Product placement, an advertising trend that places a brand within the context of an information medium, has emerged as an effective means of increasing brand recognition. The practice has not been thoroughly examined in the different media in which it occurs. The purpose of the present experiment was to investigate the effectiveness of prominent and subtle product placements in books on different forms of memory. The effectiveness of the placements was evaluated by measuring explicit and implicit memory for the placed brands. Additionally, effectiveness was measured with two types of preference judgments: a forced choice scenario and a shopping list scenario. Results from Experiment 1 showed that participants demonstrated implicit memory for brands mentioned in the novel with a word stem completion task and a category exemplar generation task. The centrality of placement only affected performance on these tasks for test-aware participants. Experiment 2 used a forced choice task and showed that consumer preference was unaffected by subtle and prominent placements. Experiment 3 used a shopping list scenario and showed that brand placement affected participants’ preferences for previously studied brands regardless of the placement centrality. The experiments also showed that participants had explicit memory for the brands with prominent placements leading to better recall than subtle placements. Taken together, the findings show that the placement of brands in books is a valid means of influencing consumer awareness and behavior toward the brand.

Virtual reality applications are developing fast and break new grounds every day in new industries. In today's market, most of the virtual reality projects are funded by venture capitalists and are yet to produce any revenue. For an advertiser to be willing to advertise they must see some sort of value or possibility to receive revenue out of the intended commercial. Memory is a common measure of influence from a commercial. Therefore, this thesis aim was to investigate if the memory, in terms of implicit and explicit memory, was affected by objects with different levels of interaction in virtual reality. A user study was conducted where the participants were instructed to go through several virtual rooms, where they were exposed to static, semiinteractive and interactive objects in the categories fruits/vegetables and beverage cans. The static objects were presented as pictures on instruction boards, the semi-interactive objects were presented through point-and-click tasks, and the interactive objects were presented through tasks that utilized body movements in virtual reality.When the participants were finished with the virtual reality application, they conducted a survey regarding their experiences and was asked to fill out three memory tests; a word-fragment completion task, a cued recall test, and a recognition task. Results show that interactive and semi-interactive objects in virtual reality did have a significant impact on explicit memory, and that the static objects did not. For implicit memory a conclusion could not be drawn whether the objects in the virtual environment had any impact due to no significant difference between the study participants and the control group without influence of the study as a result of not enough data. The results from the study were vastly different for fruits/vegetables and beverage brands, where results for the fruits/vegetables had a clear distinction and the beverage brands had almost no significant data, which could be due to “Inattentional blindness”. / Virtuella verklighets (Virtual reality) applikationer utvecklas snabbt och bryter ny mark varje dag i nya industrier. På dagens marknad, så är de flesta virtuella verklighets projekten finansierade av riskkapitalister och är fortfarande i ett läge där de inte producerar intäkt. For att marknadsförare ska vara villiga att investera måste de se någon potential i att få intäkter från den avsedda reklamen. Minne, är ett vanligt mått för att mäta påverkan av en reklam. Därav var avsikten for denna avhandling att undersöka om minnet, i form av implicit och explicit minne, blev påverkat av objekt med olika nivåer av interaktion i en virtuell verklighet. Ett användartest utfördes där deltagare blev instruerade att gå genom flera virtuella rum, där de blev exponerade för statiska, semi-interaktiva och interaktiva objekt i kategorierna frukter/grönsaker och dryckesmärken. De statiska objekten representerades som bilder på en statisk instruktionstavla, dom semi-interaktiva objekten representerades genom en peka-ochklicka uppgift, och de interaktiva objekten var representerade genom uppgifter som utnyttjade kroppsrörelser i en virtuell verklighet.När deltagarna fullföljt den virtuella verklighets applikationen fick de fylla i en enkät angående deras upplevelser, samt fylla i tre minnes test; ett ord-fragmentkompletterings test, ett indikation återkallelsetest, och ett igenkännings test. Resultaten visar på att de interaktiva och de semi-interaktiva objekten i den virtuella verkligheten hade en signifikant påverkan på det explicita minnet, samt att de statiska inte hade det. För de implicita minnet kunde inga slutsatser dras huruvida objekten i den virtuella verkligheten hade någon inverkan på grund av ingen signifikant skillnad mellan studiedeltagarna och kontrollgruppens resultat som en efterföljd av otillräckliga data. Resultaten från studien hade olika utfall för frukter/grönsaker och dryckesmärken, där resultaten för frukter/grönsaker hade en klar distinktion, medan dryckesmärkena hade nästan ingen signifikant data, vilket kan bero på ”Ouppmärksam blindhet” (Inattentional blindness).

<p dir="ltr">It is well known that persons with aphasia (PWA) demonstrate deficits in sentence processing. Specifically, many show difficulties with syntactic re-analysis, or the ability to revise one’s interpretation of a sentence due to a temporary ambiguity. Emerging evidence suggests that structural priming, individuals’ tendency to unconsciously re-use a previously encountered structure, can facilitate production and comprehension of different sentence structures in PWA. However, there are inconsistencies within the literature regarding the robustness of priming across different sentence structures and tasks, and the existing findings are limited to off-line measures which do not capture real-time sentence processing. Furthermore, a range of individual variability has been shown in magnitudes of priming effects.</p><p dir="ltr">This current project addressed these critical gaps by investigating the effects of structural priming on comprehension of sentences with reduced relative (RR) clauses. Study 1 examined whether PWA show immediate structural priming and longer-term cumulative priming in a computerized self-paced reading paradigm. In this study, participants read RR target sentences that were preceded by prime sentences with either an RR or a main clause (MC) interpretation. Study 2 examined if and how individuals’ cognitive (memory) skills account for individual variability shown in structural priming. Participants completed a Serial Reaction Time task as a measure of implicit memory, and the Verbal Paired Associates I task as a measure of explicit memory. Eighteen healthy adults (HA) and 18 PWA participated in both studies.</p><p dir="ltr">In Study 1, PWA demonstrated robust and timely immediate structural priming effect, providing novel evidence that structural priming can be captured in real-time using self-paced reading, and that priming can help ameliorate syntactic re-analysis deficits in PWA. However, these online changes were not reflected in the behavioral measures, highlighting the sensitivity of self-paced reading in detecting the dissociation between automatic, real-time processing and overt behavioral responses. Cumulative priming as traditionally defined was also not significant for either group, although participants became faster at reading RR target sentences as the session progressed. Study 2’s findings suggest that implicit memory may be an important cognitive skill to promote sentence processing, whereas having strong explicit memory may not be facilitative of the learning process.</p>

Over the last 30 or more years evidence has accumulated in favour of the view that memory is not a unitary faculty; rather, it can be subdivided into a num- ber of functionally independent subsystems. Whilst dividing memory phenomena into these distinct subsystems has undoubtedly advanced our understanding of memory as a whole, the approach of studying subsystems in isolation fails to address potential interactions between them. Over the last few decades there has been a gradual increase in the number of studies attempting to move be- yond dissociation by characterising functional interactions between subsystems of memory. The main aim of this thesis was to contribute to this endeavour, by examining interactions between two specific subsystems that are positioned on opposite sides of the declarative and non-declarative divide in long-term mem- ory: priming and episodic recognition. Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) were employed to monitor neural markers of repetition priming and episodic memory during recognition tests with masked priming of test cues. In the standard pro- cedure, half of the studied and unstudied test trials began with a brief (48ms) masked repetition of the to-be-recognized word prior to the onset of test items; the remaining unprimed trials were preceded by the word “blank”. The pattern of priming effects across experiments was reasonably consistent, with differences between experiments directly related to the intended manipulations. In contrast to priming effects, the pattern of memory effects was variable across experiments, demonstrating that the engagement of explicit recognition signals is influenced by the outcome of implicit processing, and suggesting that interactions between priming and explicit retrieval processes do occur. Taken together, results from experiments reported in this thesis indicate (1) that under certain circumstances, priming is sufficient to support accurate recognition and does not necessitate changes in memory performance, (2) that mid-frontal old/new effects indexing familiarity are not merely driven by repeated access to semantic information, and (3) that priming influences neural correlates of recollection by speeding their onset. Overall, the data clearly demonstrate that there are multiple potentially interacting routes to recognition.

<p>Researchers have recently combined clinical and cognitive areas of research in order to investigate the role of cognitive factors in explaining how emotional disorders are developed and maintained. It is believed that biased cognitive processing of emotionally relevant information can greatly affect emotional responses and behaviour where insights into such cognitive processes can have invaluable clinical implications.</p><p>The present thesis investigates the role of cognitive biases for information related to food and body appearance in individuals with eating disorders (ED) and those with non-clinically eating disorder-related concerns (NED). Are ED characterised by cognitive biases toward such information related to their specific concerns? Are such cognitive biases specific to clinical ED or present also in NED samples? Are cognitive biases operating at both conscious and unconscious levels of cognitive processing?</p><p>The tasks used to pursue these questions were: the emotional Stroop task, an Internet version of the emotional Stroop, Jacoby’s white noise paradigm and a recognition task. The influence of priming on the emotional Stroop task was also investigated in order to test whether the use of this task could be extended to more complex investigations than selective attention.</p><p>Results provide support for that cognitive processing of information related to eating and body appearance is biased in individuals with ED. It is, however, unclear whether such biased processing is specific to clinical ED. Findings further suggest that cognitive biases occur primarily at unconscious levels of cognitive processing. Support was also obtained for that the emotional Stroop task is sensitive to priming where initial body perception may be one factor influencing cognitive responses toward negative self referent words following exposure to thin ideal images. Results further suggest that the emotional Stroop task successfully can be administered via the Internet where manipulating task delivery and response mode may increase the sensitivity of this task. Some of the advantages of administering the emotional Stroop task via Internet over traditional methods are access to more heterogeneous samples, more ecologically valid situations, reduced costs and minimisation of demand characteristics.</p>

Researchers have recently combined clinical and cognitive areas of research in order to investigate the role of cognitive factors in explaining how emotional disorders are developed and maintained. It is believed that biased cognitive processing of emotionally relevant information can greatly affect emotional responses and behaviour where insights into such cognitive processes can have invaluable clinical implications. The present thesis investigates the role of cognitive biases for information related to food and body appearance in individuals with eating disorders (ED) and those with non-clinically eating disorder-related concerns (NED). Are ED characterised by cognitive biases toward such information related to their specific concerns? Are such cognitive biases specific to clinical ED or present also in NED samples? Are cognitive biases operating at both conscious and unconscious levels of cognitive processing? The tasks used to pursue these questions were: the emotional Stroop task, an Internet version of the emotional Stroop, Jacoby’s white noise paradigm and a recognition task. The influence of priming on the emotional Stroop task was also investigated in order to test whether the use of this task could be extended to more complex investigations than selective attention. Results provide support for that cognitive processing of information related to eating and body appearance is biased in individuals with ED. It is, however, unclear whether such biased processing is specific to clinical ED. Findings further suggest that cognitive biases occur primarily at unconscious levels of cognitive processing. Support was also obtained for that the emotional Stroop task is sensitive to priming where initial body perception may be one factor influencing cognitive responses toward negative self referent words following exposure to thin ideal images. Results further suggest that the emotional Stroop task successfully can be administered via the Internet where manipulating task delivery and response mode may increase the sensitivity of this task. Some of the advantages of administering the emotional Stroop task via Internet over traditional methods are access to more heterogeneous samples, more ecologically valid situations, reduced costs and minimisation of demand characteristics.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Psychology. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

On pense souvent que notre mémoire nous joue des tours et nous fait défaut. Ces oublis concernent généralement des souvenirs qui ne sont pourtant pas si vieux. Alors quand il s’agit de se rappeler d’informations sensorielles auxquelles nous n’avons pas repensé depuis plusieurs dizaines d’années, pas de doute, il ne reste plus rien… Mais en est-on vraiment sûr? Et si l’information était toujours là, prête à se manifester de manière explicite -comme sous forme de rappel ou de sentiment de familiarité- pour peu que les conditions le lui permettent? A ce jour, très peu d’expériences ont été menées sur ce sujet. L’objectif de ma thèse a donc été d’apporter des premiers éléments de réponse concernant la récupération de mémoires laissées inactives. Ma recherche s’est orientée selon deux axes principaux : une première partie théorique où je montre a) qu’il n’est pas nécessaire de réactiver une trace mnésique pour la maintenir à très long-terme si elle a été suffisamment répétée et b) que la récupération explicite de cette mémoire serait possible grâce à la présentation d’informations qui cibleraient au mieux le souvenir ; une seconde partie expérimentale où je montre a) que des participants sont capables de récupérer de manière explicite des informations laissées en dormance pendant au moins une dizaine d’années et b) que cette trace mnésique pourrait être détectée sur des tracés d’Electroencéphalographie (EEG). Ainsi, et aussi étonnant que cela puisse paraître, dans des conditions favorables à leur réactivation, d’anciennes traces mnésiques que l’on croyait disparues, peuvent de nouveau surgir sous la manifestation de rappel ou de sentiment de familiarité par exemple. Ces résultats soulèvent des questions majeures concernant le stockage neuronal de cette information. / Memory plays tricks on us and fails us even for recent events. So for the retrieval of sensory information that we have not experienced for decades, surely the memories are gone without a trace, but can we be sure of this? What if the information had been there all along ready to be explicitly retrieved through recall or familiarity for example? So far, experimental evidence is lacking. The purpose of my thesis was to shed some light on the retrieval of these inactive memories. To tackle this problem I developed my research around two main axes: For the first part which is theoretical, I suggest that a) reactivations are not necessary to maintain very long-term memories if the memories were sufficiently repeated at first; b) it might be possible to retrieve explicitly remote inactive memories using specific cues; in the second part which is experimental, I show that a) within specific conditions participants are able to retrieve explicitly very long-term memories that were left inactive for decades and b) such memory traces could be found on the Electroencephalography (EEG) signals. Surprisingly, when conditions are met, remote memories that were thought to be lost can again elicit recall or familiarity. With these results, a question remains: How do neurons store such information?

[pt] A memória se apresenta em sistemas distintos e interligados. Ela permite a constituição do sujeito e sua interação com o meio em que vive. Durante o desenvolvimento, mudanças biológicas e comportamentais vão ocorrendo, algumas vezes de forma rápida e outras, lentamente, respeitando a maturação neuronal, a interação social e a cultura em que vive. Nesse contexto, a emoção tem um papel modulador das funções cognitivas, fortalecendo ou enfraquecendo o armazenamento de uma informação, ou seja, influenciando a memória. Seu armazenamento pode ser sensorial, de curto e de longo prazo e ela pode se dividir em estágios (codificação, armazenamento e recuperação) e em tipos (explícita ou declarativa e implícita ou não declarativa). A memória explícita se subdivide em episódica e semântica, a implícita inclui os hábitos e habilidades, e a memória de curto prazo inclui a memória de trabalho. As áreas cerebrais envolvidas são o hipocampo, lobos frontal e temporal e a amígdala. Há distinção dos sistemas de memória durante o desenvolvimento: bebês reproduzem ações, reconhecem faces e eventos familiares e apresentam memória implícita (que não se altera muito ao longo do desenvolvimento); crianças pré-escolares apresentam uma memória mais sofisticada, organizando melhor as informações; e na fase escolar a memória já se encontra mais desenvolvida. O estudo mostrou que a memória semântica melhora gradualmente com a idade, acompanhando a ampliação de vocabulário; a memória episódica se desenvolve de forma mais pontual; e a memória de trabalho apresenta maturação mais tardia, acompanhando o desenvolvimento das funções executivas. / [en] The memory is divided into different systems and interconnected. It allows the creation of the subject and its interaction with the environment in which they live. During the development, behavioral and biological changes are occurring, sometimes quickly and others slowly, respecting the neuronal maturation, social interaction and culture in which they live. In this aspect, some skills are innate and others, acquired, learned. In this context, emotion plays a modulator of cognitive functions, strengthening or weakening the storage of information, ie, influencing memory. It can present divided into stages (sensory, short term and long term), in steps (encoding, storage and retrieval), and types (declarative or explicit and implicit or non-declarative). The explicit type is subdivided into episodic and semantic, the implicit include the habits and skills, and the short-term memory includes the working memory. The brain areas involved are the hippocampus, frontal and temporal lobes, and amygdale. in the formation of new memories and the recognition and consolidation during learning, and amygdala, allowing storage of the episodes that involve more emotion. There are distinctions in the memory systems during the development: babies reproduce actions, recognize faces and family events and have implicit memory (which does not change much throughout development), preschool children have a more sophisticated memory by organizing the information better; and during school memory is already more developed. The study showed that semantic memory improves gradually with age, following the expansion of vocabulary; episodic memory develops in a more timely, and working memory presents late maturation, following the development of executive functions.

Die Überwachung des zentralen Nervensystems (ZNS) während der Allgemeinanästhesie ist aus anästhesiologischer Sicht wünschenswert, um eine Über- oder Unterdosierung von Narkotika intraoperativ zu vermeiden. Narkosetiefe wird definiert als die Summe aller intraoperativ auf den Patienten einwirkenden sensorischen Stimuli und den zentralnervös dämpfenden Effekten der Anästhetika auf die zerebrale Aktivität. Während für die akustisch evozierten Potentiale diskutiert wird, ob sie die hypnotische Komponente der Allgemeinanästhesie erfassen, ist derzeit unklar, welchen Beitrag somatosensorisch evozierten Potentialen bei der Bestimmung von Narkosetiefe leisten können. Somatosensorisch evozierte Potentiale werden in der klinischen Routine zur Überwachung der Integrität von neuronalen Leitungsbahnen bei Operationen eingesetzt. Das Ziel der hier vorgestellten klinischen Untersuchungen, in denen somatosensorisch und akustisch evozierte Potentiale (SEP, AEP) als mögliche Parameter zur Quantifizierung von Narkosetiefe gegenübergestellt werden, bestand darin, nachfolgende Hypothesen zu überprüfen: 1. Die mittleren Komponenten von SEP und AEP verändern sich dosisabhängig in Abhängigkeit vom Narkotikum in Amplituden und Latenzen und eignen sich als Parameter zur Quantifizierung von Narkotikawirkungen auf das ZNS. 2. Die durch Anästhetika induzierten Veränderungen von SEP und AEP sind unter chirurgischer Stimulation reversibel. Daher eignen sich SEP und AEP als Parameter zur Quantifizierung von Narkosetiefe. 3. SEP und AEP sind geeignet, bei kritisch kranken Patienten den Grad der Analgosedierung quantitativ zu erfassen. 4. SEP und AEP lassen Rückschlüsse auf die Modulation kognitiver Prozesse unter Narkotika zu. In mehreren klinischen Studien an narkotisierten oder analgosedierten Patienten (n = 161) wurden die Wirkungen von Anästhetika auf SEP und AEP dokumentiert, bzw. der Einfluß von chirurgischen oder pflegerischen Maßnahmen untersucht. Zielvariablen waren die Mittellatenz-Komponenten der SEP (N20, P25, N35, P45, N50) und der AEP (Na, Pa; Nb) im Vergleich zur klinischen Einschätzung der Narkosetiefe und den hämodynamischen Daten. Die statistische Analyse wurde mittelts multivariater Analysen durchgeführt, die prädiktive Aussagekraft anhand der prediction probability nach Smith berechnet. Unter Anästhetikagabe fand sich als grundlegendes Muster sowohl bei den SEP als auch bei den AEP eine Verlängerung der Latenzen bei Verminderung der korrespondierenden Amplituden, wobei die Effekte auf die späteren Komponenten > 35 ms deutlicher ausgeprägt waren. Während der Aufwachphase aus der Anästhesie, unter chirurgischen und pflegerischen Maßnahmen waren die anästhetikabedingten Veränderungen der EP-Komponenten teilweise reversibel. Darüberhinaus ließen die SEP-Latenzen P45 und N50 und die AEP-Latenz Nb während der Aufwachphase aus der Anästhesie Rückschlüsse auf die Wiederkehr des expliziten Erinnerungsvermögens nach Narkose zu. Im Gegensatz zu signifikanten Effekten im Gruppenvergleich war die prädiktive Aussagekraft der EP-Parameter im Individualfall gering. SEP sind unter den hier gewählten Narkotikaregimes geeignet, die Modulation der zerebralen Aktivität unter Anästhetika abzubilden. Im Sinne kortikaler Arousalreaktionen werden unter exogener Stimulation die durch Anästhetika induzierten Veränderungen der SEP teilweise antagonisiert. Bei der Interpretation der Befunde in Hinblick auf den Grad der Narkosetiefe ist zu berücksichtigen, daß die Effekte nicht unabhängig vom Anästhetikum sind und im Individualfall stark variieren können. Dennoch ist im Einzelfall der Einsatz von SEP als Monitor zur Narkosetiefe durchaus sinnvoll, z. B. wenn AEP oder andere Verfahren nicht durchführbar sind. Ein Einsatz der SEP als "idealer" Monitor zur Bestimmung des Grades der Narkosetiefe in der klinischen Routine ist zum jetzigen Zeitpunkt sicher nicht gerechtfertigt. Zweifelsohne können weitere Untersuchungen mit SEP zu wesentlichen Erkenntnissen in der klinisch anästhesiologischen Grundlagenforschung beitragen. / Monitoring of the functional state of the central nervous system is of major concern for the anaesthetist to avoid over- or undermedication with the possible sequelae for the patient during general anaesthesia. Depth of anaesthesia is defined as the sum of all excitatory stimuli during operation and the depressant effects of anaesthetics on the electrical activity of the brain. Currently it is discussed, whether the auditory evoked responses (AER) reflect the hypnotic component during anaesthesia. In contrast there is limited information about somatosensory evoked responses (SER) with respect to depth of anaesthesia, even though SER are used to monitor the integrity of the somatosensory pathway at risk during surgery. The aim of the present clinical investigations, in which SER and AER were investigated as parameters to quantify depth of anaesthesia, was to test the following hypotheses: 1. Anaesthetics induce dose-related changes in somatosensory and auditory evoked responses and quantify the anaesthetic action on the brain. 2. During surgical stimulation the anaesthetic induced changes are reversed in part. Therefore SERs and AERs are indicators of depth of anaesthesia. 3. SERs and AERs quantify the grade of analgosedation in critically ill patients. 4. SERs and AERs indicate modulation of cognitive function during recovery from anaesthesia. In clinical studies (n = 161 patients) we investigated the midlatency components of SER and AER during different anaesthetic drug combinations, their modulation during surgical stimulation or nursing care and during recovery from anaesthesia. The midlatency SER components N20, P25, N35, P45 and N50 and the AER components Na, Pa and Nb were studied in relation to the clinical assessment of anaesthetic depth and haemodynamic parameters. Statistical analyses were performed by multivariate analyses of variance for repeated measurements and by the calculation for the prediction probability according to Smith. Results: The main pattern of anaesthetic induced changes on midlatency SER and AER waves was as follows: Prolongation in the latencies and reduction of the corresponding amplitudes. The effect was more pronounced on the components > 35 ms. During recovery from general anaesthesia, during surgical stimulation or nursing care the anaesthetic induced changes were in part reversed. Moreover, changes of the SER components P45 and N50 and the AER component Nb differed in patients with respect to explicit memory performance during the wake-up phase from general anaesthesia. While the group effects were significant, the calculated values of the prediction probability indicated a low predictive potency for the individual case. Conclusions: The midlatency SER waves are indicative for changes in the electrical brain activity during different anaesthetic drug combinations. During surgery or other types of exogeneous intervention the anaesthetic induced changes of some SER and AER components are reversed indicating cortical arousal. Interpreting the results with respect to measure depth of anaesthesia it is important to know, that the changes of the evoked responses are dependent on the used anaesthetic and may differ markedly inter- and intraindividually. In a single case SER-recording can be useful to monitor anaesthetic depth, if e.g. AER monitoring is not possible. However, at the present time SER are not advocated as an "ideal" monitor to measure the level of anaesthesia during clinical routine. Without doubt further investigation elucidating the relation between SER and anaesthetics will contribute to our basic understanding of anaesthetic action on the brain.