Children's understanding of television advertising: a revisit in the Chinese context

The authors conducted a survey of 1,758 elementary school children (6-14 years old) from December 2001, to March 2002, in 3 Chinese cities with different levels of television advertising. The authors used D. R. John's (1999) model of consumer socialization as the theoretical framework for their study. More than half of the children whom the authors interviewed were able to understand that television stations broadcast commercials to earn money. Their understanding of the purposes of television commercials and the persuasive intention of television commercials developed with age. The authors examined the influence of gender, level of advertising, and level of television viewing on children's understanding of television advertising by using 3-way factorial models.     

Synesthesia and memory: color congruency, von Restorff, and false memory effects

In the current study, we explored the influence of synesthesia on memory for word lists. We tested 10 grapheme-color synesthetes who reported an experience of color when reading letters or words. We replicated a previous finding that memory is compromised when synesthetic color is incongruent with perceptual color. Beyond this, we found that, although their memory for word lists was superior overall, synesthetes did not exhibit typical color- or semantic-defined von Restorff isolation effects (von Restorff, 1933) compared with control participants. Moreover, our synesthetes exhibited a reduced Deese-Roediger-McDermott false memory effect (Deese, 1959; Roediger & McDermott, 1995). Taken as a whole, these findings are consistent with the idea that color-grapheme synesthesia can lead people to place a greater emphasis on item-specific processing and surface form characteristics of words in a list (e.g., the letters that make them up) relative to relational processing and more meaning-based processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).     

Effects of program‐advertisement congruity and advertisement emotional appeal on memory for health and safety advertisements

The aim of this study was to examine the memory for health and safety advertisements (HSAs) embedded within a congruent (documentary) or incongruent (sitcom) program. A total of 80 participants aged 16–25 years took part. Participants watched either a sitcom or a health‐related program with health and safety and “filler” advertisements. After they watched the 30 minute program, they were given free and cued recall measures as well as program evaluation. These showed that the free recall scores were generally better for HSAs than filler advertisements across both program types, while the cued recall and advertisement recognition scores were better for filler advertisements than HSAs. Memory scores revealed that the HSAs were better remembered than filler advertisements in an incongruent program environment. Health advertisements are better recalled in non‐health‐related programs. This supported the interference hypothesis.     

When motor congruency modulates immediate memory for objects

In line with the embodied cognition view, some researchers have suggested that our capacity to retain information relies on the perceptual and motor systems used to interact with our environment (Barsalou, 1999; Glenberg, 1997). For instance, the language production architecture would be responsible for the retention of verbal materials such as a list of words (Acheson & MacDonald, 2009). However, evidence for the role of the motor system in object memory is still limited. In the present experiments, participants were asked to retain lists of objects in memory. During encoding, participants had to pantomime an action to grasp (Experiments 1A & 1B) or to use the objects (Experiment 2) that was either congruent or incongruent with the objects to be retained. The results showed that performing an incongruent action impaired memory performance compared to a congruent action. This suggests that motor affordances play a role during object retention. The results are discussed in light of the embodied cognition view.     

Seeing the small picture: Ad-self versus ad-culture congruency in international advertising

Participants in a cross-cultural study in the United States and Taiwan indicated no preference for ads depicting values (individualist or collectivist) consistent with those of their culture. Congruency between personal and ad-portrayed values, however, significantly affected responses. The higher the congruency between ad and self, the more participants related personally to the ad. In addition, affective response, ad liking, perceived ad believability, and brand attitudes were all positively associated with ad-self congruency, but not with ad-culture congruency. Implications for international advertising and cross-cultural research are discussed.     

Surface feature congruency effects in the object-reviewing paradigm are dependent on task memory demands

Perception of object continuity depends on establishing correspondence between objects viewed across disruptions in visual information. The role of spatiotemporal information in guiding object continuity is well documented; the role of surface features, however, is controversial. Some researchers have shown an object-specific preview benefit (OSPB)—a standard index of object continuity—only when correspondence could be based on an object’s spatiotemporal information, whereas others have found color-based OSPB, suggesting that surface features can also guide object continuity. This study shows that surface feature-based OSPB is dependent on the task memory demands. When the task involved letters and matching just one target letter to the preview ones, no color congruency effect was found under spatiotemporal discontinuity and spatiotemporal ambiguity (Experiments 1–3), indicating that the absence of feature-based OSPB cannot be accounted for by salient spatiotemporal discontinuity. When the task involved complex shapes and matching two target shapes to the preview ones, color-based OSPB was obtained. Critically, however, when a visual working memory task was performed concurrently with the matching task, the presence of a nonspatial (but not a spatial) working memory load eliminated the color-based OSPB (Experiments 4 and 5). These results suggest that the surface feature congruency effects that are observed in the object-reviewing paradigm (with the matching task) reflect memory-based strategies that participants use to solve a memory-demanding task; therefore, they are not reliable measures of online object continuity and cannot be taken as evidence for the role of surface features in establishing object correspondence.     

Children's memory for medical emergencies: 2 years later

Long-term recall of medical emergencies (including both injury and hospital treatment) by 2- to 13-year-olds was assessed 2 years after injury. Event identity was important: Children recalled injury details better than hospital treatment. Ninety-six children were interviewed 3 times prior to the 2-year recall; amount recalled decreased only for hospital treatment details, although accuracy of recall decreased for both injury and treatment. Twenty-one children were interviewed only twice prior to the 2-year interview. An extra interview 1 year after their injury had little effect on how much older children recalled about both injury and treatment or how much younger children recalled about injury details, but it helped younger children recall the less memorable hospital event. The extra interview also helped all children maintain accuracy when recalling hospital details but was unnecessary for the more memorable injury event. Implications for children's testimony are discussed.     

Violence and sex impair memory for television ads

Participants watched a violent, sexually explicit, or neutral TV program that contained 9 ads. Participants recalled the advertised brands. They also identified the advertised brands from slides of supermarket shelves. The next day, participants were telephoned and asked to recall again the advertised brands. Results showed better memory for people who saw the ads during a neutral program than for people who saw the ads during a violent or sexual program both immediately after exposure and 24 hr later. Violence and sex impaired memory for males and females of all ages, regardless of whether they liked programs containing violence and sex. These results suggest that sponsoring violent and sexually explicit TV programs might not be a profitable venture for advertisers.     

The portrayal of black people in UK television advertising: perception and reality

• Since the early 1990s, the UK advertising industry has been criticised for the relative absence of non‐whites, and for the ways ethnic minorities are depicted when they are used. Using interviews with advertising professionals and focus groups with black consumers, information on the perceptions of black people in advertising was gathered. The overwhelming message to advertisers was a simple one: ‘it isn't about quotas; it's about the way we are portrayed’. A content analysis of all advertisements shown during prime time on the three terrestrial channels over 2 weeks was then conducted. Results revealed that black people are actually over‐represented in UK television advertisements, although this is not the case for all sectors. However, the role type given to black spokespersons was found to be limited. Implications for marketing and advertising are discussed.

Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Orientation congruency effects for familiar objects: coordinate transformations in object recognition

How do observers recognize objects after spatial transformations? Recent neurocomputational models have proposed that object recognition is based on coordinate transformations that align memory and stimulus representations. If the recognition of a misoriented object is achieved by adjusting a coordinate system (or reference frame), then recognition should be facilitated when the object is preceded by a different object in the same orientation. In the two experiments reported here, two objects were presented in brief masked displays that were in close temporal contiguity; the objects were in either congruent or incongruent picture-plane orientations. Results showed that naming accuracy was higher for congruent than for incongruent orientations. The congruency effect was independent of superordinate category membership (Experiment 1) and was found for objects with different main axes of elongation (Experiment 2). The results indicate congruency effects for common familiar objects even when they have dissimilar shapes. These findings are compatible with models in which object recognition is achieved by an adjustment of a perceptual coordinate system.     

Sequential congruency effects: disentangling priming and conflict adaptation

Responding to the color of a word is slower and less accurate if the word refers to a different color (incongruent condition) than if it refers to the same color (congruent condition). This phenomenon, known as the Stroop effect, is modulated by sequential effects: it is bigger when the current trial is preceded by a congruent condition than by an incongruent one in the previous trial. Whether this phenomenon is due to priming mechanisms or to cognitive control is still debated. To disentangle the contribution of priming with respect to conflict adaptation mechanisms in determining sequential effects, two experiments were designed here with a four-alternative forced choice (4-AFC) Stroop task: in the first one only trials with complete alternations of features were used, while in the second experiment all possible types of repetitions were presented. Both response times (RTs) and errors were evaluated. Conflict adaptation effects on RTs were limited to congruent trials and were exclusively due to priming: they disappeared in the priming-free experiment and, in the second experiment, they occurred in sequences with feature repetitions but not in complete alternation sequences. Error results, instead, support the presence of conflict adaptation effects in incongruent trials. In priming-free sequences (Experiment 1 and complete alternation sequences of Experiment 2) with incongruent previous trials there was no error Stroop effect, while this effect was significant with congruent previous trials. These results indicate that cognitive control may modulate performance above and beyond priming effects.     

Electrophysiological correlates of crossmodal visual distractor congruency effects: Evidence for response conflict

To investigate the basis of crossmodal visual distractor congruency effects, we recorded event-related brain potentials (ERP) while participants performed a tactile location-discrimination task. Participants made speeded tactile location-discrimination responses to tactile targets presented to the index fingers or thumbs while ignoring simultaneously presented task-irrelevant visual distractor stimuli at either the same (congruent) or a different (incongruent) location. Behavioural results were in line with previous studies, showing slowed response times and increased error rates on incongruent compared with congruent visual distractor trials. To clarify the effect of visual distractors on tactile processing, concurrently recorded ERPs were analyzed for poststimulus, preresponse, and postresponse modulations. An enhanced negativity was found in the time range of the N2 component on incongruent compared with congruent visual distractor trials prior to correct responses. In addition, postresponse ERPs showed the presence of error-related negativity components on incorrect-response trials and enhanced negativity for congruent-incorrect compared with incongruent-incorrect trials. This pattern of ERP results has previously been related to response conflict (Yeung, Botvinick, & Cohen, 2004). Importantly, no modulation of early somatosensory ERPs was present prior to the N2 time range, which may have suggested the contribution of other perceptual or postperceptual processes to crossmodal congruency effects. Taken together, our results suggest that crossmodal visual distractor effects are largely due to response conflict.     

Children's memory for a personally experienced event: Implications for testimony

This study was prompted by an interest in children's abilities to testify in legal settings. Based on the fundamental premise that children cannot provide accurate testimony about events that cannot be remembered, this investigation focused on 3- and 6-year-olds' memory of a salient, personally experienced event. The event selected was that of a visit to the doctor for a physical examination. Children at both ages remembered most of the features of the check-up at an immediate memory test, although the older children performed somewhat better than younger children. In addition, the performance of the 3-year-olds decreased over delay intervals of 1 and 3 weeks, whereas that of the 6-year-olds remained constant over this period. Moreover, at all assessment points the older children provided more information in response to open-ended general questions than did the younger children. Both groups of children were quite good at giving accurate responses to misleading questions, although the 3-year-olds performed below the level of 6-year-olds. The need for further controlled studies of children's memory capabilities is discussed.     

Negative congruency effects: a test of the inhibition account

Masked priming experiments occasionally revealed surprising effects: Participants responded slower for congruent compared to incongruent primes. This negative congruency effect (NCE) was ascribed to inhibition of prime-induced activation [Eimer, M., & Schlaghecken, F. (2003). Response faciliation and inhibition in subliminal priming. Biological Psychology, 64, 7-26.] that sets in if the prime activation is sufficiently strong. The current study tests this assumption by implementing manipulations designed to vary the amount of prime-induced activation in three experiments. In Experiments 1 and 3, NCEs were observed despite reduced prime-induced activation. Experiment 2 revealed no NCE with at least similar prime strength. Thus, the amount of prime activation did not predict whether or not NCEs occurred. The findings are discussed with regard to the inhibition account and the recently proposed account of mask-induced activation [cf. Lleras, A., & Enns, J. T. (2004). Negative compatibility or object updating? A cautionary tale of mask-dependent priming. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 133, 475-493; Verleger, R., Jaskowski, P., Aydemir, A., van der Lubbe, R. H. J., & Groen, M. (2004). Qualitative differences between conscious and nonconscious processing? On inverse priming induced by masked arrows. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 133, 494-515].     

Task switching: on the origin of response congruency effects

When people frequently alternate between simple cognitive tasks, performance on stimuli which are assigned the same response in both tasks is typically faster and more accurate than on stimuli which require different responses for both tasks, thus indicating stimulus processing according to the stimulus-response (S-R) rules of the currently irrelevant task. It is currently under debate whether such response congruency effects are mediated by the activation of an abstract representation of the irrelevant task in working memory or by "direct" associations between specific stimuli and responses. We contrasted these views by manipulating concurrent memory load (Experiment 1) and the frequency of specific S-R associations (Experiment 2). While between-task response congruency effects were not affected by the amount of concurrent memory load, they were much stronger for stimuli that were processed frequently in the context of a competitor task. These findings are consistent with the idea that a large portion of the congruency effects stems from direct S-R associations and they do not support a sole mediation by task-set activation in working memory.     

Memory systems in the rat: effects of reward probability,context, and congruency between working and reference memory

The interaction of working and reference memory was studied in rats on an eight-arm radial maze. In two experiments, rats were trained to perform working memory and reference memory tasks. On working memory trials, they were allowed to enter four randomly chosen arms for reward in a study phase and then had to choose the unentered arms for reward in a test phase. On reference memory trials, they had to learn to visit the same four arms on the maze on every trial for reward. Retention was tested on working memory trials in which the interval between the study and test phase was 15 s, 15 min, or 30 min. At each retention interval, tests were performed in which the correct WM arms were either congruent or incongruent with the correct RM arms. Both experiments showed that congruency interacted with retention interval, yielding more forgetting at 30 min on incongruent trials than on congruent trials. The effect of reference memory strength on the congruency effect was examined in Experiment 1, and the effect of associating different contexts with working and reference memory on the congruency effect was studied in Experiment 2.     

Effector system-specific sequential modulations of congruency effects

Congruency effects in conflict tasks are reliably reduced after experiencing conflict, that is, following incongruent trials. Such sequential modulations (sometimes referred to as the Gratton effect) indicate the operation of conflict adaptation mechanisms. The influential conflict monitoring hypothesis suggested that after conflict the processing of relevant stimulus dimensions is increased. Alternatively, it was suggested that the influence of automatic response activation is suppressed following conflict. In two experiments, participants worked on the same cognitive task (Experiment 1: Eriksen flanker; Experiment 2: Simon) with the same kind of stimulation. A cue indicated whether they should respond with the hands or the feet. When the effector system repeated from the previous trial, a sequential modulation was reliably observed. When the effector system switched, however, the sequential modulation collapsed. These results are taken to argue for the suppression of effector system-specific response activations as a consequence of experiencing conflict. Alternative interpretations in terms of task-set and/or context switches are discussed.