Akademisk avhandling--Uppsala. / Extra t.p., with thesis statement, inserted. Summary in English. Bibliography: p. [202]-223.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 117-129).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2002. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 122-127). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

In older children and adults, words are stored in the mental lexicon in an organized manner and processed in a systematic manner on the basis of their phonological structures. The processing of novel words is therefore more efficient. Young children may process a novel word in a holistic manner, and the words are not stored phonemically distinct with one another in the mental lexicon. Priming is a method often used in spoken word recognition studies. The effects of phonological primes on word learning would reflect the organization of mental lexicon in young children. At the same time, research has shown that there is a positive correlation between phonological short-term memory (STM) and word learning. But the mechanism of how both phonological STM and mental lexicon are involved in word learning is not clear. Forty-two five- to seven-years-old children with a mean age of 6;06 (SD = 0;10) participated in a spoken word learning task. They were presented with names of 18 novel cartoon characters in nine word learning blocks and the names were novel disyllables that are consistent with the phonotactics of Cantonese. In each block, children were exposed to two novel words along with two real words as primes, with the primes phonologically similar to one novel word (“PHONOLOGICAL” condition) but not with the other one (“UNRELATED” condition). They heard each novel word twice and the primes three times. These participants also took part in nonword repetition tasks and a serial order construction task as measures of the phonological STM. A significantly positive effect of phonological priming was observed in the cartoon character naming but not in the form identification and the referent identification. Further analysis of the naming results showed that only the same-onset-and-tone primes produced a significant priming effect. Among the various short-term memory measures, only nonword repetition of pseudosyllables (syllable score) was significantly and positively correlated with the cartoon character naming score after controlling for age. The findings of the present study presented some evidence that even five-year-old Cantonese-speaking children have already organized the lexical representations in neighbourhoods so that phonological primes could exert facilitatory effects on their spoken word learning. Even this young group of children was able to process novel words in a segmental manner. But there could still be some subtle differences between the younger and older children. A word learning model which integrates the involvement of phonological STM and mental lexicon could help to explain how these two memory components contribute to word learning and the word learning differences between the younger and older children. The preliminary findings of this study provided some evidence in children’s sensitivity to the phonological structures of novel spoken words. Cantonese-speaking children, similar to English-speaking ones, are sensitive to the phonological structures of novel words and phonological primes facilitate their spoken word learning. The results of this study further suggest long-term memory and phonological short-term memory are involved at the initial stage of word learning. However, the mechanism of interactions needs to be further investigated. / published_or_final_version / Speech and Hearing Sciences / Master / Master of Philosophy

To make informed buying decisions, online consumers increasingly turn to online product review systems, or electronic word-of-mouth systems (EWOMSs). Previous studies suggest that EWOMS designs can determine consumer behavior. Even some tiny changes, such as background color or picture, can greatly affect consumers’ buying behavior. Hence, it is critical to investigate how designs of EWOMS influence online consumers’ buying behavior. This research develops a theoretical model of the effects of EWOMS designs on consumer purchase behavior. We conducted a study using experiments to test and validate the proposed theoretical model. Our findings indicate that online purchase behavior within EWOMSs can be enhanced by three conditions. First, perceived value should be enhanced by a design that ensures that the first review encountered by consumers is positive. Second, confidence in judgment about value should be increased by displaying the most helpful reviews first. Last, consumers’ emotional states should be enhanced by using a design that facilitates the processing of reviews. Such a design could further positively impact consumers’ confidence. This research not only enhances our understanding of the effects of EWOMS designs but it also contributes to consumer behavior research by studying the effects of confidence in judgment about value. In addition, this research makes important contributions to ecommerce companies, online consumers, and policy makers. / published_or_final_version / Business / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

To aid in resolving some of the ambiguity in the literature about the impact of different forms of WOM on brand performance, this dissertation investigates how WOM influences three consumer responses to WOM: purchase, WOM retransmission, and additional information search. The author investigates these questions by analyzing a database comprising more than three years of detailed WOM data from a unique, nationally representative panel merged with other secondary sources that provide various measures of brand strength (the American Consumer Satisfaction Index and Harris Interactive’s Equitrend). Using a series of hierarchical regression models, the results from this study reveal numerous insights into the contextual factors that moderate the impact of a WOM episode. For example, negative WOM about a brand has a larger absolute effect on consumer purchase intentions than positive WOM, but positive WOM has a larger positive effect on WOM retransmission than the positive effect of negative WOM. Offline WOM tends to exacerbate the effect of positive and negative brand sentiment on purchase intentions. WOM between stronger social ties tends to have greater impact on brand-related responses than WOM between weak ties, except in the case of motivating additional information search. The results also indicate that strong brands (those with higher levels of brand equity) tend to reap greater benefits from WOM. For example, negative, mixed, or neutral WOM has greater influence on purchase, and WOM from weak social ties about strong brands motivates higher levels of information search than when WOM from weak ties is about weaker brands.

published_or_final_version / Computer Science / Master / Master of Philosophy

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