Research by a lecturer of the Department of Communication at UPF, Emma Rodero, shows that speaker speech rate and information complexity particularly influence the recognition of the news broadcast in the media.

The results of the study, just published in the scientific journal Media Psychology, would suggest that the optimal speech rate to facilitate information processing is between 170 and 190 words per minute. Thus, the higher the rate, the less complex the information should be, and vice-versa.

As the study points out, when the rate drops below 170 words per minute, recognition of the message is affected because the listener's attention diminishes as speech is less dynamic. Conversely, if the rate is above 190 words per minute, the listener has problems to follow the information, especially when complex.

The research also shows that a rate of over 210 words per minute causes the listener to suffer cognitive overload preventing them from following the information and inciting them to abandon the task.

The study calls the optimal rate (170-190 words per minute) "Moderate Dynamic Mechanism", which is sufficient to be dynamic and at the same time moderate enough so as not to hinder understanding.

Since often the rate of speech in the news and advertising exceeds 200 words per minute, the results of this research are clearly a wake-up call for the audio-visual communications media, whose information content is complex and contain a large amount of data per minute.

Referenc e work: Rodero, E. Influence of speech rate and information density on recognition: The Moderate Dynamic Mechanism. Media Psychology. On line first.