Bradley, S. D., Shin, M., Wang, Z., Lee, S. J., & Lang, A. (2003, October). Processing the nightly news: How shot and story length affect effort, arousal, and encoding [Abstract]. Psychophysiology, 40(Suppl. 1), S27.

Abstract
This study investigates the effects of story length and shot length on older adults' and college students' responses to TV newscasts. Participants were allowed to change the channel between four newscasts taped the same evening in a major U.S. market. The stimuli were altered to manipulate story and shot length. Dependent measures included effort (tonic HR), arousal (SCR frequency and amplitude), encoding (recognition), exposure (time on channel), and evaluations. Students spent the most time viewing newscasts with either short stories and shots or long stories and shots. There were no effects of shot or story length on older viewers' time on channel. Older viewers exerted more cognitive effort (slower HR) during stories with slow shots and during long stories. College age viewers exerted more cognitive effort during short stories; shot length had no effect on college students' HR. It was expected that short stories and shots would lead to more frequent SCRs. Although the trends were in this direction, the differences were not significant. College students recognized the most information from stories which had either short shots and stories or long shots and stories. There were no effects of shot or story length on older viewers recognition. College age viewers evaluated newscasts with long stories and short shots most positively. There were no effects of shot or story length on older viewers' evaluations. Thus, production pacing appears to have greater effects on college students' cognitive, evaluative, and behavioral responses than it does on those of older viewers.