MULTIPLE EFFECTS OF VISUAL FORMAT ON TV-NEWS LEARNING

Two experiments were conducted on edited TV newscast sequences to clarify effects of film accompaniment on learning from heard news text. In Experiment 1, 150 British subjects viewed a sequence with either film format throughout or alternating film and 'talking head' format between items, Those items that were presented by 'talking heads' in the mixed sequence were learned better with film format, in which the heard text was accompanied by appropriate moving pictures. However, no effect of uniform context was found on the remaining items. In Experiment 2, 91 German subjects viewed one of four versions of a bulletin, one with 'talking head', one with film throughout, the other two having complementary mixed-format patterns. Besides confirming a beneficial effect of film presentation over 'talking head' which accords with the findings of all studies of learning from material in the form of national network newscasts, the results showed an impairing effect of uniform visual format. This can explain 'contradictory' findings, notably with atypical test material.