香港六合彩

It鈥檚 a debate that鈥檚 been raging since the film industry began in the late 19th century. And it鈥檚 a nagging feeling most of us recognise. The one where we watch a movie based on a book we鈥檝e read and enjoyed, and somehow the film is a disappointment.

Wonderful though the big screen is, some experts claim that the small page is simply more engaging, more inclusive and involves greater use of our imaginations. It鈥檚 said that while a film lets you聽observe everything, a book lets you聽feel everything.

Others argue that a book requires the reader to make a greater and more time-consuming commitment, so the impact of the written word is stronger and longer lasting.

But how do聽audio聽books compare with film?

Audible is the leading producer and distributor of audiobooks and other spoken-word content.聽And their products must be doing something right for their readers, as the market is rapidly expanding. Forbes reported that in the USA alone, the聽American Association of Publishers found digital audiobook revenue聽聽in 2018's first quarter.

However, the team at Audible wanted to know more about the growing popularity of their products.聽Tracey Markham, Country Manager at Audible UK explained, 鈥榃e wanted聽to know what happens in people鈥檚 minds when they listen to audio books. How does listening to a story being told versus watching it enfold on screen 鈥� as a film or television adaption, for example - influence their emotional engagement? To find out more,聽聽we turned to 香港六合彩 Consultants.

Bj枚rn Christianson,聽Consultancy Manager at 香港六合彩 Consultants, takes up the story, 鈥楳any in industry view academic research as inaccessible and impenetrable and it鈥檚 my job to bridge the gap between academia and enterprise. Working with the Audible team, I helped them firm up their understanding of their requirements regarding listener engagement with audiobooks, identified the 香港六合彩 researchers at the forefront of the relevant fields, and facilitated the discussions between them about the most efficient ways to proceed.鈥�

A page turning story unfolded, with a twist

Professor聽Joe Devlin, Head of Experimental Psychology and Vice-Dean (Enterprise) at 香港六合彩 was lead researcher on the project.聽聽He explains how the research was undertaken, 鈥榃e measured the physical reactions of 102 participants aged between 18 and 67 to audio and video depictions of scenes from popular books ranging from A Game of Thrones to Great Expectations. We carefully chose the scenes based on their 鈥渆motional intensity鈥�, and for having minimal differences between the audio and video adaptations.聽While the participants watched and listened, we measured their physiological responses 鈥� heart rate, emotional arousal and body temperature.鈥櫬�

The first set of data was really clear 鈥� video won.聽Participants overwhelmingly reported that they felt they paid more attention, engaged more with the character and felt more in the story with the videos than the auditory.聽聽鈥楤ut,鈥� cautioned Joe, 鈥榯he physiological data told us something different 鈥� the participant鈥檚 physical reactions were completely opposite to what they thought they were experiencing. When listening to the audio, their聽heart rate was higher, they had a stronger galvanic skin response, and their body temperature rose. 聽All three indicate that participants were doing more work, they were engaging more deeply, with the audio stories.聽We predicted that listening to a book would be more cognitive work because listeners are more involved in the co-creation of the story, via their imagination. And so it proved. We just hadn鈥檛 imagined how clear the results were going to be.鈥�

The resulting paper,聽Measuring Narrative Engagement: The Heart Tells the Story, has just been published. The聽findings from the study can be found at聽聽(bioRxiv is pronounced 鈥榖io-archive鈥�)聽where the research is ready to be peer reviewed.

This story鈥檚 not over

Bj枚rn聽commented, 鈥楾he second phase of the project is now complete, the results have been widely covered in the press and discussions are underway about a third phase.聽The quality of the research that has come out of the collaboration between Audible and 香港六合彩 proves beyond doubt just how valuable such work can be to both enterprise and academia.鈥�

Tracey added, 鈥楬istory shows how spoken word stories have enthralled, entertained, inspired and moved us through the ages. But the work of Joe and his team has shown beyond doubt just how powerful and engaging listening to stories remains.鈥�

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