Based on the factor analysis, the amount of variance explained by these three factors was 45%.Ĥ. The remaining two prevalence estimate items were removed from analysis when no transformations could reduce the skewness problem.ģ.
A square root transformation reduced the skewness problem for four of the items, and a logarithmic transformation reduced the skewness problem for four more items. After removing these extreme outliers ( n = 35), the revised frequency distributions for nine of the questions were still skewed positively. To be extra cautious in the present study, only scores that were greater than four standard deviations from the mean were recoded as missing data. argue that standardized scores greater than 3.29 standard deviations from the mean are potential outliers. Tabachnick and Fidell (2001) Tabachnick, B. Principles and practice of structural equation modeling,, 2nd ed. Initially, skew and kurtosis values for 11 of the prevalence estimate questions fell outside acceptable ranges ( Kline, 2005 Kline, R. Because there were only 10 participants in this control group, the no exposure control group was not included in any of the analyses.Ģ. There was also a no exposure control group that led to an experimental design that was not fully nested. In concluding, it is argued that this study has important implications for the heuristic processing model, cultivation theory, and research into vividness effects.ġ. Although there were no main effects for frequency on social reality beliefs, there was a significant interaction between frequency and vividness on beliefs: People watching vivid violent media gave higher estimates of the prevalence of crime and police immorality in the real world in the 3× viewing condition than those in the 1× viewing condition. Results showed that reaction times were largely unresponsive to the independent variables. Dependent measures were accessibility and social reality beliefs. 213 students participated in a 2 × 2 × 2 prolonged exposure experimental design varying the frequency of exposure to violent television programs, the level of vividness in the programs, and recency of exposure. The present study represents an experimental test of the heuristic processing model and tests the impact of frequency, recency, and vividness on construct accessibility and social reality beliefs. Prior research has found consistent support for the heuristic processing model of cultivation effects, which argues that cultivation effects can be explained by the availability heuristic.