## Psychophysiological methods

## Journalistica: The Methods Section

In this section, Journalistica puts a spotlight on research methods used in journalism studies and/or journalism practice.

## NILS HOLMBERG

Lund University

## LENE HEISELBERG

University of Southern Denmark

## JENNY LINDHOLM

Åbo Akademi University

## ERIK KNUDSEN

University of Bergen

## KEYWORDS

psychophysiology, cognition, emotion, eye tracking, electrodermal activity, media effects, journalism reception

## 1. Description of the method

Psychophysiological measurements  trace  and  record  bodily physiological phenomena to draw inferences about psychological processes happening in the mind. In communication research, psychophysiological measures have been used to understand different cognitive and emotional processes during media use (Potter & Bolls, 2012). Psychophysiological measures are especially useful to study causal media effects because they provide an implicit measure of the mental life of media users, are minimally invasive, and can register changes over time.

There exists a range of different psychophysiological approaches. One is to study the body's electrophysical activity in the central and peripheral nervous systems. Central nervous system measures include electroencephalography (EEG), that measures electric activation in the brain. Peripheral nervous system measures include heart rate,  facial  expressions,  and  electrodermal  activity  (EDA)  that measures changes in the skin's electric conductance. Another commonly used psychophysiological approach involves recording people's eye movements to infer cognitive processes such as visual attention, cognitive load, and decision making. In reading research, behavioral eye movement data are often co-registered with more neurological  measurements  such  as  EEG  or  functional  magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to obtain detailed results about e.g., word processing and memory (Simola, 2011).

## 2. Example of use

Although  psychophysiological  measurements  are  underutilized in  journalism  research,  psychophysiological  methods  have  been used to  study  aspects  of  journalism  reception  (Heiselberg,  2021) . EDA has been used to study the effect of tabloid and standard packaging  styles  on  calm  and  arousing  news  stories  (Grabe,  Lang,  & Zhao, 2003) and to study gender differences in responses to negative news  (Soroka,  Gidengil,  Fournier, &  Nir, 2016). Eye  tracking measures have been used to study how news consumption influences learning across different platforms (Kruikemeier, Lecheler & Boyer's,  2018),  and  to  study  audience  evaluations  of  news.  Some have studied news visualizations (including information graphics), where results showed that news consumers make use of such visualizations,  regardless  of  the  platform  on  which  the  visual  is  published (Holsanova, Holmberg & Holmqvist, 2009; de Haan, Kruikemeier, Lecheler, Smit, & van der Nat, 2017). Others have studied how digital news users mostly focus on text rather than multimedia elements (e.g., pictures or videos) (Hassler, Maurer, & Oschatz, 2019). The use of EEG in journalism studies is spare, but Heiselberg (2021) applied EEG measurement, with promising results in a pilot study, to analyze how digital journalism is processed.

## 3. Main advantages and challenges of using the method

Psychophysiological  methods  can  provide  considerable  contributions to journalism research. On a basic level, a thorough understanding of how users react to and process multimedia messages across different target audiences can yield vital information about how to design such messages to obtain some desired behavioral effect. The main advantage of psychophysiological measures is that they give insight into the mental processes which are partly involuntary.  Therefore,  psychophysiological  measures  as  opposed  to self-reported measures are less contaminated by social desirability, participants' answering style or interpretation of questionnaire item wording, limits of participant memory, or, equally important, by observer bias. In addition, psychophysiological measures can be recorded automatically and continuously in real time without disturbing  the  participant's  natural  behavior.  On  a  higher  level,  psychophysiological methods can also enable journalism research to uncover  insights  into  the  psychological  mechanisms  and  cognitive states that guide the meaning production of audience members.

The main challenge with psychophysiological measures is to correctly  determine  the  cognitive  function  of  a  certain  physiological measure. Simply put, if an eye tracking study shows that participants devote a lot of fixations (visual attention) to a text passage, does this indicate reader interest or reader confusion? Another example would be to determine the positive or negative emotional valence of an increased skin response. The response itself signals an increase in arousal level but does not readily differentiate between a negative or positive experience. This challenge could be mitigated using questionnaires and retrospective interviews (Gidlöf, Holmberg & Sandberg, 2012). Furthermore, a lack of adherence to research  protocols  and  guidelines  can  seriously  jeopardize  the meaningful  use  of  these  methodologies.  Reliable  results  require controlled  experiments  with  close  monitoring  of  variables,  large enough sample sizes, and expertise in electrical signal processing. Moreover,  the  experimental  preparations  and  procedures  during testing, such as setting up the equipment, placing electrodes, and testing  the  signals  are  time-consuming  (Heiselberg,  2021).  Lastly, some equipment, such as EEG measurement, is costly. One suggestion for junior researchers would be to collaborate with labs that already use this methodology. In a Nordic setting, such labs are the Humanities Lab at Lunds University, The BASS Lab at Business and Social Science at University of Southern Denmark, Cognition and Behaviour Lab at Business and Social Science, Aarhus University or Experience Lab at Åbo Akademi University.

## 4. Ethical considerations

Given the psychological effects studied in psychophysiological research,  this  type  of  research  should  operate  according  to  ethical principles laid down by local governing bodies. As in all lab experiments, it is important to obtain informed consent, respect participants' right to withdraw, and consider physical contact between the researcher and participants. According to GDPR, most psychophysiology  is  considered  sensitive  personal  data,  which  requires  researchers  to  adequately  motivate  the  collection,  processing,  and storage of these data.

## REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS

- de Haan, Y. Kruikemeier, S., Lecheler, S., Smit, G. & van der Nat, R. (2018). When Does an Infographic Say More Than a Thousand Words?, Journalism Studies , 19 (9), 1293-1312, https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2016.1267592
- Gidlöf, K., Holmberg, N., & Sandberg, H. (2012). The use of eye-tracking and retrospective interviews to study teenagers' exposure to online advertising. Visual Communication , 11 (3), 329-345. https://doi.org/10.1177/1470357212446412
- Grabe, M. E., Lang, A., & Zhao, X. (2003). News Content and Form. Implications for Memory and Audience Evaluations. Communication Research , 30 , 387-413.

## http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0093650203253368

- Hassler, J., Maurer, M., & Oschatz, C. (2019). What You See Is What You Know: The Influence of Involvement and Eye Movement on Online Users' Knowledge Acquisition. International Journal of Communication , 13 , 3739-3763. https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/10937
- Heiselberg, L. (2021) Methodological Innovation in Industry-based Journalism Research: Opportunities and Pitfalls using Psychophysiological Measures, Journalism Studies , 22 (11), 15041524, https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2021.1919545
- Holmberg, N. (2016). Effects of online advertising on children's visual attention and task performance during free and goal-directed internet use: A media psychology approach to children's website interaction and advert distraction . [Doctoral Thesis]. Lund University. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.34031.64168
- Holsanova, J., Holmberg, N., & Holmqvist, K. (2009). Reading information graphics: The role of spatial contiguity and dual attentional guidance. Appl. Cognit. Psychol. , 23 (9), 1215-1226. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.1525
- Kruikemeier, S., Lecheler, S., & Boyer, M. (2018). Learning From News on Different Media Platforms: An Eye-Tracking Experiment, Political Communication , 35 (1), 75-96,

## https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2017.1388310

- Lindholm, J., Backholm, K. & Högväg, J. (2018). What eye movements and facial expressions tell us about user-friendliness. Testing a tool for communicators and journalists, in Hornmoen, H., & Backholm, K. (Eds.), Social Media Use in Crisis and Risk Communication: Emergencies, Rumours and Lifesavers . Emerald. pp. 205-225. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78756-269-120181014

- Moore, R. A. (2007). Ethical Considerations for Psychophysiology Studies. Research Ethics , 3 (2), 40-45.

https://doi.org/10.1177/174701610700300203

- Potter, R. F., & Bolls, P. D. (2012). Psychophysiological measurement and meaning: Cognitive and emotional processing of media. Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203181027
- Simola, J. M. (2011). Investigating online reading with eye tracking and Eeg: The influence of text format, reading task and parafoveal stimuli on reading processes [Doctoral dissertation]. University of Helsinki. http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-10-7358-8
- Soroka, S., Gidengil, E., Fournier, P., & Nir, L. (2016). Do Women and Men Respond Differently to Negative News? Politics & Gender, 12 (2), 344-368. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1743923X16000131

## NILS HOLMBERG

Senior lecturer Department of Strategic Communication Lund University nils.holmberg@isk.lu.se

## LENE HEISELBERG

Assistant professor Centre for Journalism University of Southern Denmark lhei@journalism.sdu.dk

## JENNY LINDHOLM

University lecturer Political Science with Media and Communication Åbo Akademi University jenny.lindholm@abo.fi

## ERIK KNUDSEN

Researcher MediaFutures University of Bergen Erik.Knudsen@uib.no