Note: the Orienting Response has been a natural part of human (and mammilian) history for millenium. But this is the first time in the history of humankind where people are spending large amounts of time having their Orienting Response evoked continually every 3 to 10 seconds for hours on end. What are the effects on the mind and brain?
"Structural manipulations in videos are known to attenuate the alpha (8 to 13 Hz) rhythm of the electroencephalogram (EEG) recorded over posterior cortical regions involved with visual processes. To examine whether other engaging elements also affect the alpha rhythm, EEG was recorded from 10 participants who viewed television commercials.
Reflex that brings an immediate response to changes in environment
Noticed dogs briefly oriented ears and eyes to new arrivals in laboratory
Lynn (1966)
Detailed physiological changes when new stimuli
Pupil dilation, increased EMG activity, increased frequency and lower amplitude EEG, increase in amplitude and decrease in frequency of respiration, slower heart rate, changes in EDA Overview
Orienting Response & Television
"In television viewing, the orienting response is associated with physical orienting toward the screen. Breathing pauses for a moment, then resumes with shorter, faster breaths. There is increased flow to the head and brain, and reduced blood flow to the limbs. Brain activity changes; although there is increased electroencephalogram (EEG) activity, there are lower alpha wave amplitudes (for alpha blocking, see Reeves, Thorson & Schleuder, 1986; Thorson & Lang, 1992). " - Research in Media Promotion (August 2000)
"The Effects of Television Videographics and Lecture Familiarity on Adult Cardiac Orienting Responses and Memory" - Sage Journals Online (1992)
"Researchers have, in fact, explored what design features allow electronic media to hold attention for long periods of time. They use the term engagement to reflect the degree of intensity associated with an episode of attention.63 Engagement is also used to denote a phase of attention. Each episode of attention is made up of three phases—initiation, engagement, and termination.64 Holly Ruff and Mary Rothbart explain that engagement, the intermediate phase, follows either an orienting reaction or a voluntary intention to attend to a stimulus or event.65 "
"During the initiation phase, attention is ”captured“ by salient or novel events in the environment through the three- to five-second orienting response.66 Engagement results if ”pre-attentive“ processes determine some value in the information detected by the orienting response, and it allows the child to stay focused on an event.67"
"The stimulus acting as a distractor of voluntary attention disrupts the voluntary attention system with stimuli characterized by intensity and suddeness. The psychological study of involuntary attention was based on it's destructive effects on voluntary attention."
"The direct investigation of involuntary attention was initiated by I.P. Pavlov's (1927) discovery of the orienting reflex (OR). In the framework of the physiology of the higher nervous activity, OR research was regarded as a logical extension of physiological research strategies which view psychological phenomenon as complex brain functions."
"... The possibility of looking at this part of the iceburg of OR components was opened by the remarkable discovery of brain waves by H. Berger (1929). It was shown that the alpha-rhythm depression closely corresponds to the OR and involuntary attention." - the textbook "Attention and Brain Function" By Risto Näätänen
Orienting Response & Al Gore
"An important explanation for why we spend so much time motionless in front of the screen is that television constantly triggers the "orienting response" in our brains. As I noted in the introduction, the purpose of the orienting response is to immediately establish in the present moment whether or not fear is appropriate by determining whether or not the sudden movement that has attracted attention is evidence of a legitimate threat..."
"Now, television commercials and many action sequences on television routinely activate that orienting reflex once per second. And since we in this country, on average, watch television more than four and a half hours per day, those circuits of the brain are constantly being activated."
"The constant and repetitive triggering of the orienting response induces a quasi-hypnotic state. It partially immobilizes viewers and creates an addiction to the constant stimulation of two areas of the brain: the amygdala and the hippocampus (part of the brain's memory and contextualizing system). It's almost as though we have a "receptor" for television in our brains."
"It has been noted for some time that television can be mesmerizing for young children and that even children with attention deficit disorder, who can pay attention to little else for meaningful periods of time, can stay focused on television. One of the central ways that television succeeds in maintaining the attention of children is through the "orienting response." First described by Pavlof in 1927, the orienting response can be thought of as the "what's that" reflex. Simply put, it's our brains keen interest in something that is new or unexpected. One can readily imagine why this is (and more importantly was) critical to humans survival." - Pediatrics For Parents
"Children’s programmers use a technique called the ”orienting reflex," known as OR, to capture and keep a child’s attention. OR works in this way: If we see or hear something the brain doesn’t recognize as the correct sequence or a typical life event — such as a dancing alphabet or quick zooms and pans, we focus on it until the brain recognizes that it doesn’t pose a threat. The problem with watching too many programs that rely on OR is that real life becomes slow and boring by comparison."
”We think that with continued exposure to high intensity, unrealistic action, you’re conditioning the mind to expect that level of input,“ Christakis explains. When the child doesn’t get the fast-paced input that television provides, he or she becomes bored and inattentive." - MSNBC (Sept 2004)
"So the paradox is, how could the orienting response cause Alpha waves to be blocked, yet in the case of TV watching, cause alpha brainwaves to dominate?" - www.allexperts.comtvSmarter.wordpress.com
"Repeat the experiments on different nights doing different things for
about 30 minutes for each experiment."
"Different things tried were: sleeping, reading, doing homework, relaxing,
playing cello, and watching TV."
Herbert Krugman's Discovery
"It also appears, as suggested initially by the earlier studies of involvement or of eye movement, that the response to print generally may come to be understood as active and composed primarily of fast brain waves, whereas the response to television might be understood as passive and composed primarily of slow brain waves. Further testing is indicated..." from Brain Wave Measures of Media Involvement Reprinted in the book "How Advertising Works"
"Early comparisons between EEG while watching TV and EEG while reading were based on the popular as well academic belief that TV viewing is passive. Based on William James' conceptualization of duel attention systems (voluntary and involuntary attention),
Krugman (1971) posited that whereas reading involved a series of successive efforts to attend (demanded voluntary attention), TV viewing involved little or no voluntary effort. Using an EEG measure from the occipetal area, Krugman found a preponderance of slow waves (alpha, delta and theta frequencies) whereas the corresponding characteristic response for EEG during reading involved little slow wave activity and considerable high-frequency or beta activity. He interpreted these findings as supporting the idea that the two media are processed differently, consistent with James' idea of two attentional systems." - The Textbook The Neuropsychology of Everyday Life: Issues in Development and Rehabilitation
"As one might expect, people who were watching TV when we beeped them reported feeling relaxed and passive. The EEG studies similarly show less mental stimulation, as measured by alpha brain-wave production, during viewing than during reading. What is more surprising is that the sense of relaxation ends when the set is turned off, but the feelings of passivity and lowered alertness continue. Survey participants commonly reflect that television has somehow absorbed or sucked out their energy, leaving them depleted. They say they have more difficulty concentrating after viewing than before. In contrast, they rarely indicate such difficulty after reading. After playing sports or engaging in hobbies, people report improvements in mood. After watching TV, people's moods are about the same or worse than before. "
* * * *
"What is it about TV that has such a hold on us? In part, the attraction seems to spring from our biological "orienting response." First described by Ivan Pavlov in 1927, the orienting response is our instinctive visual or auditory reaction to any sudden or novel stimulus. It is part of our evolutionary heritage, a built-in sensitivity to movement and potential predatory threats. Typical orienting reactions include dilation of the blood vessels to the brain, slowing of the heart, and constriction of blood vessels to major muscle groups. Alpha waves are blocked for a few seconds before returning to their baseline level, which is determined by the general level of mental arousal. The brain focuses its attention on gathering more information while the rest of the body quiets."
"In 1986 Byron Reeves of Stanford University, Esther Thorson of the University of Missouri and their colleagues began to study whether the simple formal features of television--cuts, edits, zooms, pans, sudden noises--activate the orienting response, thereby keeping attention on the screen. By watching how brain waves were affected by formal features, the researchers concluded that these stylistic tricks can indeed trigger involuntary responses and "derive their attentional value through the evolutionary significance of detecting movement.... It is the form, not the content, of television that is unique.""
"The orienting response may partly explain common viewer remarks such as: "If a television is on, I just can't keep my eyes off it," "I don't want to watch as much as I do, but I can't help it," and "I feel hypnotized when I watch television." In the years since Reeves and Thorson published their pioneering work, researchers have delved deeper. Annie Lang's research team at Indiana University has shown that heart rate decreases for four to six seconds after an orienting stimulus. In ads, action sequences and music videos, formal features frequently come at a rate of one per second, thus activating the orienting response continuously."
* * * *
"Lang and her colleagues have also investigated whether formal features affect people's memory of what they have seen. In one of their studies, participants watched a program and then filled out a score sheet. Increasing the frequency of edits--defined here as a change from one camera angle to another in the same visual scene--improved memory recognition, presumably because it focused attention on the screen. Increasing the frequency of cuts--changes to a new visual scene--had a similar effect but only up to a point. If the number of cuts exceeded 10 in two minutes, recognition dropped off sharply. "
- Featherman, G., et al. Electroencephalographic and Electrooculographic Correlates of Television Viewing. Final Technical Report: National Science Foundation Student-Oriented Studies. Amherst: Hampshire College, 1979.
- Walker, J. "Changes in EEG rhythms during television viewing." Perceptual and Motor Skills 51, 1980,0pp. 255-61.
"Researchers have, in fact, explored what design features allow electronic media to hold attention for long periods of time. They use the term engagement to reflect the degree of intensity associated with an episode of attention.63 Engagement is also used to denote a phase of attention. Each episode of attention is made up of three phases—initiation, engagement, and termination.64 Holly Ruff and Mary Rothbart explain that engagement, the intermediate phase, follows either an orienting reaction or a voluntary intention to attend to a stimulus or event.65 "
