Exam 1 Media Psych

Individual media

targets small number of people

phone, email, text message, letter

mass media

targeting large number of people

TV, movie, newspapers, websites, radio

Traditional media

before internet, lacks interactivity, one way communication

TV, movies, Radio

New media

internet

email, social media, video games

Uses and gratification theory

media usesers seek out different forms of media for different needs

socializing, entertainment, information seeking, passing time

cultivation theory

TV shapes reality, how it shapes social reality, what you expect to see

Social learning theory

media users learn from media through observing others and modeling their behavior

You assume thats how other people behave

children are especially prone to learning from media

Self-determination theory

people use media for fulfilling competence, autonomy, and relatedness needs

Trend of children grwoing and use of media

as children grow, they use more media

early exposure is a gateway, now it’s the norm

What form of media do people like the most

online video

socioeconomic gap

not everyone has internet and home computers, but TVs and mobile devicers are available in almost every household

Sensorimotor stage media use (0-2 yrs)

think and learn things through senses and motor actions

object permanence emerges at the end of this stage

learn predominately through observation

Meltzoff - Infants shown how to use a toy: imitation, manipiulation, control

• those in imitation condition produced more target actions than in manipulation or control

object permanence

once the TV turns off, they don’t ask for it again because the lack of object permancence

Observation sensorimotor stage Meltzoff study

adult experimentor sgiws how to use the toy differently

• only babies in group shown how to pull strinng, one week later, they still knew

They watched it on a TV, 4-24 mos imitated what seen

Do children understand cartoons/animals (human-like cartoons)represent humans

yes, but only around 7-8 mos

actual cartoon characters 5-6 mos don’t recognize them as faces yet, but as they grow older, they realize it’s a face

Preoperational stage media use (2-7)

can use objects to represent pretend play and make believe

lack conservation

have egocentrism

Theory of mind

centration

prefer simple, familiar, and straightforward content, no complicated plot that requires multiple perspective taking, linear plot

Conservation

posiiton doesn’t change the amount

egocentrism

assume that everyone has the same viewpoint as them

theory of mind

understand that other people have different perspectives

centration

tend to focus on one salient feature at a time

Ex: the doll has a diamond on it’s belly (and they can’t focus on any other aspect of the doll like it’s hair)

Concrete operational stage media use (7-11)

represent ideas more logically

mentally organize events

focus on multiple features at once

can watch things with complex storylines and faster-paced plots

Formal operational stage media use (12+)

abstract ideas, think about thinking, hypothetically

ambiguous drama, stimulates thinking, identity

goes back to social identity theory - prefer media that we can indentify as - starts young

retrospective recall study about scary things

participants recall memories about fearful reactions they had after viewing a TV show or movies many years later

results of asking retrospective recall study

2/3 students reported that their reactions lasted one week or more

Wat are 3-8 year olds scared of

things that are insticively scary

snakes, dark, supernatural creatures, monsters

What do 3 year olds believe to be true about what is on the screen?

they believe it’s showing real objects, the popcorn bucket will not move

Starting at 4, what do children realize about what’s on the screen

that it isn’t real, TV images are just images

in concrete operational stage, what are kids afraid of

frightened by possible but less probable events

• kidnapping, tornadoes, shark attacks, personal injury, harm to family

Cantor fire experiment: children who watched theatenting fire video were more worried about that happening to them

In formal operational stage, what are kids afraid of

afraid of realistic events beyond their control

• realistic physical harm, threats of intense harm

• family unemployment, crime, terrorism, wars

nuclear bomb movie:

• children under 12 didn’t really understand the effects of the bomb

• adolescents and adults most disturbed - abstract ideas

how do young children percive advertisements

they know that it’s information for a product, but not that it is trying to persuade you to buy the product

can’t functionally distinguish program vs ad, can’t tell the purpose of an ad

around what age do children realize the purpose of an ad

age 7

what function helps with understanding ad intent

theory of mind

• break away from egocentrism

as an adult, what do we understand about ads

ads are meant to create positive brand image, promote product/service, increase brand awareness

behaviorism

study of objective, observable behaviors

• classical and operant conditioning

classical conditioning in ads

• pairing object with positive stimulus

  • depicting love and attractiveness, family

  • repetition - pick one theme and roll with it

what part of the brain do emotional ads target

amygdala and hippocampus

operant conditioning in ads

pairing reward with target behavior

• if you call now, you get your money back

positive reinforcement

• free sample, free trial

Social identity theory in ads

group membering guides the way we think about our identities

in group prototype

the idealized mental representations of the "typical" or "ideal" member of a specific social group, defining its identity, norms, and shared characteristics

• Ex: what activities a man is supposed to do

positive social identity

ideal groups protrayed using products or services

social cognition theory

we want to maintain self-efficacy, autonomy

• using their product will fix all your problems, increasing self-efficacy

brand as identity

brands provide implicit meaning, emotions, images, stories, and archetypes

• people will select brand that fits their identity

brand loyalty

long-term consumption

narritive slef-referencing

connecting yourself with product

imagery and absorption

ads making you feel like you’re using thee product - first person perspective

testimonies

people maknig ad saying they’ve tried ad and loved it

• cognitively engage yourself with product

reciprocity

people feel obloged to return a favor

• you get a piece of chocolate for free, you may want to buy something

scarcity

people feel more attracted to limited items

• perception of “loss”

authority

people inclined to believe experts because they must be right

consistancy

people will use a product that aligns with their beliefs and past behaviors

• familiarity heuristic

familiarity heuristic

people favor things that are familiair to them, experienced before

liking

people are persuaded by people they like

• in group favoritism

• halo effect

in group favoritism

you favor the grouop that you belong to

Halo effect

positive evaluation in one dimension leads to positive evaluation of another dimension

• popular celebrities promoting a product

consensus

everyone says it’s good, so it must be good

parasocial relationship

one-sided, non-reciprocal relationship between celebrity and fan

• fans want to feel closer to celebrity by taking their recommendations

source credibility model

is this person trustworthy

• message’s persuasiveness increases with credibility of source

source attractiveness model

is this person likable

• not just physical attractiveness

• liekability, similarity, familiarity

Match-up hypothesis

is endorsed brand relevant to person’s identity? or irrelevant?

• message persuasiveness increases when brand and image match up

meaning transfer model

cultural meaning derived from celebrity figure assosicated with brand

• persuasiveness depends on assosicated cultural meaning

when showed two ads, one with celebrity one without, which did people remember better?

people remembered normal ad maybe due to vampire effect

more activation in prefrontal cortex when viewing ad with matching celebrity and product (decision making)

• brain processes it better because it’s easier

vampire effect

the celebrity is too eye catching so people pay attention to celebrity and not ad/product

• occurs when celebrity has no relationship with product

what happens when shown celebrity ad

people recall personal memories of celebrity —> pair product with positive memories (when product liines up with celebrity)

What is watching educational TV associated with

related to more cognitive skills and better socio-emotional skills

what is watching non-educational TV associated with

poor school performance, lower standardized test scores, less school readiness, worse school adjustment

correlation with watching less TV and having college dregree

less tv correlated with more college degress

• could have something to do with SES

displacement hypothesis

students who spend lots of time using media do’nt have the time to work on learning

flaw: children can occupy themselves with other things

• media is more a distraction

mental effort hypothesis

entertainment is mindless, less motivated wto put mental effort into learning

• Morgan - heavy TV viewing prefer lighter materials

• Salomon - children who viewed video format felt the material was easier

• Flaws: many media aren’t relaxing and require active attention and cognitive processing

attentnion and arousal hypothesis

fast-paced entertainment media limits sustained attention during learning

• support: heavy media use related to poorer self-regulation and executive funtion

• flaws: no clear evidence that media causes ADHD

so what can you say when asked if media hurts learning

it isn’t an easy answer, you need to focus on the context and the when and how of media use

What did heavy media multitasking correlate with

worse at task switching anf filtering out irrelevant informaiton and ability to sustain attention

cognitive load theory

working memory is limited and media multitasking overloads working memeory, leads to ineffective coding (working memory is about 23 seconds)

what is an example of relevant multi tasking

taking notes while listening in class

passive multi tasking

putting something on in the background

• when tv was on, children payed with toys less, got distracted and bored easier —> disrupted attention

  • parent played with children less and talked less, passive communication —> less meanigful verbal interaction

lowe intensity white noise effect with ADHD

imroved attention but harm those without ADHD

students who multi task in the classroom have wrose academic _________

self-efficacy

1990 children’s television act

required networks to air educational and informational prgrams designed for youths

• not many specific classifications and they weren’t necessarily educational

1996 federal communications commision:

established more specific rules for educational tc for youth:

• three hours a day between 6 am and 10 pm

• should meet academic and prosocial needs: intellectual and emotional development, cognitive and social skills

passive viewer model

assumes media determines what we should watch and don’t put thoought into what they’re watching

active viewer model

viewer is active agent who decides what they want to engage with - fundamental assumption to understand media’s effect

attention

can viewer pay attentional to media? if not, they won’t remember anything

comprehension

can viewer understand what is going on?

can u have attention without comprehension?

yes, and that is bad

TV watching for 2-5 yr olds - normal, backwards audio, foregin language, altared sequence

children looked at screen less when program was distorted: reduced comprehension harms attention

layering

learning concept introduced along with familiar content, presented in increasing difficulty

repetition

content is repeated, increasing frequency or exposure to learning material

• rebroadcast, recaps, similar examples

participation

encourage users to articipate in educational processes, increase active processing of info

meta structure

having coherent, comprehensive structure, narritive structure better than scattered structure

What happened to children who watched a lot of sesame street

scored higher on academic tests and adjusted well to school

• if they spent a lot of time watching, they didnt’t spend less time reading—> contrary to displacement hypothesis

infants who watch a lot of educational things

don’t really learn from them and may remember less

• spednign less time listenting to real-life parents, they learn less from TV than live lessions - video deficit effect (Barr)

  • dual representation effect

  • don’t get socially relevant cues

children’t can’t learn new words from tv because of video deficit effect

toddlers learning new words - live, video recording, teletubbies (control)

in person more successful in learning new words

young children learn best through live interations

screen inferiority effect

comprehend more when learnign from paper than digital: less distraction

• more predominant in older students, younger now it doesn’t really make a difference

how is children’s media different than shows for older groups

it’s more explicit in the moral lesson

how children think about moral situations

rewards vs punishments and what parents tell you

how do children interpret moral messages

they take the literal message instead of the general moral lesson

• egocentric - can’t take perspectives of others

when prosocial message is trying to teach two things at once

children get confused and fon’t understand either of the messages

when prosocial message is mixed with antisocial message

children are less likely to accept prosocial message

• Ex: using violence to help others

facilitation/mediation

adults can mediate understanding of message through discussion - intervention

what helps children’s understanding of messages in media

cognitive development

media can foster inclusitivity

white canadian children watched multi-cultural or control sesame street

• multi-cultural: 71% said they wanted to play with asian playmate, 33% said white in control

  • effect disappeared after one day, long-term exposure needed

Isreali verson of seasme street showed positive interactions between isreali and palestinian characters for 4 mos, asked arab children after repeated exposure

• negative responses decreased

media can foster gender equality

ads: 50 % of women in traditional gender role and 50% in non-traditional - showed to children in 3-5 grade

• children who saw non-traditional ads decreased in gender sterotypes and believed women are capable as men

  • girls who saw non-traditonal ads wanted to take up non-traditional roles