Fordham Experiment

The Fordham Experiment was an experiment done as part of a course on The Effects of Television by Eric McLuhan and Harley Parker at Fordham University. The purpose of the experiment was to demonstrate to the students that there was a difference between the effects of movies and those of TV on an audience, and to try to ascertain what some of those differences might be.

Related Topics:
Eric McLuhan - Harley Parker - Fordham University

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The distinction was thought to occur because movies present reflected light ('light on') to the viewer, while a TV picture is back lit ('light through'). The experimenters showed two movies, a documentary and a film with little story line about horses, sequentially to two groups of equivalent size, and had the viewers write a half a page of comments of their reactions.

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The groups' reactions to one of the films was roughly similar. Distinct reactions, however, were found for the other. Generally, the

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"light on" (movie) presentation was perceived as having lowered tactility and heightened visuality, as compared to the heightened tactility and lessened visuality of the "light through (TV) presentation.

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Tactility dropped from 'light on' to "light-through":

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• Comments on cinematice technique dropped from 36% with 'light on' to below 20% with 'light-through'
• Comments on specific scenes dropped from 51% to 20%
• Objective comments on a 'sense of power' in the animals dropped from 60% to 20%

Visuality increased from "light on" to "light through':

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• Comments on sensory evocation and a sense of involement and tenseness increased from 6% with 'light on'to 36% with 'light through."
• Comments on a feeling of a loss of sense of time rose from 6% to 40%
• Comments on a sense of total involement rose from 15% to 64%
• Comments on a sense of total emotional involvement rose from 12% to 48%

The researchers concluded that the "light on" subjects exhibited a sensory shift characterized by a drop in visual sense and an increase in tactile sense.

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