Test 2 Flashcards
What are the two views of the brain/mind distinction?
- Physiological approach
2. Cognitive Approach
Explain the physiological approach to the brain/mind distinction.
The brain and the mind are the same thing; everything is just a chemical reaction
Explain the cognitive approach to the brain/mind distinction
The physical brain and our mind are separate; the mind is in the brain, but is not the same thing
Explain The Physiological Approach
-We are born with a brain that is programmed to perform certain functions to ensure our survival.
When related to the physiological approach responses…
- Responses are automatic; we do not have to learn them
- Responses can be measure physically
The physiological approach for the study of media effect…
Give us insights into how all humans are the same; how the media affect our basic human programming.
The Brain vs. The Media
- The brain is old, it has developed over millions of years
- Media are new, are only a few hundred years old
The results of The Brain vs. The Media
- Brains has not had enough time to adapt to new stimuli of media
- Media are interpreted by our brain as real-world stimuli
Automatic Processes
- Hard-wired into our brain
- Run automatically with no need for us to think about them ex. breathing & heart beating
Quasi-atuomatic Processes
- Psychophysiological –> cognitive
- goal is to move from limbic system to cortical part of brain. -ex. fight or flight
What are the four types of physiological processes?
- Perceptual processes
- Automatic survival mechanisms
- Sexual mechanisms
- Neurophysiological responses
Explain the perceptual process
help us orient to our environments by selecting certain types of stimuli to attend to.
Explain Automatic survival mechanisms
Body readies itself to fight or escape a threat
Explain sexual mechanisms
Driven by the biological need to reproduce
Neurophysiological responses
Complex set of chemical and electrical processes that media can influence
Name four ways in which one can measure physiological responses
- Brain waves
- Skin conductance
- Heart rate
- Facial EMG
Explain EEG
- Measures: brain wave activity
- Assesses: Relaxation, focus
Explain GSR
- Skin Conductance
- Measures: Electricity conducted between fingers
- Assesses: Arousal, excitation, interest
Explain ECG/EKG
- Measures: Heart rate, beats per minute
- Assesses: Orienting response & attention
Explain EMG
- Measures: Electrical potential generated by muscles (ex. eyebrows)
- Assesses: Emotions (e.g., frustration, surprise)
Most media effects research has focused on…
Triggering function
What are the two triggering effects?
- Orienting reflex
2. Arousal
Explain orienting reflex
- Our brains continually monitor all incoming information
- When something changes, the orienting reflex causes us to pay attention to it
The orienting reflex is accompanied by:
- Decrease in muscle activity
- Lower heart rate
- Shorter, faster breathing
Triggering physiological effects: What are the four types of arousal?
- Generalized Brain Arousal
- Fight/flight reflex
- Sexual arousal
- Excitation Transfer
Explain Generalized Brain Arousal
Orienting reflex energizes brain and stimulates brain activity, which makes attention possible.
How do we know the brain is aroused?
MRI scans
Examples of physiological media effects:
- Fast-paced media stories increase skin conductance
- Exciting content increases heart rate
Explain Fight/Flight Reflex
- We experience vicarious response to character’s fight/flight
- Triggers our attention and our own fight/flight reflex
Explain Sexual arousal in media
-Erotic material presented in media messages triggers sexual arousal, this response is automatic
Excitation Transfer
- Arousal from one activity transfers to another
- Can’t distinguish remaining excitement from new excitement
What are the two altering effects:
- Habituation
2. Altering brain waves
Explain Habituation
When the media present the same pattern of stimuli over and over again, they lose their power to elicit the same degree of reflex over time
Example of Habituation
Desensitization to violent media
Can habituation be positive
Yes
Alpha Blocking:
Beta waves block alpha waves when paying attention to something
What are the four reinforcing physiological effects
- Orienting reflex
- Passivity
- Arousal
- Narcotization
Explain orienting reflex and arousal
- Orienting to stimuli leads to pleasure
- So we orient and are aroused again and again
Explain passivity
- Consuming media passively, rather than actively
- Reading is more active in contrast to watching tv
Explain Narcotization
- Long-term build-up of orienting –> arousal
- Become dependent on media and keep seeking more of it
The Cognitive Approach
Human thinking is governed by the mind, which is located in the brain but is not the same thing as the physical brain
The cognitive approach and media effects
Gives us insights into the many differences that exist across the array of humanity
What are the nature of cognitive effects
- Social Learning
- Instructional
- Education
What are the types of the cognitive processes
- Inferring patterns
2. Generalizing Patterns
Explain Inferring patterns
Building an idea about someone/something by repeated media exposure
Explain Generalizing patterns
New information alters an existing pattern and the pattern becomes more stable
Acquiring Effects
We acquire a lot of information through media
Acquiring effects about the real world
- Current events
- Political candidates
- Brand/product advertisements
- Science
Acquiring effects about the media world
- Fictional narratives and characters
- TV production
What are the four factors influencing acquiring information
- Mass Media
- Message
- Audience
- Environment
No one medium is superior to others in providing information for learning
What are the 3 triggering effects in relation to cognitive effects?
- Attention
- Recall
- Cognitive processes
Altering Effects in relation to cognitive effects
Altering is a long-term influence, happens through induction
What are the two way in which altering affects are related to induction
- Message factors
- Framing of info
- Audience Factors
- Existing knowledge structures
- Information-processing skills
Altering Effects in relation to cognitive effects
- Existing knowledge structures
- Cognitive Processing
- Cognitive Drives
What is the advantage to Reinforcing effects
once familiar with elements in knowledge structure, we become comfortable relying on it
What is the disadvantage to reinforcing effects
Knowledge structure can be inflexible
Media enforces these three things in relation to cognitive effects
- Attraction to media
- Existing knowledge structures
- Existing mental processes
explain Reinforcing attraction to media
Media organizations work to attract and maintain audiences
Explain reinforcing Existing Knowledge structures
Some media try to reinforce existing knowledge structures so they do not change
Explain reinforcing existing mental processes
Continual exposure to media activates certain processes that get reinforced over time
What are the two types of beliefs?
- Descriptive
2. Inferential
What is a descriptive belief
Comes from direct experience with an object/person
What is a inferential belief
Cannot be experienced; must be inferred from what we can
Why do stereotyped portrayals matter
- Media are a major source of information because:
1. We have a lot of media exposure
2. Media present us with information that we cannot get from other sources - Therefore, through stereotyped media portrayals:
1. We form beliefs about people we don’t otherwise come in contact with
2. We also learn what others may believe about us
Explain acquiring beliefs
We can acquire a belief immediately from exposure to one message. ex. token characters
Explain triggering beliefs about the media
What beliefs do we realize about media diversity?
Explain triggering beliefs about the real world
Which of our stereotyped beliefs do media trigger?
What is altering beliefs
With continual media exposure, we encounter new information that influence our beliefs, and if that information conflicts, it may alter our beliefs.
Explain Altering beliefs about the real world
Media cultivate our understanding of certain groups over time through stereotyped portrayals
Explain Altering beliefs about what is important
Media “set the agenda” of what we should believe in terms of certain groups
Explain Altering beliefs about social norms
Media tells us what is “normal” in terms of ethnicity, gender identity, etc.
Explain Altering beliefs about oneself
Media tell us what we “should” be like based on how we identify
Explain Altering beliefs about beliefs
media fell biased toward/against certain groups
Reinforcing beliefs
New information from maybe exposure can also conform to our existing beliefs and reinforce them
What is the difference between beliefs and attitudes
Unlike attitudes, beliefs can potentially be verified. Attitudes are evaluations, judgements against a standard.
Attitudes vary in
Valence and intensity
Explain Valence
when standards are either positive, satisfactory, or negative
explain intensity
How far from standard object is perceived to be
Attitude standards/socialization
- We learn our standards from parents, school, peers
- Or, we learn them from the media
Acquiring attitudes
- Some attitudes are planned
- some are unintentional (e.g., “objective” news stories)
Acquiring Standards
-We have to acquire the standards on which to make our judgement.
Triggering Attitudes about the media
- Credibility of news content and advertising
- Judgements about reality of stories on TV
Triggering attitudes about the real world
- E.g., news stories on controversial issues
- Attitudes we form about ourselves
Process of triggering attitudes include
Message characteristics and audience characteristics
Message characteristics include
Framing
Audience Characteristics
- Cognitive resources devoted toward message
- Existing attitudes
- Moral reasoning
What is the sleeper effect?
When we receive information from a non-credible source, over time we forget the source and consider the information credible.
Process of altering attitudes includes
- Message factors ex. repetition of message
- Audience factors ex. long term exposure
Emotions vs moods: Explain emotions
- Typically triggered by a particular event
- Usually requires labeling
- Vary in valence and intensity
Emotions vs. mood: Explain moods
- More generalized states of feeling
- Lower intensity than emotions
Acquiring affect from characters
- We acquire emotions from characters
- We learn emotions from them
- We vicariously empathize with their experiences
Research shows reading fiction leads to…
Greater ability to empathize through transportation.
Define transportation in relation to empathy.
The experience that we are being swept away by the story
What function is most studied when it comes to affect?
Triggering
The most studied emotional reaction triggered by media is?
Fear
Why do we enjoy fear
- Release
- Joy amplified by excitation
- Recency
Explain release in relation to enjoyment of fear
Feelings of fear replaced by feelings of relief and joy
Explain recency in relation to enjoyment of fear
Longer term memory of joy at end, not fear throughout
Enjoyment message factors include
- How message is framed
- Medium factors
- Content
Enjoyment audience factors includes
- Transportation
- Flow
- Parasocial relationship
- Telepresence
Explain flow
You lose track of real time because of active engagement in a task, e.g., video games.
Explain parasocial relationship
- One-sided relationship with media personality
- Feels like other (face-to-face) relationships
- Sense of connection with character
Explain telepresence
The feeling of “being there” through technology
What is mood management
We choose media to alter and reinforce mood states in desirable ways
Mood management involves what two choices
- How we’re feeling presently
2. How we anticipate feeling during & after media
How do you alter a bad mood
Highly involving media that have low relevance to initial bad mood.
How do you reinforce a good mood
Minimally involving media that have high relevance to initial good mood
Explain Emotional desensitization
Initial emotional reaction to stimulus decrease in intensity with repeated exposure
Define Behaviorism
original way of studying media effects. We should focus on observable behavior, not the unobservable mind
Cognitive revolution
Media messages –> black box –> behavior
Self-reported behavior
- reporting on behavioral intentions
- Not able to accurately judge behaviors
Theory of planned behavior
Often in media studies we cannot measure actual behavior, so we measure behavioral intention
Behavioral sequences
These are cognitive or they require physical performance
Two ways to acquire behavior
- Factual behavioral processes
2. Social behavioral processes
Explain factual behavioral processes
Learning the steps to do something
Explain social behavioral processes
Learning social norms
What are the three kinds of triggering behaviors
- Exposure behaviors
- Imitative behaviors
- Suggested behaviors
Examples of triggering exposure behaviors
U.S. adults now spend nearly half the day interacting with media
Examples of triggering imitative behaviors
2004 survey by collins about teens and sex. as they see more sexual media depictions in media they are more likely to have more sexual experiences
Examples of triggering suggested behavior
After watching MTV’s 16 and pregnant, rates of pregnancy declined
Altering and reinforcing behavior
Over time, media shape our behaviors, constantly altering or reinforcing them.
What are the signs of binge viewing as an addiction
- Neglect of household tasks
- Neglect of sleep
- Squandering time on TV
- Determination to quit, but no willpower
- Blurring fiction with reality
Nomophobia
The fear of being without a mobile phone
