Abstract
Although most persons prefer color films and videotapes to black and white, the origin of this preference is uncertain. To assess the directly reinforcing effect of different color levels, subjects were observed unobtrusively while waiting for an experimenter to return with experimental materials. Surprisingly, these subjects spent more time watching black and white programming than color, a main effect which did not interact with either sound level (audible vs silent) or time of day (morning vs afternoon). An interesting but incidental interaction between these last two variables also emerged, indicating that subjects preferred presentations accompanied by sound in the afternoon but not in the morning.
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