Sriram Kalyanaraman

Explicating Web Site Interactivity Impression Formation Effects in Political Campaign Sites

This study identifies two distinct conceptualizations of interactivity in the communication literature—the functional view and the contingency view. Although the functional view has predominated academic research on interactivity, this study operationalizes the contingency view in the context of an experiment designed to investigate the impression formation effects of interactivity in Web-based mass communication. A third of the participants in a between-participants experiment (N=60) were exposed to the lowinteractivity version (no hyperlinks) of a political candidate’s Web site, another third to the medium-interactivity version (a single layer of related links), and the remaining third to the high-interactivity version (two hierarchical layers of related links). The results indicate that the level of Web site interactivity influenced participants’ perceptions of the candidate as well as their levels of agreement with his policy positions. Implications for conceptual development of interactivity are discussed.

AROUSAL, MEMORY, AND IMPRESSION-FORMATION EFFECTS OF ANIMATION SPEED IN WEB ADVERTISING

Animated advertisements on the Web come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors; they also animate at different speeds. Although recent studies have shown animated ads to be more effective than still ads, the role played by the rate of motion in animated ads has been neglected. An experiment was designed to address this issue by focusing specifically on the physiological and psychological effects of animation speeds in Web ads. Hypotheses derived from motion effects, excitation transfer, limited capacity, and vividness effects theories were tested via a mixed-design experiment wherein participants (N = 47) were exposed to both slow-paced and fast-paced animated ads in one of two sequences (fast then slow, or slow then fast). Arousal was monitored during reception, while memory, conation, and impression formation were measured via a postexposure paper-and-pencil questionnaire. Results indicate that animation speed is a psychologically significant variable. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Engagement, enjoyment, and energy expenditure during active video game play

OBJECTIVE Playing active video games can produce moderate levels of physical activity, but little is known about how these games motivate players to be active. Several psychological predictors, such as perceptions of competence, control, and engagement, may be associated with enjoyment of a game, which has in turn been hypothesized to predict energy expended during play. However, these relationships have yet to be tested in active video games. METHOD Young adults aged 18-35 (N = 97, 50 female) < 300 pounds played a Dance Dance Revolution game for 13 minutes while energy expenditure was measured using indirect calorimetry. Self-reported measures of engagement, perceived competence, perceived control, and enjoyment were taken immediately afterward. Mediation was analyzed using path analysis. RESULTS A path model in which enjoyment mediated the effects of engagement, perceived competence, and perceived control on energy expenditure and BMI directly affected energy expenditure was an adequate fit to the data, χ(2)(1, N = 97) = .199, p = .655; CFI = 1.00; RMSEA < .001; 90% CI = .000-.206; p = .692. Enjoyment mediated the relationship between engagement and energy expenditure (indirect effect = .138, p = .028), but other mediated effects were not significant. CONCLUSION Engagement, enjoyment, and BMI affect energy expended during active video game play. Games that are more enjoyable and engaging may produce greater intensity activity. Developers, practitioners, and researchers should consider characteristics that influence these predictors when creating or recommending active video games.

The virtual doppelganger: Effects of a virtual reality simulator on perceptions of schizophrenia

Recent scholarship suggests that virtual environments can serve as effective proxies in battling implicit stereotypes. However, existing experimental research has rarely examined the effectiveness of virtual simulations of mental illnesses in inducing empathy to combat stereotypical responses. We report results from a 4-condition, between subjects experiment (N = 112), wherein participants were exposed to either a virtual simulation of schizophrenia, a written empathy-set induction of schizophrenia, a combination of both the simulation and written empathy conditions, or a control condition. The results indicated that the virtual simulation + empathy condition induced greater empathy and more positive perceptions toward people suffering from schizophrenia than the control or written empathy-set condition. Interestingly, the simulation-only condition resulted in the greatest desire for social distance whereas not significantly differing on empathy and attitude measures from either the written empathy or simulation + empathy conditions. We discuss the implications of the findings and recommend directions for future research.

Portrait of the Portal as a Metaphor: Explicating Web Portals for Communication Research

Web portals are increasing in their presence as well as importance, yet suffer from lack of conceptual clarity. In explicating the concept of “portal” from a number of disciplinary frameworks, this article uncovers five different but inter-related metaphorical conceptions—gateways, billboards, networks, niches, and brands—which, in turn, suggest five dominant features of portal sites—customization, content, control, community, and commerce—for empirical examination as variables in future research on uses and effects of portals.

Do Motion Controllers Make Action Video Games Less Sedentary? A Randomized Experiment

Sports- and fitness-themed video games using motion controllers have been found to produce physical activity. It is possible that motion controllers may also enhance energy expenditure when applied to more sedentary games such as action games. Young adults (N = 100) were randomized to play three games using either motion-based or traditional controllers. No main effect was found for controller or game pair (P > .12). An interaction was found such that in one pair, motion control (mean [SD] 0.96 [0.20] kcal · kg−1 · hr−1) produced 0.10 kcal · kg−1 · hr−1 (95% confidence interval 0.03 to 0.17) greater energy expenditure than traditional control (0.86 [0.17] kcal · kg−1 · hr−1, P = .048). All games were sedentary. As currently implemented, motion control is unlikely to produce moderate intensity physical activity in action games. However, some games produce small but significant increases in energy expenditure, which may benefit health by decreasing sedentary behavior.