We have published a paper about the effects of playback speed on the perception and processing of television news. The article, entitled "Effects of Playback Speed on Eye Movement Behavior During News Viewing: An Eye-Tracking Study", has been published in the Journal of Eye Movement Research.

This work has been developed at the Neuro-Com Research Group, with the collaboration of RTVE Instituto in Barcelona, Spain. The study involved 146 participants and compared effects of watching television news at normal playback speed (1x) and accelerated playback speed (2x). The main results include lower valence, lower perceived comprehension, poorer memory performance, lower perceived credibility, and lower recommendation ratings when news videos were watched at 2x speed. In contrast, arousal was higher during accelerated viewing. Participants in the 2x condition exhibited a higher fixation rate and allocated a greater proportion of their viewing time to the lower-third area containing on-screen captions.

Overall, the findings suggest that, although accelerated playback allows viewers to consume the same audiovisual information in less time, watching news at double speed may have disavantatges for the processing, evaluation, and retention of news content.

View full-text here:

Gurdián-Franceschi, M., Martín-Pascual, M. Á., & Andreu-Sánchez, C. (2026). Effects of Playback Speed on Eye Movement Behavior During News Viewing: An Eye-Tracking Study. Journal of Eye Movement Research, 19(5), 101. https://doi.org/10.3390/jemr19050101