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The Impact of Multimedia on Information Scanning Effectiveness: an Empirical Study in an Executive Support Systems Environment

This study investigates the impact of multimedia on the effectiveness of information scanning. Information scanning is the act of seeking and receiving a wide variety of special information to develop a thorough understanding of the organization and the environment. The application domain of this study is Executive Support Systems. The experimental task is to identify potential threats and opportunities, a strategic information-scanning activity, based on the information stored in three ESS prototypes. Forty subjects from four organizations participated in the experiment. A random assignment process allocated them into three groups. The control group used the text-based ESS. The first experimental group used the visual multimedia ESS. The second experimental group used the audiovisual multimedia ESS. The experiment was carried out on the sites of the participating organizations. The investigator measured the effectiveness of information scanning based on the number of threats and opportunities each subject identifies. A close-ended questionnaire measured subjects' retention of information.
The results of this study support the cognitive-fit theory. The findings indicate that multimedia is not an appropriate presentation format for analytical tasks. Subjects who use text-based ESS identify significantly more threats and opportunities than subjects who use audiovisual multimedia ESS. The cognitive style of subjects does not moderate the impact of multimedia. The results show that the use of multimedia does not necessarily improve retention of information. Further research is needed to determine the most effective combination of text, graphics, animation, video, and sound.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc278575
Date05 1900
CreatorsHuang, Hsin-Chih
ContributorsWindsor, John C. (John Clayton), 1946-, Vedder, Richard Glen, 1950-, Clayton, H. R., Schlieve, Paul L.
PublisherUniversity of North Texas
Source SetsUniversity of North Texas
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis or Dissertation
Formatviii, 163 leaves: ill., Text
RightsPublic, Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved., Huang, Hsin-Chih

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