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Dissertation Information for Mia L. Lustria

NAME:
- Mia L. Lustria
- (Alias) Mia Liza Alcantara Lustria

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- Communication

SCHOOL:
- University of Kentucky (USA) (2005)

ADVISORS:
- Donald O. Case

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- J. David Johnson
- James Andrews
- Chike Anyaegbunam
- Stanley D. Brunn
- Janet Ford

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: Can interactivity make a difference? Effects of interactivity on young adults' comprehension of online health content

Abstract: The Internet is growing in popularity as a health information source especially among young adults. Interactivity has been pinpointed as the key feature that makes the Internet a potentially powerful health communication tool. It is being heralded as a hybrid channel that has the capacity not only to disseminate health information to mass audiences both asynchronously and synchronously, but also has the capacity to provide an engaging and stimulating environment that can promote exploratory learning and active processing of information. Despite these exciting claims, there is still a dearth of theoretically-driven empirical studies providing support for or against these assumptions. We still know very little about how interactive technologies actually influence information use, learning and motivational processes.

A popular view is that the communicative efficacy of interactive technologies is influenced more with their match with comprehension processes and individual differences than with the level of interactivity itself. This study was designed to tease out the potential effects of different levels of interactivity on comprehension and to determine whether individual differences in need for cognition would moderate such effects. About 441 young adults (ages 18-26) from the University of Kentucky participated in a 2 by 2 factorial experiment designed to test the effects of two levels of interactivity and two levels of need for cognition on the comprehension of a health website on skin cancer.

Results showed a significant main effect for level of interactivity on comprehension scores holding the covariates, time on task and reading style, constant. Those exposed to the high interactivity site had significantly higher comprehension scores than those exposed to the low interactivity site. There was, however, no significant main effect for need for cognition, neither was there a significant interaction effect between level of interactivity and need for cognition on comprehension scores. Implications of these results and suggestions for future research are also discussed.

MPACT Scores for Mia L. Lustria

A = 0
C = 3
A+C = 3
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2014-01-28 09:50:49

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