Effects of distributing "handouts" during a speech on receivers' inferred information processing

The experiment examined the adage that material should never be given membe rs of an audience during a speech presentation. 45 students enrolled in spe ech fundamentals courses were exposed to one of three versions of a speech, which informed students of an impending $50 fee increase to improve univer sity parking facilities. The speaker, allegedly a representative from Parki ng Services, discussed four main benefits of the fee increase. In one versi on, he began by distributing a handout listing four main benefits to the fe e increase. A second version listed four benefits different from those iden tified in the speech, while a control condition received no handout. The co ntrol condition established the receivers' dominant cognitive response as n egative. This negative response was accentuated when the handout repeated t he four main points but was less when the handout provided a competing mess age in the form of information not contained in the speech. Results were di scussed with reference to previous research on distraction theory and repet ition of a message.