In the theoretical framework of dynamic motivational activation, this study reveals the dynamics of antimarijuana public service announcement (PSA) processing, especially the processing of co-occurring positive and negative content. It specifies the important role of endogenous feedback dynamics of the information processing system and teases them…

A substantial body of scholarship focused on the processes involved in message planning has accumulated in the communication literature. One of the central tenets of memory models upon which most of the message planning models are based is that dynamic memory systems organize and reorganize knowledge structures to maximize information processing…

This paper reports the results of a controlled field experiment in which voice communication was introduced into an existing online community (online gaming guilds within the popular game "World of Warcraft"), comparing a mix of voice and text with text only. Quantitative results suggest increases in liking and trust due to the addition of voice,…

Argues that the information-processing paradigm can both revitalize so-called strong-effects theories in mass media research and make them more inclusive. Discusses how the four previous studies in this issue show the use of simple solutions to problems that have plagued mass-media-effects research and call out for further inclusion of discussions…

Attempts to validate the basic constructs of a theory of cognitive switching developed from human performance literature and signaled stopping research. Presents data which display behavioral traces of the ways people organize television news into their information-processing system. (JMF)

This research considers how distinct news frames work in combination to influence information processing. It extends framing research grounded in prospect theory (Tversky & Kahneman, 1981) and attribution theory (Iyengar, 1991) to study conditional framing effects on associative memory. Using a 2 x 3 experimental design embedded within a…

Relates an experiment designed to test the hypothesis that cognitive change resulting from information inputs can be represented as linear motion of concepts in multidimensional space. (MH)