Advances in machine learning have enabled the creation of realistic synthetic videos known as deepfakes. As deepfakes proliferate, concerns about rapid spread of disinformation and manipulation of public perception are mounting. Despite the alarming implications, our understanding of how individuals perceive synthetic media remains limited, obstructing the development of effective mitigation strategies. This paper aims to narrow this gap by investigating human responses to visual and auditory distortions of videos and deepfake-generated visuals and narration. In two between-subjects experiments, we study whether audio-visual distortions affect cognitive processing, such as subjective credibility assessment and objective learning outcomes. A third study reveals that artifacts from deepfakes influence credibility. The three studies show that video distortions and deepfake artifacts can reduce credibility. Our research contributes to the ongoing exploration of the cognitive processes involved in the evaluation and perception of synthetic videos, and underscores the need for further theory development concerning deepfake exposure.

翻译：机器学习领域的最新进展使得合成逼真视频（即深度伪造）成为可能。随着深度伪造的泛滥，人们对虚假信息迅速传播和公众认知被操纵的担忧日益加剧。尽管其影响令人警醒，但我们对个体如何感知合成媒体的理解仍十分有限，这阻碍了有效缓解策略的制定。本文旨在通过探究人类对视频视觉与听觉失真的反应，以及对深度伪造生成的视觉内容和旁白的反应来缩小这一差距。通过两项组间实验，我们研究了音视频失真是否会影响认知处理过程，例如主观可信度评估和客观学习成果。第三项研究表明，深度伪造中的人工痕迹会影响可信度。三项研究共同表明，视频失真和深度伪造痕迹会降低可信度。我们的研究为当前关于合成视频评估与感知所涉及认知过程的探索做出了贡献，并强调了针对深度伪造暴露开展进一步理论发展的必要性。