Processing mediated sexual information in auditory, visual, and audio/visual channels of presentation

This dissertation examined cognitive processing for television messages containing sexual content in audio, visual, and audio/visual channels of presentation; moreover, it investigated how sexual content in those channels related to motivational system activation, emotional experience, cognitive resource allocation, and memory encoding. The study also explored differences between men and women in processing sexual content and whether processing varied across the channels. A better understanding of how people process sexual content in various channels may lead to the development of more effective media interventions and public health messages that prevent unhealthy, risky sexual health behaviors. It may also assist physicians and counselors with sexual dysfunction therapies.;The study draws from the Limited Capacity Model of Mediated Motivated Message Processing and extends previous research on appetitive motivational system activation for sexual content in the visual and audio/visual channels to the study of the influences of auditory sexual content. It also describes effects of sexually non-redundant content, content that is not portrayed in both the audio and visual modalities simultaneously. Furthermore, it explores differences between sexes in appetitive system activation for sexual messages.;The dissertation used an experimental design in which 63 participants viewed 9 television messages (3 in each channel: Audio/visual, Audio, and Visual) while physiological measures, skin conductance level, heart rate, and facial EMG, were collected online during message presentation. Subjective reports of physiological arousal, and emotional experience (positive and negative) were collected after each message. Tests for auditory and visual recognition memory were collected following a distracter task at the end of the experiment.;The results of this study tell us that processing sexual content in television is different for men and women, that it differs by the channel of information in which it is presented, and that those two things interact for many aspects of processing. Specifically, both men and women paid more attention to sex in the audio/visual channel than in either single channel, though the effect was larger for men. However, women were more appetitively activated than men when the sexual content was in the audio/visual channel. Interestingly, women and men did not differ in their encoding of sexual material. Men, compared to women, were more appetitively activated by sexual content in the audio channel though they were more aroused by visual sex. Overall, results suggest that women process sexual information most thoroughly when it is both seen and heard while men process sexual content more thoroughly when it is in a single channel.