Robert F. Potter

The effects of production pacing and arousing content on the information processing of television messages

The limited capacity model of television viewing is used to investigate the impact of arousing content and fast paced production of viewers’ information processing of TV messages. Results show that both fast pace and arousing content elicit self‐reported arousal, but they elicit different patterns of physiological arousal. Both fast pace and arousing content increase the allocation of processing resources to messages. The combination of fast pace and arousing content overloads the processing system resulting in less recognition and cued recall for the specific content of the message. Results generally support the limited capacity theory of television viewing.

Sports Versus All Comers: Comparing TV Sports Fans With Fans of Other Programming Genres

Using self-administered questionnaires, this study assessed ways in which the viewing experience for sports fans is similar to—and different from—the viewing experience for fans of other popular programming genres. Compared to fans of other genres, televised sports fans were likely to engage in a variety of pregame planning and information search activities. Their viewing was more likely to be purposive and content oriented. Sports fans were emotionally involved and cared about the outcomes. They also were more likely to check media sources for follow-up information. Fans of other genres were not as active or invested in their favorite programming genre.

Psychophysiological measurement and meaning : cognitive and emotional processing of media

1. Psychophysiology in the Context of Media Processes and Effects Research 2. Psychophysiology-Theoretical Assumptions and a History of the Field 3. Key Terms and Concepts in Psychophysiology 4. Psychophysiological Measures of Cognitive Processing of Media 5. Psychophysiological Measures of Emotional Processing of Media 6. Emerging Psychophysiological Measures for Media Research 7. Connecting Psychophysiology to Other Measures of Mediated Message Processing 8. On Your Own: Setting up a Media Psychophysiology Lab and Conducting Experiments 9. Psychophysiological Measures and Meaning: Implications of Current Research and a Peek at the Future Glossary

The Effects of Voice Changes on Orienting and Immediate Cognitive Overload in Radio Listeners

An experiment was designed to identify the voice change as a specific structural feature of radio that causes automatic allocation of cognitive resources to message encoding. The cardiac orienting response (OR) was used as an indication of this automatic resource allocation. It was hypothesized that listeners would exhibit cardiac ORs in response to voice changes and that the associated automatic resource allocation would result in momentary cognitive overload. Data were collected from 62 participants as they listened to nine messages that varied in the number of voice changes they contained. Results show robust cardiac orienting to voice changes and suggest that this response does not habituate over the course of 2-minute messages. Furthermore, auditory recognition data show that not only does orienting to voice changes result in momentary cognitive overload, but the severity of that overload depends on the total number of voice changes in the message.

Give the People What They Want: A Content Analysis of FM Radio Station Home Pages

This content analysis of home pages from 365 randomly selected FM station Web sites examined how the industry is using the Web to deliver content. Results show three types of information are most prevalent: details about station events, disk jockey biographies, and contact information for the station. This is significantly different from the type of content listeners have said they desire in previous survey research. However, differences in the presence of station promotional content can be predicted based on expected differences in the demographics and psychographics of the stations target audience.