Abstract

Do the types of television programs we watch affect our comprehension and recall of events presented in another genre? If so, to what extent? Research evidence confirms that network and specialty channel programs are produced to reflect the audience's learning styles, in order to accommodate the individual differences in the ways in which people process audiovisual information. In light of these findings, this study examines the relationship between heavy viewing of content light television programs and an individual's comprehension and recall of events presented in a documentary. After watching a 10-minute documentary, content light and content heavy television viewers were given an intervening task and attitudinal survey, followed by two tests measuring their recall of the program's narrative and visual components. The results indicate that the content light group found concrete and readily visualized information easier to comprehend and recall, than semantically and acoustically complex details which were mastered by the content heavy group. As well, the content heavy group had a tendency to see the information presented in the documentary as a whole, and were able to have an overall perspective and appreciate its total context. By contrast, the subjects in the content light group viewed the program as a collection of parts, and often focussed on one aspect of a situation to the exclusion of the others. Suggestions pertaining to the use of advance organizers, attention attracting devices, embedded questions, music, repetition, and on-screen narrators in instructional television programs are discussed.