Melodic Variations to Stimulate Your Attention. How Pitch Variations Can Improve Effectiveness, Arousal, and Recognition of an Audio Message

• In Event: Studies of Message Properties

Abstract

This study explores the effect of different intonation strategies applied to audio commercials on the cognitive processing of the listener. A within-subjects experiment was conducted in which participants listened to 16 radio ads that had been created with different models of intonation designed to vary the announcer’s pitch range. Dependent variables were self-reported effectiveness and adequacy, skin conductance level (SCL) and recognition memory. Results showed that radio ads presented by announcers whose pitch transitioned from high frequency to low achieved better perceived effectiveness, elicited greater sympathetic nervous system activation and attained better recognition accuracy than the ads with no pitch variations and variations from low to high pitch.

Authors

• Emma Rodero, Universitat Pompeu Fabra/ Institute for Communication Research, Indiana University

• Robert F. Potter, Indiana U