You Can't Take It with You? Effects of Handheld Portable Media Consoles on Physiological and Psychological Responses to Video Game and Movie Content

Portable media consoles are becoming extremely popular devices for viewing a number of different types of media content, both for entertainment and for educational purposes. Given the increasingly heavy use of portable consoles as an alternative to traditional television-style monitors, it is important to investigate how physiological and psychological effects of portable consoles may differ from those of television-based consoles, because such differences in physiological and psychological responses may precipitate differences in the delivered content's effectiveness. Because portable consoles are popular as a delivery system for multiple types of media content, such as movies and video games, it is also important to investigate whether differences between the effects of portable and television-based consoles are consistent across multiple types of media. This article reports a 2 x 2 (console: portable or television-based x medium: video game or movie) mixed factorial design experiment with physiological arousal and self-reported flow experience as dependent variables, designed to explore whether console type affects media experiences and whether these effects are consistent across different media. Results indicate that portable media consoles evoke lower levels of physiological arousal and flow experience and that this effect is consistent for both video games and movies. These findings suggest that even though portable media consoles are often convenient compared to television-based consoles, the convenience may come at a cost in terms of the user experience.