I’ve Heard That Before: Habituationof the Orienting Response FollowsRepeated Presentation of AuditoryStructural Features in Radio

5 Robert F. Potter, Teresa Lynch & Ashley Kraus

Research has used the cardiac orienting response (OR) to show that structural changesin the auditory environment cause people to briefly but automatically pay attention tomessages such as radio broadcasts, podcasts, and web streaming. The voice change—anexample of an auditory structural feature—elicits orienting across multiple repetitions.

10 This article reports two experiments designed to investigate whether automaticattention allocation to repeated instances of other auditory structural features—namelyproduction effects, jingles, and silence—is a robust phenomenon or if repetition leads tohabituation. In Study 1 we show that listeners of a simulated radio broadcast exhibitORs following the onset of auditory structural features that differ in semantic content.

15 The prediction that listeners would not habituate to feature repetition was notsupported. Instead, both jingles and synthesized production effects result in more iconicORs to

AQ1

the second repetition compared with the first. However, orienting significantlydiminished following the third repetition of both. Study 2 replicates this result usingmultiple repetitions of structural features containing identical semantic content.

20 Keywords: Attention; Orienting Response; Habituation; Audio; Radio; Psychophysiology

Introduction AQ2

Many scholars have written that evolutionarily “old” brains cognitively processmodern media messages (Lang, 2006; Potter & Bolls, 2011; Reeves & Nass, 1996). Thatis to say, the human brain has evolved as a biological organ over millions of years

25 and, during the vast majority of this time, everything that conscious individuals

Robert F. Potter (Ph.D., Indiana University) is an Associate Professor of Communication Science in The MediaSchool at Indiana University. Teresa Lynch (MA, Indiana University) and Ashley Kraus (MA, IndianaUniversity) are Doctoral Students at Indiana University. Correspondence to: Robert F. Potter, IndianaUniversity, 1229 E. Seventh St., Bloomington, IN 47405, USA. Email: rfpotter@indiana.edu.

Communication MonographsVol. 00, No. 00, Month 2015, pp. 1–20

{RCMM}Articles/RCMM1019529/RCMM_A_1019529_O.3d 11th March 2015 13:34:9 CE: A.R.; QA: V.J.;

ISSN 0363-7751 (print)/ISSN 1479-5787 (online) © 2015 National Communication Associationhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03637751.2015.1019529

experienced was both real and present. Such is not the case, of course, in the modernmediated world where things experienced in the environment are not always presentbut instead delivered to them as electronic representations. Nevertheless, thebiologically old brain is still hard-wired to respond to new environmental stimuli in

30 naturally selected ways.When “old” brains are interacting with “new” media, much of the grist for the

cognitive mill comes from the content of the messages. Making sense of news stories,understanding the narrative context underlying a joke in a primetime sitcom,replaying a YouTube instructional video to pay greater attention to a sequence of

35 steps—these are all examples of the prominence of content when it comes to theallocation of cognitive resources. In addition to content, however, media messagespresent the audience with structural features that lead to predictable cognitiveresponses (Lang, 2006). Moderated by the salience of the message to the individual,content features tend to prompt resource allocation in a more controlled way.

40 Structural features, on the other hand, often elicit automatic allocation of cognitiveresources in a manner than cannot be controlled. Television messages, for example,are comprised of pictures and sounds that may or may not be redundant with eachother. The structural features associated with the pictures and the sounds (e.g., camerachanges, video graphics, voice changes, sound effects) activate automatic processing

45 mechanisms in viewers through what is known as the orienting response (OR).The OR is an automatic biological mechanism involved in the mind/media

interaction. Pavlov (1927) was the first to identify the OR in his research on dogs,referring to it as the “what is it” response. The OR is an automatic response in thesense that we do not have the ability to suppress it (Schneider, Dumais, & Shiffrin,

50 1984). This evolved capacity for automaticity is useful as it allows for assessment ofdanger or benefit when triggered by motivational signals or novelty in theenvironment (Graham, 1979; Lang, 2006; Potter & Bolls, 2011). The most obviousindication of the OR is the individual’s physical turning toward the source of newinformation. For example if, as you are reading this article, you hear someone open a

55 door behind you, it is the OR that causes you to turn and look. Physical turning of thesensory organs toward the source of novelty is not, however, a particularly usefulindicator for media scholars because when people consume media they are usuallyalready physically oriented toward the message source and any novelty introduced inthe mediated world is already being pointed at by the eyes and ears. Fortunately,

60 decades ago cognitive psychologists—using simple auditory and visual stimuli—identified multiple physiological correlates of the OR such as pupil dilation (Lynn,1966), increased skin conductance (Ohman, 1979; Sokolov, 1963), and increasedperipheral blood flow (Sokolov, 1963). Another common physiological indication oforienting is heart rate deceleration in either a U- or S-shaped curve over 8–10 heart

65 beats—approximately 6–8 seconds—following onset of the OR-eliciting stimuli(Graham, 1979; Lang, Geiger, Strickwerda, & Sumner, 1993; Potter & Bolls, 2011;Sokolov & Cacioppo, 1997).

For more than 30 years, the OR has played a role in the study of television pro-cessing. Singer (1980) was the first when he noticed that, in fact, sometimes children

2 R.F. Potter et al.

{RCMM}Articles/RCMM1019529/RCMM_A_1019529_O.3d 11th March 2015 13:34:9

70 do turn their heads away from other activities and toward the TV screen in responseto visual and auditory changes in the show AQ3. Reeves et al. (1985) used alpha blockingin the electroencephalogram (EEG) to identify orienting at the point of charactermotion and cuts between different cameras. Since then, researchers have used cardiacdeceleration to identify ORs in response to a variety of visual structural features in

75 television and film including a replication of the Reeves et al. (1985) onscreenmovement results (Simons, Detenber, Cuthbert, Schwartz, & Reiss, 2003), related andun-related camera changes (Lang et al., 1993), the onset of onscreen graphics(Thorson & Lang, 1992), computer animation (Lang, Borse, Wise, & David, 2002),and popup windows on the web (Diao & Sundar, 2004).

80 Orienting to auditory structural features has also been of interest to communicationresearchers. Potter’s work has shown that structural features in radio messages (e.g.,voice changes, silence onset, commercial onset, sound effects, production effects)cause cardiac deceleration in both attentive (Potter, 2000, 2006; Potter, Lang, & Bolls,2008) and non-attentive (Potter, Lang, & Bolls, 1998) listeners. An unpublished study

85 by Solodovnikova (2008) fo AQ4und that the sudden disappearance of audio in a TVmessage also leads to cardiac deceleration, reminiscent of some of the earliest work inorienting to audio that showed automatic attention to audio signal offset—as well asonset (Chase & Graham, 1967).

Early work found in the classic psychology literature also points to another90 common feature of the OR: it habituates after repeated trials (Graham, 1979).

Repeated onsets of non-threatening stimuli result in diminution of the OR, somethingthat differentiates it from cognitive and emotional responses to simple stimuli ofgreater intensity and threat (Graham, 1979). As an example, consider a basic psy-chophysiological research experiment consisting of participants listening over head-

95 phones to a sequence of brief, 50 millisecond tones. This sequence would consist ofsingle frequency tones until a target tone of an entirely different frequency entered theaudio stream. Initially, participants would exhibit cardiac deceleration to thisenvironmental change. However, after several repetitions of this randomly occurringtone of a different frequency, the cardiac orienting would diminish. This is thought to

100 be due to the neurological basis for the OR itself (Ohman, 1979). Theoretically, the“what is it” response occurs when the neurological patterns generated by environ-mental intake at one instant are sufficiently different from the neurological patternsgenerated by the environment in the past. Therefore, “[h]abituation of the OR shouldbe rapid, because with each repetition there is less difference between the stimulus and

105 the neuronal model of prior stimulation and, thus, the amount of information isreduced” (Graham, 1979, p. 141). Although evidence indicates that cardiac dece-leration does not disappear completely in response to auditory tones (e.g., even after80 repetitions of the stimulus; Putnam, Ross, & Graham, 1974), a significant decreasein the magnitude of heart rate change occurs after as few as three trials (Graham, 1979,

110 Figure 8.4).This neuronal model of the OR may explain why cardiac orienting to novelty

introduced through camera changes in television signals does not habituate (Lang,2000, 2006). A camera change introduces a much greater sense of environmental

Habituation of Auditory Structural Features 3

{RCMM}Articles/RCMM1019529/RCMM_A_1019529_O.3d 11th March 2015 13:34:10

novelty than the onset of a tone pip of a different frequency. Camera changes signify115 forward progression of a narrative and entail a component of visual literacy quickly

learned when users first encounter television (Zettl, 2012). Furthermore, materialintroduced through camera changes rarely imparts precisely the same informationfrom one shot to the next. Therefore, the comparisons between neural representa-tions from one camera change to the next would also never be so similar as to lead to

120 substantial reductions in cardiac orienting. Recent work, in fact, uses this premise asa theoretical underpinning in examining the amount of cognitive resources allocatedto message processing for comparison with the amount of resources required at eachmoment in the dynamic processing of a media message (Lang et al., 2014; Lang,Bradley, Park, Shin, & Chung, 2006).

125 Only one study has focused these questions on auditory structure and it did sousing a single feature (Potter, 2000). Potter presented listeners with recordings ofradio broadcasts selected to vary based upon how often a voice change occurred.A voice change was conceptually defined as a relatively instantaneous replacement ofone speaker’s voice by another in the auditory stream. It was believed to provide a

130 strong analog to the camera change in television for two reasons. First, radio andother audio-heavy media frequently use voice changes just as camera changes arecommon visual structural features of TV. Second, similar to the progressive nature ofcamera changes, voice changes suggest forward momentum of information deliveryin radio (Potter, 2000). The experimental design called for analyzing the cardiac

135 response to six successive voice changes over messages that were 2 minutes induration. Results showed cardiac orienting to the voice change did not habituate.Potter suggested that—at least to the point of 120 seconds—the replacement of arelatively familiar speaker’s voice by another voice in the form of a dialog providesenough novel information for automatic allocation of cognitive resources to the

140 message via orienting.Other research provides evidence that listeners exhibit cardiac orienting to single

instances of a number of auditory structural features: sound effect onsets, productioneffects, music onsets, etc. (Potter, 2006; Potter et al., 2008). However, we are aware ofno studies to date that have tested whether repeated presentations of these features

145 lead to continued orienting in a manner similar to a voice change or to habituation ina manner similar to tone pips. This absence in the literature is problematic given thatother studies operate under the assumption that audio structural features should actlike video features in that they would not habituate after multiple occurrences (Langet al., 2014; Potter & Callison, 2000; Potter & Choi, 2006).

150 This manuscript responds to this absence in the literature by presenting resultsfrom two experiments. Both follow the same basic design protocol: subjects parti-cipated individually by listening to approximately 40 minutes of a simulated Top 40radio station while heart rate data were collected via sensors placed on theirforearms. Physiology data were time-locked to the media presentation to allow for

155 the construction of cardiac response curves (CRCs) following the onset of theauditory structural features under investigation. Both studies used the same auditorystructural features: station identification jingles, production effect station

4 R.F. Potter et al.

{RCMM}Articles/RCMM1019529/RCMM_A_1019529_O.3d 11th March 2015 13:34:10

identifications, and silence. The features were chosen due to their commonality in themodern radio listening experience. Each instantiation of a feature was 6 seconds in

160 duration. A jingle is conceptually defined as a brief musical piece with lyricsidentifying the radio station. A production effect is a non-musical, repetitivesynthesized sound used at the beginning of the radio station identification. Silenceonset was conceptually defined as the beginning of “dead air” or the absence of anyauditory content in the radio broadcast.

165 Study 1 represents the most ecologically valid stimulus condition by interspersingthe musical selections with repetitions of auditory structural feature exemplars thatchange in semantic content. For example, listeners heard three repetitions of a“jingle” but the content of the jingle was different each time. Similarly they heardthree repetitions of a “production effect station identification” but each was phrased

170 slightly differently and began with a different synthesized production effect. Silence,of course, had no semantic content and therefore could not change across repetitions.

Study 2 presents a closer comparison of more traditional cognitive psychologyhabituation experiments by interspersing the songs with repetitions of the exactauditory structural features (e.g., the listener heard three instances of the same jingle,

175 three instances of the same production effect station identification, and threeinstances of silence over the 40-minute session).

Study 1: Habituation to Repetitions of Audio Structural Features as Concepts

Hypotheses

Research shows that television viewers automatically allocate cognitive resources to180 encoding in response to visual structural features like camera changes and video-

graphic onsets (Thorson & Lang, 1992; Lang et al., 1993). Similar visual features alsocause orienting during the use of web-based media (Diao & Sundar, 2004, AQ5Lang et al.,2002). Auditory structural features such as voice changes and production effects havebeen found to cause automatic resource allocation in listeners during simulated radio

185 broadcasts (Potter, 2000; Potter et al., 2008). This experiment begins by predicting areplication of Potter et al. (2008). Namely, what can be conceptualized as auditorystructural features should introduce sufficient novelty into the listener’s environmentto result in ORs. Therefore, our first hypothesis:

H1: There will be a main effect of Time on listener cardiac change scores such that190 heart rate will decrease in a significant quadratic or cubic trend following the onset

of auditory structural features (i.e., jingles, production effects, and silence).

Moving beyond replication, however, this study investigates whether the repeatedoccurrence of auditory structural features results in habituation of the OR. There isevidence suggesting simple auditory stimuli eventually fails to rise to the level of

195 novelty and the heart rate deceleration diminishes (Graham, 1979). However, workin media psychology has found orienting to visual camera changes (Lang, 2006) andthe voice change (Potter, 2000) does not habituate. It is possible that this is because

Habituation of Auditory Structural Features 5

{RCMM}Articles/RCMM1019529/RCMM_A_1019529_O.3d 11th March 2015 13:34:10

so-called “repetitions” of structural features in media are never truly identical.For example, consider a trio of camera changes in a television scene. The scene

200 begins with a wide shot of a pair of friends sitting at a restaurant table. Camerachange 1 brings the viewer to a medium shot of the first friend as she talks about howher boss just got fired. Camera change 2 shows a medium reaction shot from thesecond friend. Camera change 3 returns to the first character. This time the visualcomposition of the frame is a little bit tighter and she says she is upset and just wants

205 to pretend the day did not happen. Although all three would be conceptualized ascamera changes they each introduce substantially different experiences to the viewer.Therefore, it is understandable why we do not habituate to them (Lang, 2006). Thesame can be imagined for a sequence of voice changes. Potter (2000) suggested thatalthough the superordinate category of voice change was repeated multiple times in

210 his study design, each occurrence introduced novelty in terms of vocal prosody,inflection, volume, and content. It was this novelty that kept listeners fromhabituating to their onset. Our first study used structural features as representativesof their superordinate category but had them vary in content. Therefore, it was notexpected that habituation to audio structural features would occur in Study 1:

215 H2: The cardiac OR will not fully habituate after three repetitions of jingle andproduction effect onsets which differ in semantic content.

Methods

Stimulus Preparation and Description

Twelve songs were selected from the Top 40 radio charts of www.billboard.com. The220 songs chosen had all been on the charts for at least 10 weeks and ranked in the top

100 during the weeks of stimuli creation.1 We edited the stimuli into five ordersdesigned to each simulate a radio broadcast. After every second song a jingle,production effect station identification, or silence occurred for 6 seconds before thenext set of two songs played. The structural features were systematically ordered such

225 that they were always evenly spaced between the songs. We systematically created theorders of presentation so that no song was heard more than once by each participantand across orders every song appeared at least once in each third of the 40-minutestimulus session.

Dependent Variables

230 The dependent measure was heart rate in beats per minute (BPM)/half-second. Wecollected cardiac AQ6data from participants as milliseconds between R-complex in the inthe electrocardiogram (ECG) waveform, a period known as the interbeat interval(IBI; Lang, 1994; Potter & Bolls, 2011). IBIs were measured by adhering threestandard (8 mm) AG/AGCL reusable cup electrodes on the forearm of the

235 participant after cleaning the skin surface with a cotton pad saturated in a mixtureof rubbing alcohol and pumice. The electrodes were filled with electrolyte gel to

6 R.F. Potter et al.

{RCMM}Articles/RCMM1019529/RCMM_A_1019529_O.3d 11th March 2015 13:34:10

increase signal strength. We edited IBI data offline using VPMEVENT (Cook, 2009)to AQ7remove movement artifact. The same software then converted the IBI values intoBPM for 13 half-seconds following the onset of each structural feature.

240 Sk AQ8in conductance and corrugator facial electromyographic (EMG) data were alsocollected from participants. However, because these variables were collected toaddress hypotheses concerning the processing of the songs and not the auditorystructural features, they are not further discussed here.

Subjects

245 This experiment was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at a largeMidwestern university in the USA. All subjects were undergraduate students enrolledin various courses in a department of media. Each participant received course/extracredit for participation. Heart rate data were collected from 57 subjects.

Procedure

250 Participants completed the experimental protocol individually in a session lastingapproximately 90 minutes. During that time independent and dependent variableswere presented from several data collection protocols.2 Following informed consent,the protocol began with the participants being seated in a comfortable chair andcompleting a brief personality measure. After that, the researcher returned to the lab

255 room and explained the placement and purpose of the physiological electrodes priorto putting them on the participant with adhesive collars. The experimenter told thesubject to relax and listen to the 40-minute recording of a popular music radiostation. They were told that a later portion of the study would contain questionsabout the songs they heard. After addressing any questions the participant had, the

260 experimenter gave them headphones, started the audio stimulus, and left the room.Upon completion of the music stimulus, the experimenter came back into the room,

removed the headphones, and explained a media-use survey that the participantcompleted. Finally, the experimenter asked the participants to put the headphones backon and listen to 6- to 10-second clips of each song played earlier in the radio stimuli.

265 Between each of the clips, the participants rated how familiar they were with the song,how tired they were of it, and how positive, negative, and excited the song made themfeel during the radio broadcast. Following this, the experimenter removed theelectrodes, thanked the participants, and dismissed them.

Apparatus

270 The experiment ran on a Pentium IV computer with Windows Vista installed andwas controlled by Media Lab software (Jarvis, 2006). The Coulbourn Lablink Vsystem and VPM software package (Cook, 2009) c AQ9ollected physiology data.Participants listened to the audio stimuli through Sony headphones, with the volumepre-determined and kept constant by the experimenter.

Habituation of Auditory Structural Features 7

{RCMM}Articles/RCMM1019529/RCMM_A_1019529_O.3d 11th March 2015 13:34:10

275 Statistical Analyses

The BPM value for the half-second prior to the onset of each auditory structuralfeature served as a physiological baseline that we then subtracted from each of 13 half-seconds following the feature onset to calculate change scores. We then analyzed theseusing a 3 (Feature Type) × 3 (Repetition) × 14 (Time) × 5 (Order of presentation)

280 repeated measure analysis of variance (ANOVA) with Feature Type, Repetition, andTime as within subjects factors. Order of presentation was a between-subjects factorthat did not have a statistically significant main effect or interaction with Time in anyof the analyses. It was therefore removed from the models being reported.

ORs were identified by visual inspection of CRCs followed by significant main effects285 of the Time factor and/or subsequent significance in the quadratic or cubic trends in

the CRCs (Lang, 1994; Potter & Bolls, 2011). Habituation was operationally defined asthe loss of a statistical significance in both the quadratic and cubic trend in the cardiacchange score data. Violations of sphericity AQ10were corrected using the Huynh–Feldtadjustment on all degrees of freedom prior to testing for significant p values. Standard

290 degrees of freedom and adjusted F values and p values are reported.

Results

To test the first hypothesis we collapsed cardiac change scores following the onset ofthe nine instances of auditory structure (three each of jingle, production effect, andsilence) for all subjects. As predicted, the effect of Time on the heart rate response

295 following auditory structural feature onset was significant, F(13, 689) = 4.11, p = .002,η2 =.072 as was the quadratic trend, F(1, 53) = 4.35, p = .042, η2 =.076 and the cubictrend, F(1, 53) = 15.57, p < .001, η2 =.227. The OR to the aggregation of auditorystructural features can be seen in Figure 1.

There was also a significant Features × Time interaction, F(26, 1378) = 3.99, p <300 .001, η2 =.070. As can be seen in Figure 2, the onset of production effects and jingles

resulted in obvious S-shaped cardiac responses. The cubic trend was significant forboth production effects, F(1, 53) = 13.62, p = .001, η2 =.20, and for jingles, F(1, 53) =7.88, p = .007, η2 =.03. The CRC for jingles also demonstrated a significant quadratictrend, F(1, 53) = 11.01, p = .002, η2 =.17. While heart rate decelerated following the

305 onset of the 6-second silences, the response was more linear than S- or U-shapedalthough the linear trend did not reach statistical significance. These analyses showthat listeners orient to auditory structural features in general, but also specifically toproduction effects and jingle onsets although not to silence onsets.

The second hypothesis predicted that due to variations in their semantic content,310 listeners would not habituate to the repeated onset of auditory structural features.

The Repetition × Time interaction was not significant, suggesting initial support ofthis hypothesis. There was however a significant Feature × Repetition × Timeinteraction, F(52, 2756) = 2.11, p = .005, η2 =.038, indicating that the effect ofrepetition on the OR varied by the type of feature heard. In order to investigate this

315 possibility, the CRCs for each of the structural features were analyzed individually.

8 R.F. Potter et al.

{RCMM}Articles/RCMM1019529/RCMM_A_1019529_O.3d 11th March 2015 13:34:10

Listeners did not orient to the onset of silence, with no significant effect of Time onthe cardiac response to the onset of “dead air” (p = .37). However, listeners did showcardiac ORs to jingles that varied in semantic content, identified by a significant maineffect for Time, F(13, 698) = 4.243, p = .001, η2 =.074, a significant quadratic trend,

320 F(1, 53) = 11.01, p = .002, η2 =.17 and a significant cubic trend F(1, 53) = 11.01, p =.007, η2 =.13. There was also a Repetition × Time interaction that approachedstatistical significance, F(26, 1378) = 1.836, p = .054, η2 =.03. This can be seen inFigure 3. Statistical power is substantially lowered in the experimental design whenconducting analyses at this level. This may possibly be the reason why the overall

325 main effect for Time was not significant for the first repetition, however the cubictrend in the CRC approached significance (p =.07). The main effect for Time wassignificant in the cardiac response to the second jingle repetition, F(13, 698) = 2.025,p = .010, η2 =.10, as was the quadratic trend, F(1, 53) = 3.941, p = .05, η2 =.07 and cubictrend F(1, 53) = 9.609, p = .003, η2 =.153. In response to the onset of the third jingle,

330 cardiac data returned a significant main effect for Time, F(13, 698) = 3.714, p < .001,η2 =.065, however as can be seen in Figure 3, the response was significantly quadratic,F(1, 53) = 9.110, p = .004, η2 =.147, but never decelerated below baseline. Instead, thequadratic trend followed an acceleratory inverted-U pattern unrepresentative of an OR.

The onset of synthesized production effects that began station identifications335 containing different semantic content resulted in a main effect for Time in the CRCs,

F(13, 698) = 6.700, p < .001, η2 =.112, and the interaction of Time with Repetitionapproached significance, F(26,1378) = 1.783, p = .08, η2 =.033. This can be seen inFigure 4. Interestingly the analysis of the individual CRCs for this structural feature

Time in Half-Seconds

Cha

nge

Sco

res

in B

eats

-per

-Min

ute

–0.6

–0.8

–0.4

–0.2

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.0

Onset

Time

1

Time

2

Time

3

Time

4

Time

5

Time

6

Time

7

Time

8

Time

9

Time

10

Time

11

Time

12

Time

13

Figure 1 CRC following the onset of auditory structural features in Study 1.

Habituation of Auditory Structural Features 9

{RCMM}Articles/RCMM1019529/RCMM_A_1019529_O.3d 11th March 2015 13:34:10

returned qualitatively similar results as those for jingles. In the first instance of a340 production effect, heart rate response did not have a significant main effect for Time,

p = .14, however, orienting is still indicated by the significant cubic trend in theresponse, F(1, 53) = 5.29, p = .025, η2 =.091. There was a main effect for Time inresponse to the second onset, F(13, 689) = 6.34, p <.001, η2 =.107, and the pattern ofthe CRC was significantly cubic in shape F(1, 53) = 8.611, p = .005, η2 =.14. However,

345 although the response to the final onset of a production effect did result in a significantmain effect for Time on the heart rate change scores, F(13, 689) = 2.720, p = .039,η2 =.049 the pattern contraindicated an OR with a linear acceleratory trend thatapproached significance F(1, 53) = 3.812, p = .056, η2 =.067. The results for hypothesis 2suggest that habituation occurred in the third repetition of jingles and synthesized

350 production effects even though the semantic content varied across repetition.

Study 2: Habituation to Repetitions of Identical Audio Structural Features

Hypothesis and Research Question

The results from Study 1 indicated that even when audio structural features repeatedmerely in the form of concepts—that is, when the semantic content delivered changed

355 with each instantiation—listeners appeared to stop exhibiting ORs to their onset bythe third occurrence. There was also evidence, particularly with the third repetition ofa jingle, of heart rate acceleration following structural feature onset. This suggests

Time in Half-Seconds

EFX

Silence

Jingle

Cha

nge

Sco

res

in B

eats

-per

-Min

ute

–1.5

1.5

2

–1

1

–0.5

0.5

0

Onset

Time

1

Time

2

Time

3

Time

4

Time

5

Time

6

Time

7

Time

8

Time

9

Time

10

Time

11

Time

12

Time

13

Figure 2 Feature × Time interaction following onset of auditory structural features inStudy 1, where repetitions of production effect station identifications effects (EFX AQ17) andstation jingles contained different semantic content.

10 R.F. Potter et al.

{RCMM}Articles/RCMM1019529/RCMM_A_1019529_O.3d 11th March 2015 13:34:11

that the cognitive system no longer responded to the structural element as somethingnovel to automatically attend to, but possibly as something to be disengaged from—

360 since heart rate acceleration is an indication of information avoidance (Potter &Bolls, 2011). To further investigate this possibility a second study was designed topresent listeners with radio stimuli containing aspects similar to traditional habitu-ation studies in the field of psychology. We created another simulated Top 40 radiobroadcast with songs familiar to the participants and using the same interspersion

365 patterns of silence, production effect, and jingle as Study 1. However, in Study 2 onlyone jingle and one production effect station identification was used, each beingrepeated three times during the 40-minute stimuli. Although this runs counter to mostmodern radio programming practices, the goal was to provide rigid examples ofstructural feature repetition. The results of Study 1 led us to predict that when

370 identical instances of audio structural features were repeated three times listeners’cognitive systems would no longer process them as novel by the end of the broadcast.With this argument in mind, the following hypothesis is presented:

H3 AQ11: The cardiac OR will habituate after three repetitions of identical jingles andproduction effect onsets which are identical in semantic content.

375 The expectation that orienting to the onset of structural features would habituate leftus unsure about what to predict concerning the CRC constructed when aggregatingheart rate change scores across multiple occurrences. Although multiple examplesexist in the literature suggesting orienting to auditory structural features is a robust

Onset

–3.0

3.0

4.0

2.0

1.0

–2.0

–1.0

0.0

Time

1

Time

2

Time

3

Time

4

Time

5

Time

6

Time

7

Time

8

Time

9

Time

10

Time

11

Time

12

Time

13

Time in Half-Seconds

Rep 1

Rep 2

Rep 3

Cha

nge

Sco

res

in B

eats

-per

-Min

ute

Figure 3 Repetition × Time interaction following onset of jingles with different semanticcontent.

Habituation of Auditory Structural Features 11

{RCMM}Articles/RCMM1019529/RCMM_A_1019529_O.3d 11th March 2015 13:34:11

phenomenon (Jamison-Koenig & Potter, 2014; Potter, 2000), if AQ12Hypothesis 1 is380 supported, the habituation of the OR after multiple repetitions may diminish the

aggregated OR to auditory structure in Study 2. Therefore, we hypothesize that:

RQ1: When listeners are exposed to repetitions of identical audio structuralfeatures, does the aggregated CRC indicate the existence of OR to audio structuralfeatures?

385 Methods

The stimulus messages were prepared in the same manner as Study 1, with the onlydifference being that a single jingle and production effect station identification wereused. Also, the entire set of data was gathered quickly enough in Study 2 to allow for asingle collection of songs to be used in the stimuli. These were systematically ordered

390 across five orders of presentation. The apparatus, dependent variables, physiologicaldata cleaning procedures, and statistical analysis were the same as described in Study 1.

Subjects

This experiment was conducted at the same university using an IRB-approvedprotocol. All subjects were undergraduate students enrolled in various courses in a

395 department of media. Compensation was in the form of course/extra credit. Heartrate data were collected from 72 participants.

Rep 1

Rep 2

Rep 3

Onset

Time

1

Time

2

Time

3

Time

4

Time

5

Time

6

Time

7

Time

8

Time

9

Time

10

Time

11

Time

12

Time

13

Time in Half-Seconds

Cha

nge

Sco

res

in B

eats

-per

-Min

ute

–2.0

3.0

2.5

2.0

1.5

1.0

–1.5

–1.0

0.5

–0.5

0.0

Figure 4 Repetition × Time interaction following onset of production effects followed bydifferent semantic content.

12 R.F. Potter et al.

{RCMM}Articles/RCMM1019529/RCMM_A_1019529_O.3d 11th March 2015 13:34:11

Procedure

Although the presentation of the simulated radio broadcast and the resulting ques-tions about the songs used were identical across the two studies, the participant

400 experience in the research lab was different. Subjects in Study 2 did not complete thesame personality questionnaires as those in Study 1 nor did they complete a media-use survey. Instead they did two other tasks unrelated to the hypothesis and researchquestion being investigated. They watched a series of movie clips and answered visualrecognition questions about them on video screens of three different sizes. After this,

405 subjects in Study 2 had the physiological electrodes explained and their questionsaddressed. The same skin preparation procedures were used to attach electrodes tothe arms, hands, and face to measure heart rate, skin conductance, and facial EMG,respectively. Subjects then listened to the approximately 40-minute stimuli using thesame type of headphones as in Study 1. Afterwards they saw a series of video game

410 avatars and provided self-reported attitude measures in response to them, which areunrelated to this experiment. Finally, the participants listened to 6- to 10-second clipsof each song played earlier in the radio stimuli and provided the same ratings ofthem as in Study 1.

Results

415 Given the results from the first study, our prediction was that listeners wouldhabituate to the onset of identical audio structural features heard multiple timesduring the course of a 40-minute broadcast. Unlike Study 1, the repeated measuresANOVA for Feature × Repetition × Time was not statistically significant, suggestingno difference in the impact of repetition on the CRCs across the different structural

420 features.There was, however, a significant Feature × Time interaction, F(26, 1768) = 3.642,

p < .001, η2 = .05 which can be seen in Figure 5. Overall, the CRC for the onset of thejingle had a significant Time effect F(13, 884) = 2.921, p < .016, η2 = .014 and cubictrend, F(1, 68) = 6.705, p =.012, η2 = .09. The main effect for Time onset of the

425 production effect was also statistically significant F(13, 884) = 4.812, p =.001, η2 =.066. The cubic trend was significant F(1, 68) = 27.893, p <.001, η2 = .291, as was thequadratic trend, F(1, 68) = 6.068, p =.016, η2 = .082. Similar to the results in Study 1,the overall cardiac response to silence onset did not follow the U- or S-shaped curveassociated with an OR, but rather showed sustained deceleration which—unlike in

430 Study 1—was significantly linear, F(1, 68) = 5.621, p =.021, η2 = .076.There was also a significant Repetition × Time interaction, F(26, 1768) = 3.062,

p =.001, η2 = .046 which can be seen in Figure 6. Analysis of each CRC individually,collapsing across features for each of the three repetitions, resulted in the firstinstance having neither a main effect for Time nor a significant quadratic or cubic

435 trend. However, visual inspection of Figure 6 shows a marked deceleration in heartrate until the sixth half-second after the first repetition. This is followed by theexpected increase found in a cubic or quadratic trend. Interestingly, however, heart

Habituation of Auditory Structural Features 13

{RCMM}Articles/RCMM1019529/RCMM_A_1019529_O.3d 11th March 2015 13:34:11

rate never returns to baseline levels but instead stabilizes from the sixth to the ninthhalf-second. Analysis of the CRC up to the point of stabilization shows the main

440 effect for Time and the quadratic trend approaches significance, F(9, 612) = 2.214,p <.059, η2 = .032 and F(1, 68) = 3.515, p =.065, η2 = .049, respectively. This maysuggest that orienting did indeed occur, but was obscured in the CRC by somethinghappening shortly after onset which kept heart rate levels low. The second repetition,on the other hand, had a main effect for Time F(13, 884) = 5.337, p <.001, η2 = .073

445 and followed the cubic trend significantly F(1, 68) = 45.467, p =.001, η2 = .40,suggesting that listeners oriented to onset. For the third repetition the main effect forTime approached significance F(13, 884) = 2.217, p =.076, η2 = .032, as did thequadratic trend in the data F(1, 68) = 3.560, p =.063, η2 = .05.

The results of this interaction provide moderate support for the hypothesis. On the450 one hand, listeners clearly oriented to the second repetition of the identical structural

feature but failed to do so in response to the third occurrence. While, this suggestshabituation as predicted, the lack of both a main effect for Time and a significantquadratic or cubic trend in the change score data following the first repetition seemsto contraindicate orienting. If this is the case, then subjects may be described as

455 having slight orienting in response to the first repetition, robust orienting to thesecond, and then again diminished response to the third. Nevertheless, support forHypothesis 3 remains inconclusive at best.

Finally, we posed a research question about whether, given the expectation thatorienting would habituate by the third repetition of identical structural features, the

460 aggregate CRC would exhibit a pattern that could be defined as orienting. Thisaggregate CRC can be seen in Figure 7. Statistical analysis shows a main effect for

Onset

Time

1

Time

2

Time

3

Time

4

Time

5

Time

6

Time

7

Time

8

Time

9

Time

10

Time

11

Time

12

Time

13

Cha

nge

Sco

res

in B

eats

-per

-Min

ute

–2

1

0.5

0

–1.5

–1

–0.5 Silence

Jingle

Time in Half-Seconds

EFX

Figure 5 Feature × Time interaction in Study 2.

14 R.F. Potter et al.

{RCMM}Articles/RCMM1019529/RCMM_A_1019529_O.3d 11th March 2015 13:34:11

Time F(13, 884) = 3.31, p =.013, η2 = .046 and a cubic trend F(1, 68) = 28.82, p <.001,η2 = .298. Listeners did orient to auditory structural feature onset in the aggregate,even when the identical features were repeated three times. The answer to this

465 research question, however, should be tempered given the support for Hypothesis 3showing habituation of the OR by the third repetition.

Discussion

Human beings have evolved to automatically pay attention when new informationenters their environment. Pavlov (1927) called the biological mechanism responsible

470 for this instinctive reaction the “what is it” response. Today cognitive psychologistsrefer to it as the Orienting Response (OR) and identify its occurrence through severalphysiological correlates including alpha blocking in the EEG, pupil dilation,vasoconstriction, and skin conductance increase. A very robust indicator of the ORis the phasic deceleration of cardiac activity in a quadratic or cubic shape in the 6–8

475 seconds following the onset of the source of novelty. Another traditional character-istic of the OR is that it habituates to repetitive onset of identical information. Thismakes theoretical sense given that what is novel and necessitates automatic allocationof processing resources when it first appears in the organism’s environmentintroduces little new information after multiple incidences.

480 Communication researchers have employed the OR in their work, most oftenwhen studying which aspects of mediated communication introduce either signals orsufficiently novel information into the audience member’s environment to be

Onset

Time

1

Time

2

Time

3

Time

4

Time

5

Time

6

Time

7

Time

8

Time

9

Time

10

Time

11

Time

12

Time

13

Time in Half-Seconds

Cha

nge

Sco

res

in B

eats

-per

-Min

ute

–2

1

0.5

0

–1.5

–1

–0.5

Rep 1

Rep 2

Rep 3

Figure 6 Repetition × Time interaction following onset of all production effects inStudy 2.

Habituation of Auditory Structural Features 15

{RCMM}Articles/RCMM1019529/RCMM_A_1019529_O.3d 11th March 2015 13:34:12

automatically encoded. In television and web-based media we can easily recognize thetimes when that “world” changes rapidly and the cognitive system must attend to the

485 novelty. Camera changes introduce new views of that world. People enter and exit thescreen. Graphics or pop-up ads suddenly appear and must be processed. However,when these structural features happen they almost always introduce information thatis new. Even if the camera shots change back and forth between the same twocharacters in a primetime drama, for example, these characters are not frozen in place

490 nor are they silent. What is happening in the mediated world is always slightlydifferent and this difference has been described conceptually as providing enoughnovelty such that the OR can always be expected to occur (Lang, 2006). In fact,hypotheses based on that assumption have been supported (Lang et al., 2006).

When searching for an analog of the camera change in auditory messages, Potter495 (2000) and Potter et al. (2008) came upon the voice change—a near instantaneous

replacement of one speaker by another—suggesting that not only was it nearly asubiquitous in radio as the camera change in television, but it was similarly used tomove the narrative forward. Cardiac data showed that not only did listeners haveORs to voice changes, but like camera changes, the OR did not habituate over

500 multiple repetitions. Subsequent research (Lang et al., 2014; Potter & Callison, 2000;Potter & Choi, 2006) made assumptions based on this finding that all auditorystructural features would reliably elicit orienting without habituating followingmultiple repetitions. The pair of experiments reported here was designed to test theseassumptions. Our results strongly suggest that assuming auditory structural features

505 other than the voice change consistently cause ORs was premature. Repeating certainauditory structural features seems to cause a lessening of the OR, even when the

Onset

Time

1

Time

2

Time

3

Time

4

Time

5

Time

6

Time

7

Time

8

Time

9

Time

10

Time

11

Time

12

Time

13

Time in Half-Seconds

Cha

nge

Sco

res

in B

eats

-per

-Min

ute

–0.4

–0.6

–0.8

–1.0

–0.2

0.0

Figure 7 CRC following the onset of auditory structural features in Study 2.

16 R.F. Potter et al.

{RCMM}Articles/RCMM1019529/RCMM_A_1019529_O.3d 11th March 2015 13:34:12

semantic content varies from repetition to repetition. Therefore structural featurerepetition may result in less attention being paid to the message.

Study 1 presented the most ecologically valid test of repeating auditory structural510 features by having listeners hear multiple presentations of different jingles and

production effects interspersed during a radio broadcast. This not only is consistentwith how radio programming occurs in everyday experience—listeners will hearseveral station identification jingles an hour, but rarely the same jingle more thanonce—but it also provided the closest point of comparison to the work done on

515 camera changes in television processing. Rarely do two camera changes present cutsbetween the exact same framing of two different images, for example. Nevertheless,our data show that when listeners were presented with three instances of radio jinglesor production effects over the course of a 40-minute broadcast they oriented to themin aggregate, but this is tempered by an interaction across the repetition factor for

520 each structural feature. Interestingly, the pattern across the repetition is similarregardless of the feature. In response to the first occurrence the overall main effect ofTime is not statistically significant but the trend of the cardiac response is statisticallysignificant and in the shape of an OR. The second occurrence results not only in astatistically significant effect for Time but significant trends and CRCs that look

525 almost like idealized ORs. However, by the third repetition of the structural feature asa superordinate category (e.g., with different semantic content), the OR had not onlyhabituated but the cardiac response was acceleratory suggesting activation of thesympathetic nervous system had overcome the parasympathetic innervation asso-ciated with attention. One logical interpretation is that by the time listeners heard the

530 third jingle and the third production effect it became more irritating than novel andthey began to actively disengage from processing the audio.

To test this possibility, Study 2 used an experimental paradigm more similar totraditional habituation studies in cognitive psychology. At the expense of externalvalidity we created a fairly unrealistic radio stimulus where the identical station

535 identification and the same jingle were both repeated three times over the course of40 minutes. We wanted to see if the OR would dissipate if the structural featureswere presented multiple times, theoretically introducing less novelty with eachsubsequent airing. Results for Study 2 were not as clear as for Study 1. Overall theCRC, collapsed across features and repetitions, was significantly cubic in shape and

540 subjects could therefore be interpreted as orienting to the onset of the same jinglesand production effects. However, this finding was tempered by a significant inter-action across the three repetitions. Analysis of the components of this interaction ledto some interesting observations. To begin with, the first onset in Study 2 providedthe only instance across both experiments where neither the main effect for Time nor

545 the cubic or quadratic trends were statistically significant. Visual inspection of thedata indicated that for some reason orienting to the first onset in this experiment ledto the deceleration component of the OR but not a subsequent return to baseline.Instead, heart rate started to return to baseline but then remained stable for severalseconds. Although shortening the time window of the analysis to the moment this

550 stabilization occurred led to statistical results that increased our confidence that

Habituation of Auditory Structural Features 17

{RCMM}Articles/RCMM1019529/RCMM_A_1019529_O.3d 11th March 2015 13:34:12

automatic allocation of cognitive resources had occurred in response to the firstrepetition of features, it was far from a textbook example of cardiac orienting.

Perhaps more interesting, however, was that listeners in Study 2 showed the mosticonic cardiac OR following the second repetition of the structural features. This

555 mirrored findings from every analysis in Study 1. We are intrigued by this pattern ofresults. To begin with they run counter to our predictions. We expected that thenovelty of the onset of structural features would be the primary impetus for the OR.Given this, the OR should be greatest during the first exposure—when novelty was atthe peak—and habituate with each subsequent occurrence. The observed pattern of

560 results, however, may demonstrate that orienting to auditory structural featuresconsist of a combination of reaction to novelty and to signals learned over the courseof the radio broadcast. In other words, the first time the structural feature is heardthere is slight orienting in response to the change in the auditory stream. However,the listener also processes the information delivered and uses it to learn the

565 “language” of the radio program being heard. The presence of a jingle or productioneffect in a station identification, followed by another song, may activate a schema forTop 40 broadcasts. After the first structural feature activates this schema, the secondrepetition not only introduces novel audio but also acts as a signal for theforthcoming change from one song to another. Cognitive processing of both the

570 novel auditory onset and the learned signal may be the reason behind the idealizedCRCs in the second repetitions across both experiments. It is then with the thirdrepetition we see the expected habituation effect occur.

Unfortunately, our attempt to have high external validity in our stimuli promptedus to use full-length songs. As a result we were limited to three repetitions of each

575 feature in order to keep the experimental session to a manageable duration. Weencourage future researchers to consider ways to deliver more than three repetitionsof these features to see whether cardiac data suggests continued habituation orcognitive disengagement. One possible way to accomplish this would be to replacethe silence factor altogether with further repetitions of the two features that resulted

580 in robust cardiac orienting.Although replication is warranted and encouraged, data from this pair of experi-

ments suggest that while audio structural features may be good tools to automaticallycapture listener attention, they should be used sparingly. Unlike the voice change,listeners seem to eventually tune out cognitively in response to jingles and prod-

585 uction effects.

Notes

[1] Data collection took place over several months due to researcher and laboratory availability.There was a concern that participants participating later in the experiment would be tired ofand negatively respond to the songs chosen early in the experiment. Therefore, we replaced

590 the stimulus songs once during the course of the experiment. Analyses show no significantdifferences in physiological responses across these two phases of the study and the resultspresented here are data collapsed across these two stimuli sets.

18 R.F. Potter et al.

{RCMM}Articles/RCMM1019529/RCMM_A_1019529_O.3d 11th March 2015 13:34:12

[2] The research laboratory where these studies were conducted often combines researchprotocols to maximize data collected from volunteer subjects during a single visit to the

595 facility. The personality questionnaires and media-use survey were dependent variablesassociated with other studies and are not discussed further in this manuscript.

References

Chase, W. G., & Graham, F. K. (1967). Heart rate responses to non signal tones. PsychonomicScience, 9(4), 181–182 AQ13. doi:10.3758/BF03330819

600 Cook, E. W., III. (2009). VPM Reference Manual. Birmingham, AL: AuthorDiao, F., & Sundar, S. S. (2004). Orienting response and memory for web advertisements:

Exploring effects of pop-up window and animation. Communication Research, 31, 537–567.doi:10.1177/0093650204267932

Graham, F. K. (1979). Distinguishing among orienting, defense, and startle reflexes. In H. D.605 Kimmel, E. H. Van Olst, & J. F. Orlebeke (Eds.), The orienting reflex in humans

(pp. 137–167). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers.Jamison-Koenig, E., & Potter, R. F. (2014). Effects of music complexity and intensity on listener

attention and arousal. Accepted for presentation to International Communication Associ-ation at their annual conference in Seattle, WA.

610 Jarvis, B. (2006). Media Lab (Version 2006.1). New York, NY: Empirisoft.Lang, A. (1994). What can the heart tell us about thinking? In A. Lang (Ed.), Measuring

psychological responses to media (pp. 99–112). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates.Lang, A. (2000). The limited capacity model of mediated message processing. Journal of

Communication, 50(1), 46–70. doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.2000.tb02833.x615 Lang, A. (2006). Using the limited capacity model of motivated mediated message processing

to design effective cancer communication messages. Journal of Communication, 56(s1),S57–S80. doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.2006.00283.x

Lang, A., Bradley, S. D., Park, B., Shin, M., & Chung, Y. (2006). Parsing the resource pie: UsingSTRTs to measure attention to mediated messages. Media Psychology, 8, 369–394. doi:10.

620 1207/s1532785xmep0804_3Lang, A., Borse, J., Wise, K., & David, P. (2002). Captured by the World Wide Web: Orienting to

structural and content features of computer-presented information. CommunicationResearch, 29, 215–245. doi:10.1177/0093650202029003001

Lang, A., Geiger, S., Strickwerda, M., & Sumner, J. (1993). The effects of related and unrelated cuts625 on television viewers' attention, processing capacity, and memory. Communication Research,

20(1), 4–29. doi:10.1177/009365093020001001Lang, A., Gao, Y., Potter, R. F., Lee, S., Park, B., Bailey, R. (2014 AQ16). Conceptualizing audio message

complexity as available resources. Communication Research. Advance online publication.doi:10.1177/0093650213490722

630 Lynn, R. (1966). Attention, arousal, and the orientation reaction. Oxford: Pergamon Press.Ohman, A. (1979). The orienting response, attention, and learning: An information-processing

perspective. In H. D. Kimmel, E. H. Van Olst, & J. F. Orlebeke (Eds.), The orienting reflex inhumans (pp. 443–471). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.

Pavlov, I. P. (1927). Conditioned reflexes: An investigation of the physiological activity of the cerebral635 cortex. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Potter, R. F. (2000). The effects of voice changes on orienting and immediate cognitive overload inradio listeners. Media Psychology, 2(2), 147–177. doi:10.1207/S1532785XMEP0202_3

Potter, R. F. (2006). Made you listen: The effects of production effects on attention to short radiopromotional announcements. Journal of Promotion Management, 12(2), 35–48. doi:10.1300/

640 J057v12n02_04Potter, R. F., & Bolls, P. D. (2011). Psychophysiological measurement and meaning: Cognitive and

emotional processing of media. New York, NY: Routledge.Potter, R. F., & Callison, C. (2000). Sounds exciting!!: The effects of auditory complexity on

listeners' attitudes and memory for radio promotional announcements. Journal of Radio645 Studies, 7(1), 29–51. doi:10.1207/s15506843jrs0701_5

Habituation of Auditory Structural Features 19

{RCMM}Articles/RCMM1019529/RCMM_A_1019529_O.3d 11th March 2015 13:34:12

Potter, R. F., & Choi, J. (2006). The effects of auditory structural complexity on attitudes, attention,arousal, and memory. Media Psychology, 8, 395–419. doi:10.1207/s1532785xmep0804_4

Potter, R. F., Lang, A., & Bolls, P. D. (1998, September). Orienting to structural features in auditorymedia messages. Presented to the Society for Psychophysiology Research for its annual

650 conference, Denver, CO.Potter, R. F., Lang, A., & Bolls, P. D. (2008). Identifying structural features of audio: Orienting

responses during radio messages and their impact on recognition. Journal of MediaPsychology: Theories, Methods, and Applications, 20(4), 168–177.

Putnam, L. E., Ross, L. E., & Graham, F. K. (1974). Cardiac orienting during "good" and "poor"655 differential eyelid conditioning. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 102, 563–573. doi:10.

1037/h0036137Reeves, B., & Nass, C. (1996). The media equation. Stanford, CA: CLSI Publications.Reeves, B., Thorson, E., Rothschild, M. L., McDonald, D., Hirsch, J., & Goldstein, R. (1985).

Attention to television: Intrastimulus effects of movement and scene changes on alpha660 variation over time. International Journal of Neuroscience, 27, 241–255. doi:10.3109/0020

7458509149770Schneider, W., Dumais, S. T., & Shiffrin, R. M. (1984). Automatic and control processing and

attention. In R. Parasuraman & D. R. Davies (Eds.), Varieties of attention (pp. 1–25).Orlando, FL: Academic Press.

665 Simons, R. F., Detenber, B. H., Cuthbert, B. N., Schwartz, D. D., & Reiss, J. E. (2003). Attention totelevision: Alpha power and its relationship to image motion and emotional content. MediaPsychology, 5, 283–301. doi:10.1207/S1532785XMEP0503_03

Singer, J. (1980). The power and limitations of television: A cognitive-affective analysis. In P. H.Tannenbaum. (Ed.), The entertainment functions of television (pp. 31–66). Hillsdale, NJ:

670 Lawrence Erlbaum.Sokolov, E. N. (1963). Perception and the conditioned reflex. Oxford: Pergamon Press.Sokolov, E. N., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1977). Orienting and defense reflexes: Vector coding the cardiac

response. In P. J. Lang, R. F. Simons, & M. Balaban (Eds.), Attention and orienting. Sensoryand motivational processes (pp. 1–22). London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

675 Solodovnikova, Y. (2008). Effects of sudden audio disappearance and audio complexity on attentionand message recognition. Thesis (M.A. in communication), Washington State University,August 2008. Retrieved from http://www.dissertations.wsu.edu/Thesis/Summer2008/Y_Solo-dovnikova_071808.pdf.

Thorson, E., & Lang, A. (1992). Effects of television videographics and lecture familiarity on adult680 cardiac orienting responses and memory. Communication Research, 19, 346–369. doi:10.

1177/009365092019003003Zettl, H. (2012). Video basics (7th ed.). New York: Cengage.

20 R.F. Potter et al.

{RCMM}Articles/RCMM1019529/RCMM_A_1019529_O.3d 11th March 2015 13:34:13