Shin, M., Bradley, S. D., Lee, S. J., Wang, Z., & Lang, A. (2003, October). Why people change: Does physiology predict channel changing behavior? [Abstract]. Psychophysiology, 40(Suppl. 1), S78.

Abstract
Understanding why people change television channels has long been a goal of programmers, researchers, and advertisers. Most research in this area has used self-report methods (surveys and diaries) which rely on viewers' conscious recollection of past events. In this study, we looked at how a viewer's mental effort (e.g. heart rate) and physiological arousal (SC) during viewing were related to changing the channel. We asked if there is a discernable physiological pattern associated with a channel changing behavior. Two groups of subjects (college students and older viewers) viewed on a four station system with different local television newscasts on all four channels. Participants were encouraged to change channels any time they wanted to (as they would at home) using a remote control device. Heart rate and skin conductance were continuously recorded. Results show HR increases steadily in the 10 seconds prior to a channel change and then decreases in the 10 seconds following a channel change. The reverse pattern was found for tonic SC which decreases steadily in the 10 seconds prior to a channel change and then increases following the change. We also measured the viewers' recognition memory before and after the change and found, as with heart rate, that recognition is decreasing preceding a change and then increases following the change. Older viewers showed less improvement in memory following the channel change. Thus, attention, arousal, and encoding all decrease in the seconds preceding a channel change, and increase in the seconds which follow the channel change.