Modality of Communication and Recall of Health-related Information

Abstract

A health warning was presented to 89 female and 19 male students aged 17-36 years via three modalities or channels of communication: a "talking head" (video), an audiotape recording (audio), or a printed transcript (print). The verbal content of the message was identical in all three conditions. Participants' free recall, cued recall (recognition), and global recall of the message was then measured. On two separate dependent measures and a combined measure, recall was significantly (p < .005) better in both the audio and print conditions than in the video condition. No significant differences in recall were found between the audio and print conditions. These results, and those of earlier studies of modality effects on recall of information, are discussed in terms of self-pacing and distraction theories.

Smoking Education for Low-Educated Adolescents

“…For instance, visual cues like the appearance and the non-verbal behavior of a spokesperson can distract from what the spokesperson is saying. When recipients are distracted, processing of the message is likely impaired which can result in decreased effectiveness (Corston & Colman, 1997). On the other hand, it is possible that the audiovisual modality can initially attract viewers' attention to the message and enhance processing (Taylor & Thompson, 1982).…”

“…Several researchers have suggested that video is more distracting than print, because features of the presentation can draw attention away from the content of the message (Byrne & Curtis, 2000;Corston & Colman, 1997). For instance, visual cues like the appearance and the non-verbal behavior of a spokesperson can distract from what the spokesperson is saying.…”

“…If the modality of smoking education messages has effects on low-educated adolescents' beliefs, attitudes and intentions, these could be explained by differences in message processing (Chaiken & Eagly, 1976;Corston & Colman, 1997). In the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM; Petty & Cacioppo, 1986), persuasion is determined by the type of processing that a recipient of a message engages in.…”

“…For instance, Corston and Colman (1997) compared a print version of a health warning to an audiovisual version in which an actor spoke the text directly into the camera, a so-called talking head presentation. Their results indicated that the print message was better recalled than the audiovisual message.…”

Learning a technical language: The modality effect in nursing students' retention of new vocabulary

“…Chaiken and Eagly (1983) and other researchers in communications and media studies (Byrne & Curtis, 2000;Corston & Colman, 1997;Green, 1981;Potter & Choi, 2006) have continued to investigate the audio modality effect in advertisements and other messages, as well as the impact of content and structural complexity on recall. Valkenburg and Beentkes (1997) explored memory retention among young students, positing the supposed superiority of audio information for creative visualization, and thus 'faulty memory', but finding that successful recall had more to do with the age of their subjects, rather than modality.…”