THE EFFECTS OF RELATED AND UNRELATED CUTS ON TELEVISION VIEWERS ATTENTION, PROCESSING CAPACITY, AND MEMORY

This study tested the differential effects of two different types of cuts (related and unrelated) on attention, capacity, and audio and visual memory for the information contained in television messages. Related cuts were related by either visual or audio information. Unrelated cuts occurred between two completely unrelated scenes. Unrelated cuts were always associated with a change in content. Related scenes were never associated with a change in content. Results showed that-both related and unrelated cuts resulted in cardiac orienting responses. Reaction times were slower immediately following unrelated cuts than when following related cuts, indicating that processing unrelated cuts required more capacity than processing related cuts. Memory was better for information presented after related cuts than it was for information presented after unrelated cuts. This effect was greater for visual memory than for audio memory. These results add to the growing body of knowledge on how people process television.