TY - JOUR
T1 - Modality-specific effects of perceptual load in multimedia processing
AU - Fisher, Jacob Taylor
AU - Hopp, Frederic René
AU - Weber, René
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, Cogitatio Press. All rights reserved.
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - Digital media are sensory-rich, multimodal, and often highly interactive. An extensive collection of theories and models within the field of media psychology assume the multimodal nature of media stimuli, yet there is current ambiguity as to the independent contributions of visual and auditory content to message complexity and to resource availability in the human processing system. In this article, we argue that explicating the concepts of perceptual and cognitive load can create progress toward a deeper understanding of modality-specific effects in media processing. In addition, we report findings from an experiment showing that perceptual load leads to modality-specific reductions in resource availability, whereas cognitive load leads to a modality-general reduction in resource availability. We conclude with a brief discussion regarding the critical importance of separating modality-specific forms of load in an increasingly multisensory media environment.
AB - Digital media are sensory-rich, multimodal, and often highly interactive. An extensive collection of theories and models within the field of media psychology assume the multimodal nature of media stimuli, yet there is current ambiguity as to the independent contributions of visual and auditory content to message complexity and to resource availability in the human processing system. In this article, we argue that explicating the concepts of perceptual and cognitive load can create progress toward a deeper understanding of modality-specific effects in media processing. In addition, we report findings from an experiment showing that perceptual load leads to modality-specific reductions in resource availability, whereas cognitive load leads to a modality-general reduction in resource availability. We conclude with a brief discussion regarding the critical importance of separating modality-specific forms of load in an increasingly multisensory media environment.
KW - Media psychology
KW - Modality
KW - Multimedia processing
KW - Perceptual load
KW - Resource availability
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85078822990&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.17645/mac.v7i4.2388
DO - 10.17645/mac.v7i4.2388
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85078822990
SN - 2183-2439
VL - 7
SP - 149
EP - 165
JO - Media and Communication
JF - Media and Communication
IS - 4
ER -