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BGSU_Dissertations_0170_Gourd.pdf (8.26 MB)

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Cognitive Complexity-Simplicity and Information Processing In Theatre Audiences: An Experimental Study

Gourd, E. William, Jr.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1555931250433539

Abstract Details

1973, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, Theatre.
Preliminary study of the personality theory formulations of G. A. Kelly and J. Bieri, as well as of the information­processing theory researches by Schroder, Suedfeld, Driver, Streufert, and others suggested that a psychological information-processing framework might help to explain variations in audience members' responses to plays in production. To investigate the possibility of relationships between audience members' perceptions of dramatic productions and those members' information-processing abilities, undergraduate student subjects were placed in cognitively complex and cognitively simple groups following the administration of the Role Concept Repertory Test (Bieri, 1966). Groups were further divided by sex. "Cloze" entropy procedures were used to select as a relatively complex (entropic) stimulus Harold Pinter's The Homecoming and as a relatively simple (redundant) stimulus Noel Coward's Private Lives. Subjects were then exposed to these two plays in regular production at Bowling Green State University during 1972. Semantic differential and Likert-type rating scales, factor-analyzed for this study, were used to elicit a wide variety of responses to the plays and to their characters. Five sets of dependent measures were subjected to multivariate analysis of variance. Post-significance examinations utilized multiple discriminant analysis to achieve cell centroid identification and comparisons. Results indicated that on particular dimensions of perception, (1) subject complexity/simplicity significantly affected responses to plays and to the plays' characters, (2) perceptions of dramatic characters interacted significantly with subject complexity/simplicity, (3) subject complexity/simplicity interacted significantly with stimulus complexity/simplicity, and (4) subject sex interacted significantly with stimulus complexity/simplicity. Conclusions focused on methodological considerations: (1) Likert-type rating scales deserve greater attention in empirical theatre research; (2) "multiple-dimensionalizing" techniques such as discriminant analysis deserve wider employment by theatre experimentalists.
David Addington (Advisor)
Theater

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Citations

  • Gourd, Jr., E. W. (1973). Cognitive Complexity-Simplicity and Information Processing In Theatre Audiences: An Experimental Study [Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1555931250433539

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Gourd, Jr., E.. Cognitive Complexity-Simplicity and Information Processing In Theatre Audiences: An Experimental Study. 1973. Bowling Green State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1555931250433539.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Gourd, Jr., E.. "Cognitive Complexity-Simplicity and Information Processing In Theatre Audiences: An Experimental Study." Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University, 1973. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1555931250433539

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1555931250433539
244
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