Frontiers in Public Health (Feb 2014)

Do personally-tailored videos in a web-based physical activity intervention lead to higher attention and recall? – An eye-tracking study.

  • Stephanie eAlley,
  • Cally eJennings,
  • Nayadin ePersaud,
  • Mike eHorsley,
  • Ronald C. Plotnikoff,
  • Corneel eVandelanotte

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2014.00013
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 2

Abstract

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Over half of the Australian population does not meet physical activity guidelines and has an increased risk of chronic disease. Web-based physical activity interventions have the potential to reach large numbers of the population at low cost, however issues have been identified with usage and participant retention. Personalised (computer-tailored) physical activity advice delivered through video has the potential to address low engagement, however it is unclear whether it is more effective in engaging participants when compared to text-delivered personalised advice. This study compared the attention and recall outcomes of tailored physical activity advice in video- versus text-format. Participants (n=41) were randomly assigned to receive either video- or text-tailored feedback with identical content. Outcome measures included attention to the feedback, measured through advanced eye-tracking technology (Tobii 120), and recall of the advice, measured through a post intervention interview. Between group ANOVA’s, Mann-Whitney U tests and Chi square analyses were applied. Participants in the video-group displayed greater attention to the physical activity feedback in terms of gaze-duration on the feedback (7.7 min vs. 3.6 min, p< 001), total fixation-duration on the feedback (6.0 min vs. 3.3 min, p< 001), and focusing on feedback (6.8 vs. 3.5 min, p< 001). Despite both groups having the same ability to navigate through the feedback, the video-group completed a significantly (p< .001) higher percentage of feedback sections (95%) compared to the text-group (66%). The main messages were recalled in both groups, but many details were forgotten. No significant between group differences were found for message recall. These results suggest that video-tailored feedback leads to greater attention compared to text-tailored feedback. More research is needed to determine how message recall can be improved, and whether video-tailored advice can lead to greater health behaviour change.

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