Metaphoric advertisement comprehension: The role of the cerebral hemispheres

Currently little is known about how implicit processes (i.e., cognitive processes that consumers are unaware of) are utilized as consumers read metaphoric advertisements. The field of cognitive neuroscience can help marketers better understand consumers' implicit processing by examining how each cerebral hemisphere uniquely contributes during metaphoric advertisement comprehension. A right hemisphere advantage has been demonstrated during metaphoric language processing; however, it is unclear how each hemisphere of the brain processes metaphors used in advertisements. This study combines the fields of marketing and cognitive neuroscience to investigate the hemispheric processing of metaphoric advertisements. Through the use of the divided visual field paradigm, participants read metaphor, literal, or neutral slogans and responded to related target words presented to either the left visual field‐right hemisphere or the right visual field‐left hemisphere. As predicted, there was a right hemisphere advantage, compared to the left hemisphere, for metaphoric slogans. Additionally, greater facilitation was evident in the right hemisphere for literal slogans compared to metaphoric slogans. Metaphoric messages were also remembered better than literal ones. These findings provide an in‐depth account of how consumers implicitly process messages, suggesting an important role of the right hemisphere during the comprehension of both metaphoric and literal messages. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An online measure of thought suppression

An online thought-suppression paradigm was developed to test predictions of ironic process theory. Participants concentrated on or suppressed a particular semantic category. Semantic activation was indexed by the latency to name words from the category. In Experiments 1 and 2, an analog intrusion was introduced while participants were trying to suppress the information. Results consistent with ironic process theory were observed using words with polar opposites in Experiment 1 and words without polar opposites in Experiment 2. To determine whether these effects were dependent on the analog intrusion, Experiment 3 replicated Experiment 1 without the intrusion. Concentration generated semantic activation, but suppression exacerbated this activation. The data imply that hyperaccessibility results from efforts to suppress, whereas the processes of thought suppression identified by ironic process theory require the presence of material inconsistent with a desired cognitive state.     

Sleep disturbances associated with age and HIV

Sleep disturbances are common in normal people of several age groups and those with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) disease. In a secondary analysis of data, 50 HIV-positive and 50 HIV-negative adults between 30 and 65 years old responded to 5 items about sleep. No statistically significant differences by HIV status or age group were found.     

Negative self-efficacy and goal effects revisited

The authors address the verification of the functional properties of self-efficacy beliefs and document how self-efficacy beliefs operate in concert with goal systems within a sociocognitive theory of self-regulation in contrast to the focus of control theory on discrepancy reduction. Social cognitive theory posits proactive discrepancy production by adoption of goal challenges working in concert with reactive discrepancy reduction in realizing them. Converging evidence from diverse methodological and analytic strategies verifies that perceived self-efficacy and personal goals enhance motivation and performance attainments. The large body of evidence, as evaluated by 9 meta-analyses for the effect sizes of self-efficacy beliefs and by the vast body of research on goal setting, contradicts findings (J. B. Vancouver, C. M. Thompson, & A. A. Williams, 2001; J. B. Vancouver, C. M. Thompson, E. C. Tischner, & D. J. Putka 2002) that belief in one's capabilities and personal goals is self-debilitating.     

Dorsal striatum responses to reward and punishment: Effects of valence and magnitude manipulations

The goal of this research was to further our understanding of how the striatum responds to the delivery of affective feedback. Previously, we had found that the striatum showed a pattern of sustained activation after presentation of a monetary reward, in contrast to a decrease in the hemodynamic response after a punishment. In this study, we tested whether the activity of the striatum could be modulated by parametric variations in the amount of financial reward or punishment. We used an event-related fMRI design in which participants received large or small monetary rewards or punishments after performance in a gambling task. A parametric ordering of conditions was observed in the dorsal striatum according to both magnitude and valence. In addition, an early response to the presentation of feedback was observed and replicated in a second experiment with increased temporal resolution. This study further implicates the dorsal striatum as an integral component of a reward circuitry responsible for the control of motivated behavior, serving to code for such feedback properties as valence and magnitude.     

Consistent curricular choice and congruence of subsequent changes

Curriculum choices of 324 male and 157 female liberal arts students who took the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory (SCII) during freshman orientation were classified as congruent or incongruent on the basis of rated correspondence between three-letter codes derived from (SCII) Holland theme scales and expressed curricular choice. The choices of those subjects reporting one or more changes in five semesters were examined for level of congruence using a two-way analysis of variance with repeated measures. While serious methodological limitations are noted, analysis of variance procedures indicated that congruent subjects tended to be more stable, more differentiated, and more academically oriented than incongruent subjects. Among subjects who reported one or more changes, Artistic subjects decreased in congruence while Investigative subjects showed no overall change. Results are discussed in terms of recent theory and previous research.     

Retrieval failure, rehearsal deficiency, and short-term memory loss in the aphasic adult

Studies show that aphasic patients typically are grossly impaired in short-term memory performance. Since aphasics generally experience difficulty in word retrieval, it is conceivable that short-term memory loss is partially the result of verbal rehearsal deficiency which, in turn, is caused by the word retrieval problem. This paper reports an experiment in which five aphasic adults were nonverbally to recall individualized lists of pictures they could easily name and lists of pictures they could not name. Final items in the two lists were recalled with equal accuracy; this was expected in that the recency effect usually reflects sensory rather than verbal storage. Initial items were recalled with greater accuracy than middle-list items in the nameable sets but not in the unnameable sets. This primacy effect suggests the aphasics rehearsed the nameable pictures, but both lists were recalled so poorly that rehearsal deficit was considered responsible for no more than a fraction of the aphasics' reduction in short-term memory.     

The Port-Royal semantics of terms

Conclusion It is tempting to say from the contemporary point of view that thePort-Royal Logic is full of confusions as well as insights. I have focused on several of these confusions and their relations, in particular the confusions between complex idea and proposition, between proposition and judgment, and especially between name and predicate. In particular I have tried to emphasize the instability of the Port-Royal semantics — the ways in which their theory of terms vacillates between earlier views and something closer to a modern analysis. It may, however, be more profitable to regard this work as incorporating several logics, and to view the confusions as the inevitable results of the dynamical tensions among these different views.     

Self-regulation through goal setting

The extant literature on goal setting through 1990 has been reviewed and integrated by Locke and Latham (1990a). The result was the development of a theory of goal setting with special emphasis on its practical implications for the motivation of employees in organizational settings. The purpose of the present paper is twofold. First, the theory is summarized and updated with respect to research completed since publication of the 1990 book. Second, the self-regulatory effects of goal setting are described. Emphasis is given to ways that people can use goals as a self-management technique.     

The Relation of Candidate Personality With Selection-Interview Outcomes

Two studies examined the relation of personality on the interview process. Study 1 was designed to examine these behaviors and characteristics in a lab sctting. while Study 2 examined similar variables in a field setting. Study 1 demonstrated that Type A achievemetit strivings, extraversion, work locus of control. neuroticism. and trait anxiety were related to interview outcomes in simulated employment interviews. Study 2 examined the relation of personality characteristics to outcomes of actual interviews conducted by college recruiters. Type A achievement striving, work locus of control. and trait anxiety were found to be related to interviewer decision outcomes.