Indicates that issue/advocacy advertising inoculates against attitude change among undergraduate students, while simultaneously protecting sponsors against slippage in ratings of source credibility, after exposure to a persuasive attack on behalf of an opposing position. (SR)

Presents new measures of musical syntax which allow systematic comparison of normative and distorted syntactic structure and thus investigation of the notion that distortion, both semantic and syntactic, enhance audience attention. Applies the measures in an examination of the social forces that influence the use of normative versus distorted…

Examines psychophysiological and cognitive processing of television events to see what kinds of contextual information might be stored as a result of both real and fictional television events and mediated and unmediated television events. Examines decision processes that use this information. Suggests that television may result in contextual…

Finds that, among college students, (1) both related and unrelated cuts resulted in cardiac orienting responses; (2) processing unrelated cuts required more capacity than processing related cuts; and (3) memory was better for information presented after related cuts, with this effect greater for visual memory than for audio memory. (SR)

Finds that more permissive sexual attitudes and lower levels of punitiveness were associated with adolescents' greater enjoyment of "slasher films." Shows that traditional attitudes toward females' sexuality were positively associated with gore-watching motivations and with greater enjoyment of previews featuring female victims. (SR)

Outlines a psychophysiological (involuntary responses to novel environmental stimuli) model of the role of orienting responses (ORs) in learning from televised lectures. Demonstrates that insertion of videographics in talking-head lectures produces ORs in television viewers. Finds that ORs enhance learning of familiar material but interfere with…

Examines the visual attention of undergraduate students to the television screen. Finds that varying relatedness of episodes, for which strategic inertial processes should vary in strength, produces a corresponding difference in inertia of looks crossing boundaries. Suggests that results previously interpreted as reflecting nonstrategic processes…

Tests relationships between trust in television news and newspaper coverage and each of four attitude components: direction, intensity, closure, and involvement. Finds significant relationships for all four components. Notes that existing hypotheses relating credibility to attitude have not anticipated that credibility might be related to more…

Finds enhanced recall of political television commercials from content domains of family and appearance in the case of women as opposed to men candidates, and enhanced recall from the domain of campaign activities in the case of men as opposed to women candidates. Finds that men's attack ads on women elicited greater emotional reaction than…

Investigates whether the intensity and scope of media system dependency (MSD) relations are positively related to perceptions of threats in the environment. Finds that higher perceptions of threat are associated with more intense MSD relations; threat perceptions are strong predictors of the intensity of MSD relations when demographic variables…

Investigates effects of undergraduate students' physiological arousal induced by physical activity on schematic priming effects from music videos. Finds that in high-arousal conditions priming effects were more extreme and more closely resembled music video content than in low-arousal conditions. (SR)

Argues that effects of emotional visuals accompanying television news broadcasts are reflected not in the exact recall of text but through specific kinds of errors in recall and the relation of these errors to certain parts of the item. (SR)

Explores the psychological origins of media gratification by examining how pertinent psychological variables help explain television viewing motivation. Finds that parasocial interaction, anxiety, creativity, sensation seeking's disinhibition dimension, and television affinity and exposure, helped to predict viewing motivation. (PRA)

Attempts to elaborate the cultivation hypothesis by examining some proposed subprocesses, especially learning and construction with first- and second-order measures. Examines the relationship between first- and second-order measures. Argues that cultivation theory needs to be extended. (SR)

Investigates similarities in how people respond to mediated presentations and nonmediated experience in the realm of social interaction. Finds that viewing distance manipulation failed to support predictions and watching larger television screens led to more positive emotional responses, in which subjects selected a viewing position that…