Do people like a movie? Are consumers attracted by a broadcast commercial? How do voters
evaluate the performance of political candidates in a televised debate? Traditional study
designs measure the effects of those media stimuli after a recipient has been exposed to the
entire movie commercial or debate. This approach has its limitations. Although we can learn
if people like a particular stimulus as a whole we cannot tell which elements of the stimulus
are responsible for the overall judgment. Real-time response (RTR) measurement provides this
information. By recording individual spontaneous reactions to media messages on a
second-by-second basis this technique offers unique insights into human information processing.
