This paper uses a limited capacity information processing model of television viewing to investigate these effects. The viewer is conceived of as a limited capacity information processor.
Attention is defined as the allocation of limited processing resources to various aspects of a task.
Processing resource allocation is defined as having two dimensions. The first is an automatic phasic process related to selection of stimuli for encoding. The second is a controlled tonic process related to mental effort. Viewing television is the task of encoding, processing, and storing the contents of the message. It is predicted that increasing the pacing of the television message will increase the capacity allocated to encoding the incoming message.