The Effects of Screen Size and Message Content on Attention and Arousal

TLDR

The proliferation of screens and their varying sizes may influence psychological impact. The study examined how screen size affects attention and arousal in a between‑subjects experiment with 38 participants. Participants viewed 60 emotionally varied video segments while heart rate deceleration and skin conductance were recorded to assess attention and arousal. Results showed that the largest screen produced greater heart rate deceleration and higher skin conductance, especially for highly arousing content such as violence and sex.

Abstract

The number of different screens that people confront is increasing. One potentially important difference in the psychological impact of screen displays is their size; new screens are both larger and smaller than older ones. A between-subjects experiment (n = 38) assessed viewer's attention and arousal in response to three different size screens (56-inch, 13-inch, and 2-inch picture heights). Viewers responded to video images from television and film that displayed different emotions (# video segments = 60). Attention was measured by heart rate deceleration in response to the onset of pictures, and arousal was measured by skin conductance aggregated during viewing. Results showed that the largest screen produced greater heart rate deceleration than the medium and small screens. The large screen also produced greater skin conductance than the medium and small screens. For skin conductance, screen size also interacted with the emotional content of the stimuli such that the most arousing pictures (e.g., pictures of violence and sex) showed the highest levels of arousal on the large screen compared to the medium and small screens.