This study examined the effect of sped-up video content on viewers’ information processing with the goal of contributing to the advancement of human-friendly ICT environment. To this end, both a behavioral and a physiological experiment were conduct...
This study examined the effect of sped-up video content on viewers’ information processing with the goal of contributing to the advancement of human-friendly ICT environment. To this end, both a behavioral and a physiological experiment were conducted to empirically verify the correlation between video playback speed and cognitive load. The results were then analyzed in relation to the recall accuracy of the content. Watching video content with accelerated playback speed offers the benefit of reduced viewing time but it also has potential for various side effects. This is because the amount of information viewers must process per unit of time inevitably increases. In this context, previous studies examining the impact of increased video playback on communication have primarily focused on the communication effect caused by playback speed. However, the cognitive load imposed on viewers during real-time information processing has not yet been systematically investigated. Accordingly, based on the online information processing model proposed in cognitive psychology, this study aimed to investigate the effect of video playback speed on processing load with a particular focus on the role of individual viewers’ working memory capacity. In the first experiment, a behavioral response experiment was conducted, where understanding the video content served as the primary task and the Go/No-go task as the secondary task. The results showed that high speed of playback increases cognitive load and excessively high speed even interferes with accurate transfer of information into long-term memory. However, this pattern was pronounced in the group with the low working memory capacity, while those with high capacity did not show significant declines in the recall accuracy. In the second experiment, the eye movement and skin conductance response were collected while participants watched video contents without any secondary task, in order to examine changes in cognitive load caused by high-speed viewing. The results revealed that faster video playback increases perceptual load but both cognitive load and recall accuracy were influenced by working memory capacity. For people with low working memory capacity there was no significant change in cognitive load as playback speed increased, but the recall accuracy decreased. In contrast, people with high working memory capacity experienced an increase in cognitive load with faster playback, but their recall accuracy remained at the same level as normal playback. Taken together, these findings imply that higher playback speeds hinder the information processing for individuals with low working memory capacity while for those with high working memory capacity it may serve as an efficient strategy to save viewing time. Ultimately, these findings demonstrate that experimental study utilizing the information processing models and methodologies from cognitive psychology can provide scientific evidence for development of personalized ICT.