Motivated message processing: How motivational activation influences resource allocation, encoding, and storage of TV messages

Motiv Emot (2013) 37:508517 DOI 10.1007/s11031-012-9329-y

ORIGINAL PAPER

Motivated message processing: How motivational activation inuences resource allocation, encoding, and storage of TV messages

Annie Lang Ashley Sanders-Jackson

Zheng Wang Bridget Rubenking

Published online: 16 November 2012 Springer Science+Business Media New York 2012

Abstract This paper investigates differences in overtime processing of television messages with three types of emotional trajectoriesthose which begin neutral and become negative, begin neutral and become positive and begin neutral and become equally positive and negative. The limited capacity model of motivated mediated message processing is used to predict how the type of emotional content inuences real-time activation of the appetitive and aversive motivational systems which then alter concurrent and subsequent message processing. Results show that during the rst time period, when motivational activation is low, more resources are allocated to coactive and positive compared to negative messages supporting the positivity offset hypothesis. In the middle time period, when activation is moderate, more resources are allocated to negative than to positive messages, supporting the negativity bias hypothesis. Further, the different patterns of motivational

activation do result in different patterns of messages processing. During positive messages, encoding increases and storage decreases over time. During negative messages, encoding decreases and storage increases overtime. During coactive messages initial encoding and storage are high though both decrease slightly over time.

Keywords Memory Attention Motivation Emotion

Media

Introduction

Based upon the limited capacity model of motivated mediated message processing (LC4MP, Lang 2006a, b; 2009; Lang and Yegiyan 2009), this study examines how real-time change in the emotional content of television messages inuences concurrent and subsequent activation in the motivational systems, which in turn, inuences resource allocation to encoding and storing the messages. The LC4MP theoretical perspective incorporates Cacioppos dual motivational system model (Cacioppo and Gardner 1999), Langs dimensional theory of emotion (Bradley et al. 2001) and a limited capacity media processing model (Lang 2000) to predict how the overtime variation in television messages emotional content automatically activates and deactivates the motivational systems, which in turn ne tune cognitive processing and support emotional experience.

LC4MP assumes that human motivational and cognitive systems continuously interact with external stimuli, including media messages, in a host of automatic (i.e. unconscious, fast, and reexive) ways and that those interactions inuence cognitive processing...