The effects of production pacing and arousing content on the information processing of television messages

The limited capacity model of television viewing is used to investigate the impact of arousing content and fast paced production of viewers' informati on processing of TV messages. Results show that both fast pace and arousing content elicit self-reported arousal, hut they elicit different patterns o f physiological arousal. Both fast pace and arousing content increase the a llocation of processing resources to messages. The combination of fast pace and arousing content overloads the processing system resulting in less rec ognition and cued recall for the specific content of the message. Results g enerally support the limited capacity theory of television viewing.