Course Content

In the lesson on HCI (Human Computer Interaction) we introduced the concepts associated with how humans interact with computers and vice versa as a stepping stone to this last module in which we look at the Media Equation studies specifically: set of studies that were aggregated into a seminal book on the subject: Media Equation.
 
This is an extension to that HCI lesson in which we dig deeper into the elements of HCI. In that study the researchers presented a series of findings that indicate with some degree of certainty that people tend to interact with computers/media in the exact/similar fashion as to with other people.

Here are some of their findings:

Pollyana Effect

Our minds tend to recall/remember the ‘good old days’ from their past. However, the researchers also found they we tend to remember negative events in the short term.. negative events also tend to alter our memories about things that occur before and after a traumatic event…

Real live examples of the media equation in action:

• Television experiment: TV’s were labeled with different purposes/titles (“the following is an example of “negative news” and vice versa). What they found is that the labeling tended to set preconceived notions about the actual content
• The Concept of Negativity. What they found is that it colors one perceptions but it is also a fleeting emotion. We can become negative towards media but can be won over (“my computer hates me“)
• Pain vs pleasure (with both computers and people interactions, people tend to avoid pain and seek pleasure)
• Politeness:
  themediaequation

Here is a short summary of their findings:

• The evaluations of good and bad are not equal. we tend to add more significance/pay more attention to to negativity (note media news casts and how they often begin with all the negative stuff.. the happy news is only done at the end as a filler):
  • The evaluation of negative dominates: We pay more attention to negative experiences
  • We would like to think we only remember the fun things (Pollyanna effect).. in long term memory (Good old days)
  • however, in short-term, we do actually remember negative ones longer (post trauma)…. what is remembered immediately afterwards.. And impedes recall of what came before
  • Mediated matters – evaluate the results of negative ads on television and in political campaigns
  • Thew definition of what it means to be user friendly and the definition of ‘user’ is changing… children are more and more prone to think of media as a “person”
  • People pay more attention to negative media
  • Negativity is a two-edged sword… Viewers might pay attention to wrong parts… The supposed psychological distance between reality
    and media did not cause different reactions… negative media experience turns out a lot like real experiences… while negativity is engaging.. but recall good memory=low liking

Conclusions

• All media experiences are emotional
• There is virtually no type of content/form of expression that is incapable of causing changes in emotion.
• Arousal, like valence, works
• Seeking pleasure and avoiding pain is a reasonable basic strategy in designing motivation into mediated matters
• Matching personalities is a good thing, but…
  • It seems unlikely that a person would admit that they liked a computer better if its personality changed to match theirs
  • Someone/a medium who/that adapts in a desired direction is clearly liked (people tend to give credit for trying to adapt)
  • Conversely, someone who changes negatively is NOT clearly disliked.
• OLD Brain vs NEW Brain (we will see this again later this term)
  • Left brain vs right brain  (too much of what younger children today experience is right-brained… and schools try to teach using left-brain techniques… teach to the strengths.. remediate the weakness…
  • Depictions of people, places, and things on a screen are neither physical threats nor significant opportunities and viewers know this.
  • Media can make people feel both good and bad
• The moral of all of this…
  • We should realize that no matter how we evaluate it, all media responses begin with a simple judgment: is it good or is it bad?
  • This is an immediate response..

Here is one more set of experiments and follow up comments:
 
testing-me-with_children

These readings will be revisited once we take a look at Restak’s views on Old Brain vs New Media later on in this term

In the meantime…

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