Effects of Improved Television Weather Graphics and Visual/Verbal Redundancy on Viewer Comprehension

The intent of this study was to investigate the impact that recent developments in technology for computer-generated graphics for television weathercasts as well as the effect of visual/verbal redundancy cues on viewer comprehension. Survey and test instruments were administered to subjects in both Albuquerque, New Mexico and Waco, Texas. Significant interactions were attributed to the use of 10 year-old weather graphics technology and state-of-the-art technology relating to the pace used by the meteorologist during a forecast. Differences in forecast comprehension scores between genders who viewed television weather forecasts using either "old" or "new" graphics technology were also determined to be significant. The subjects included adult males and females representing a wide range of ages, educational backgrounds, and ethnicity. Samples included 251 individuals from both New Mexico, and central Texas. The dependent variable was a comprehension score of forecast content from four specially produced weathercasts, which were the independent variable. Two of the weathercasts were identical in content and language with the only significant difference being one was produced with Weather Spectrum International 9000 (WSI) graphics that were introduced into the marketplace in the 1980s, while the other forecast was produced using a Weather Central Genesis System introduced into the marketplace in the late 1990s. Two other weathercasts were produced using the same graphics, but in one the meteorologist purposely mismatched his language to not exactly match the graphics being presented. This represented "low" visual/verbal redundancy. In the other weathercast the meteorologist gave particular attention to match his language with the graphics being presented, thus representing "high" visual/verbal redundancy cues. The presenter for all of the weathercasts was an award winning certified meteorologist. Subjects were randomly assigned into one of the four treatment groups to view only one of the weathercasts followed by a questionnaire to test their level of comprehension and recall of forecast details. Group means were calculated using both one-way and two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) in order to determine if significant relationships exist between groups with subjects' rating of the meteorologist's personality, pace, and his choice of language being considered in the equation.