (c) discrepancies between the conceptual model and operational-level hypotheses used to test research questions. To provide a more comprehensive framework for investigating media effects in experimental research, we argue for a clearer conceptual separation between message attributes and user perceptions and apply a mediation model of information processing to overcome the limitations of conventional approaches. Subjected to 2 empirical tests involving the assessment of Web-based media, the model finds an increase in explained variance in each instance.

The role of gender and personality traits in response to ads using violent images to promote consumption of sports entertainment

The promotion of violent media has become an issue for both marketers and public policymakers. One common form of mediated violence can be found in televised sports. Some media research suggests that males tend to enjoy violent sport media more than females. However, personality research related to the notion of Optimum Stimulation Levels (OSL) suggests certain audiences might be drawn to violent media stimuli, to help maintain their OSL, regardless of gender. Building upon marketing and media psychology, the current study examines the effect of central (sensation seeking, SS) and surface (Curiosity About Morbid Events, CAME) traits, along with gender, to account for variance in consumer reactions to advertisements utilizing violent/non-violent images to promote sports media. Regression results indicate that subjects' ad response is moderated by OSL constructs, while CAME is found to mediate the effect of SS. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed along with future directions for research.

The relevance of attention for selecting news content. An eye-tracking study on attention patterns in the reception of print and online media

Abstract This article argues that a theory of media selectivity needs a theory of attention, because attention to a media stimulus is the starting point of each process of reception. Attention sequences towards media stimuli – pages of newspapers and online-newspapers – were analyzed using eye-tracking patterns from three different perspectives. First, attention patterns were compared under varying task conditions. Second, different types of media were tested. Third, attention sequences towards different forms of news with different design patterns were compared. Attention was seen as a prerequisite for reception: Its selective functions for these processes are especially important. Reception itself was examined within an action-theoretical framework and therefore described as a form of interaction between recipient and the media. Eye-tracking data were used as indicators of attention. Starting with a hypothesis on the impact of different media such as printed newspapers and online newspapers on the agenda-setting process of their audience, the study examined how the type of media and the form of news influences attention and selectivity. Our findings showed that visual cues such as salient photos or graphics and information hierarchies signalled by design and layout guide attention processes, not as an automatic process driven from the bottom up, but as stimuli for an active, intention-driven selection process. The results indicate that the form of news affects these patterns of interactive attention more than the medium itself.