The Role of News Teasers in Processing TV News and Commercials

<jats:p> The role of news teasers in the processing of news and commercials was explored here. Three theories were used to posit effects that news teasers might have on memory and attention for commercials in evening newscasts. Proactive interference and shifts in cognitive capacity were not found as a function of presence or absence of news teasers. News teasers were found to enhance moderately the primacy-recency pattern found in visual and verbal memory scores. Arguably, this pattern reflects a process of segmentation by viewers in which commercial breaks are treated as discrete units in memory processing. News teasers appear to have an effect on processing strategies employed by television news viewers. </jats:p>