Effects of sudden audio disappearance and audio complexity on attention and message recognition

Yevgeniya Solodovnikova

This experiment uses the limited capacity model of mediated message processing (LC3MP) to examine the effects of sudden audio disappearance and audio complexity on viewers’ attention and message recognition. The study also investigates whether these structural features affect low and high novelty seekers differently. Fifty nine participants viewed 20 commercials, ten of which were low in audio complexity and ten were high in audio complexity. Half commercials in each audio complexity category had an audio fragment cut out from them. The participants’ heart rate (HR) during message presentation was measured and used as a physiological index of mental effort and attention paid. Their overall attention to each message was also assessed using a self-report measure. Results demonstrated that compared to HR during messages with continuous audio, sudden audio disappearance elicited greater orienting responses resulting in greater HR deceleration. However, the participants did not report paying greater attention to the messages with sudden audio disappearance compared to the messages with continuous audio. The prediction that messages high in audio complexity would elicit greater attention than messages low in audio complexity did not receive support. Conversely, the participants paid more attention to the messages that were low in audio complexity than to the messages that were high in audio complexity. Self-reported data did not reveal that the participants distinguished between the two audio complexity categories in terms of attention. However, the participants reported paying more attention to sudden audio disappearance in the messages that were low in audio complexity than to sudden audio disappearance in the messages that were high in audio complexity. Results revealed that recognition memory decreased after sudden audio disappearance and did not recover later. On the other hand, recognition memory increased steadily for the messages with continuous audio which indicated that sudden audio disappearance had negative impact on the message encoding. Unlike what was predicted, the participants’ recognition memory was better for the messages that were low in audio complexity than for the messages that were high in audio complexity. Predictions concerning high and low novelty seekers did not find support.

Effects of sudden audio disappearance and audio complexity on attention and message recognition

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