The effects of multimedia on cognitive aspects of decision-making

Businesses make multimedia presentations, combining film clips and text, which could be made at less cost using a single medium. Extending prior findings that film clips in multimedia presentations can impact affective states (e.g., [Rose J. Behavioral decision aid research: Decision aid use and effects. In Arnold and Sutton, Research Accounting as an Information Systems Discipline (ch 6). Sarasota: AAA; 2002]), our study examines how multimedia presentations affect decision-making cognitively (rather than affectively). Participants performed two types of tasks using information presented to them in two single medium modes (text-only and film-only) and a multimedia mode (combined text/film). Based on theories of presentation modes/modalities, media richness, and information overload research, we hypothesize the effects of different presentation modes (single medium versus multimedia), task familiarity (familiar versus unfamiliar), and information overload (above versus below overload) on decision-makers' consistency with, compliance with, and willingness to apply externally provided information processing rules concerning the solving of various types of tasks. Results provide full to partial support for the predicted effects of task familiarity and information overload on consistency, compliance and willingness. Specifically, multimedia presentations increase the willingness to apply externally provided rules but decrease the consistency with which rules are applied to tasks. Overall, our study suggests that decision-makers are reluctant to use externally provided instructions, instead of their own internally learned rules, especially as their understanding of the task at hand increases. Such understanding is enhanced by high task familiarity, clear presentation formats (i.e., single medium), and low information load. This study has implications for businesses trying to decide how much to invest in multimedia presentations, and also on organizations and society at large as they frequently direct individuals to follow various types of instructions.