The effect of user control on the cognitive and emotional processing of pictures

The primary feature distinguishing "new" media from traditional media is interactivity. New media technologies are increasingly equipped to offer users more interactive features. This recent emphasis on interactivity is reflected in the scholarly literature as well. Interactivity has become somewhat of a buzzword, despite a lack of consensus or empirical evidence concerning what interactivity means and how it affects mediated experience. This research identifies one component of interactivity, user control, and tests its effects on the psychological processing of emotional and neutral pictures.;Subjects viewed a series of pictures on a computer screen as part of a 2 (Control Over Onset: User vs. Computer) x 2 (Picture Type: Emotional vs. Neutral) x 16 (Repetitions) within-subjects experiment (N = 22). For half of the trials, subjects could actively control picture onset by clicking on a computer mouse. For the other half of the trials, the computer controlled picture onset. Heart rate and skin conductance data were collected as indicators of the type of processing elicited by each manipulation of Control.;Results showed that subjects exhibited a cardiac response indicative of an active, stimulus-rejection posture, when they had control over picture onset. Subjects exhibited a cardiac response indicative of an attentive, stimulus-intake posture, when the computer controlled picture onset. Physiological arousal was higher when subjects had control over picture onset. The effect of Control was more apparent for emotional pictures compared to neutral pictures. Subjects gave higher valence and arousal ratings for emotional pictures that were presented by the computer.;Additional analyses provided evidence that the physiological indicators of orienting and startle that occurred after picture onset were actually generated in the anticipatory period before the manipulation of Control. These results are discussed in relation to current assumptions of interactive media and audience activity.