When Words Collide Online: How Writing Style and Video Intensity Affect Cognitive Processing of Online News

摘要

This experiment explored how the writing style of online news, defined as inverted pyramid versus narrative, affects the cognitive processing of accompanying video clips. Forty seven participants read 4 online news stories and viewed the accompanying video clips. Results suggested that reading inverted pyramid stories may require allocation of more cognitive resources to encoding a related video clip. Recognition for story details was more accurate for stories in narrative than inverted pyramid style. Results are discussed in terms of a distinction between cognitive processing involved in "getting there" versus "being there" during exposure to online news.