Intrinsic and Induced Arousal in the Short- and Long-Tern Retention of Film Content by Elementary

A study was designed to examine the contribution of intrinsic arousal (individual differences) and induced arousal to children's comprehension of film content with short- and long-term retention intervals. Intrinsic arousal was measured by a salivary response measure; induced arousal was aanipulated by white auditory noise. The latter was presented while the subjects viewed a silent single-concept film on science. Both literal and inferential comprehension measures were used. Results showed that there was no significant main effect of intrinsic arousal level. However, there was a significant interaction between intrinsic arousal and white noise (p less than.0001). There was also a significant interaction between intrinsic arousal and retention level (p less than.0035), and between white noise and retention interval (p less than.0002). The results were discussed in terms of action decrement and inverted-U models of arousal and learning. (Author