Motivated Processing of Peripheral Advertising Information in Video Games

<jats:p> An experiment, guided by the Limited Capacity Model of Motivated Mediated Message Processing (LC4MP), manipulated players’ motivational activation states during play of a custom-built first-person shooter video game and examined memory of billboard advertisements embedded in the game’s peripheral content. In line with the LC4MP, a memory sensitivity test demonstrated that encoding of peripheral billboard advertisements was greatest during moderate-medium aversive activation and worst with moderate-high aversive activation. However, storage, measured using cued recall, was greater with moderate-medium appetitive activation when compared with other motivational states. The findings extend understandings of motivated cognitive processing of secondary advertising information in video game contexts. </jats:p>