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IMS Global: How do you define media psychology? And why does it make sense as a new field of study and research?

BL: Media psychology is really the application of psychology to media. It's as simple as that. It's the application of psychology to the human experience. The field actually has quite a long history, but the use of the term is more recent. In my own case, I've been working in media psychology for more than 40 years. And yet, the term didn't come into common usage until recently. The definition is much broader today than it was in the early 90s when the media psychology division of the APA (American Psychological Association) was formed. At that time, it was mostly talk-show hosts, the Tony Grants, and the Dr. Ruth Westheimers, who were either on television or were radio psychologists, talking about media psychology. In the 90s, we began to realize that psychology was relevant to software design, to tele-medicine, to public policy, and government-related issues, to all facets of education, entertainment, and software games simulation. All of those areas became, in the current vernacular, silos. In 1997, the media psychology division of APA decided to do a study of psychology and new technologies and I co-directed the study. It identified about a dozen areas where psychologists had the professional opportunity to work in the areas of media. That broadened out the whole division. Following that, I started teaching a course in media psychology at Fielding Graduate University and now we offer a Ph.D program in media psychology and an Ed.D concentration in media studies.

In the media psychology program, the field of study is really media studies. It's the study of media effects. What effect does this convergence of iPods, television, and the like have on learning? In learning, you have to look at nature and nurture, but you have to also look at the physical technologies, the psychology and the physiology of learning. With magnetic resonance imaging, we can now track the learning experience much more effectively than ever before. We know the brain centers used in learning. We've learned that the emotional response is different from the cognitive response in different places in the brain. We now know more than we understand, which is one of the learning challenges before us.

IMS Global: What have been some of the most profound changes in teaching and learning as a result of the introduction of some of these new technologies?

BL: Early on, in the 60s, I taught what was called data processing and my dissertation was on computer-assisted instruction, which is really media psychology today. In the latter part of the 60s, I worked with Carl Rogers at the Center for the Study of the Self in San Diego. In 1972, we created a television series called As Man Behaves. We did it when I was at Coastline Community College. It applied psychology and media through the medium of television. My point is that the aspects of media psychology as it relates to teaching and learning have long historical roots. If you go back to the tele-courses, you can go back to Sunrise Semester in 1959 when they were offering the talking-head courses on television. Through the 80s, they had auto-tutors and computers were beginning to be used in different ways. Even slides were a big thing in those days. By the late 70s, the Adult Learning Service at PBS got set up. Sesame Street had been created and was having some success. As we got into the 80s, we shifted from analog to digital media and the boom took off. Cable television grew dramatically, and they perfected devices, including the laptop computer and audio-visual kinds of things. The 80s was really kind of a decade of spreadsheets and limited audio-visual impact in the learning environment.