Essa pesquisa possui como principal objetivo o estudo dos personagens de marca à luz da teoria do Vale da Estranheza, tendo em vista que personagens considerados estranhos podem influenciar a recepção (SPADONI, 2000; TINWELL, 2014). Desde a publicação seminal de Masahiro Mori em 1970, autor que propôs que robôs muito parecidos com seres humanos evocam uma reação aversiva (MORI; MACDORMAN; KAGEKI, 2012), foi demonstrado que essa reação ocorre sempre que um estímulo não pode ser categorizado como não-humano ou humano (SAYGIN et al., 2012). As implicações sobre as apropriações teóricas dessa abordagem pelo campo da comunicação são exploradas no decorrer dos dois primeiros capítulos. Para mensurar o efeito da estranheza sobre a atitude, foram utilizadas duas escalas: uma escala criada por Ho e MacDorman (2010; 2016) para mensurar a estranheza, e uma escala de atitude criada por Martin et al. (2004). Um total de 396 pessoas responderam a pesquisa online, predominando mulheres (60%), pessoas do Estado de São Paulo (58%), com Ensino Superior Completo ou mais (80%) e média de 29 anos. Foram utilizados os procedimentos de validação de escala para adaptar a escala da estranheza ao contexto brasileiro (DEVELLIS, 2003). Os resultados sugerem a existência de um modelo de estranheza bifatorial com 4 fatores. Contudo, o modelo de segunda ordem com a variável dependente não passou no teste de ajuste exato e aproximado do modelo. Entende-se que essa pesquisa faz contribuições relevantes às Ciências da Comunicação por lançar mão de uma teoria complementar às pesquisas do campo, e de uma metodologia pouco utilizada pelas pesquisas da área. / This research have as a main objective the study of brand characters in light of Uncanny Valley theory, regarding that brand characters that are considered eerie can influence reception (SPADONI, 2000; TINWELL, 2014). Since Masahiro Mori seminal article, in 1970, when the author propose that characaters who appear almost, but not exactly, like real human beings elicit feelings of eeriness and revulsion among some observers, has been show that this reaction occurs always when an stimuli cannot be categorized as human or non-human (SAYGIN et al., 2012). The theoretical implication of this approach by Communication Studies are explored in Chapter 1 and Chapter 2. To measure the uncanny effect toward attitude, two scales has been used: one developed by Ho and MacDorman (2010; 2016) to measure the uncanny, and second to measure attitude developed proposed by Martin et al. (2004). 396 participantes were recruited and answered the online survey, prevailling women (60%), people from São Paulo State (58%), people with Graduate Degree (80%) and an average of 29 years old. Procedures for scale validation has been used to adapt the Uncanny Valley scale to brazilian contexto (DEVELLIS, 2003). The results suggest that the existence of an bifactorial model of Uncanny with 4 factors. However, the second order model with an dependent variable cannot be accepted by statistical índices of exact and approximation test. It is understood that this research makes relevant contributions to the Communication Sciences by using a theory complementary to the field, also by using a methodology that has not been used by other researchs of the area.

Essa pesquisa possui como principal objetivo o estudo dos personagens de marca à luz da teoria do Vale da Estranheza, tendo em vista que personagens considerados estranhos podem influenciar a recepção (SPADONI, 2000; TINWELL, 2014). Desde a publicação seminal de Masahiro Mori em 1970, autor que propôs que robôs muito parecidos com seres humanos evocam uma reação aversiva (MORI; MACDORMAN; KAGEKI, 2012), foi demonstrado que essa reação ocorre sempre que um estímulo não pode ser categorizado como não-humano ou humano (SAYGIN et al., 2012). As implicações sobre as apropriações teóricas dessa abordagem pelo campo da comunicação são exploradas no decorrer dos dois primeiros capítulos. Para mensurar o efeito da estranheza sobre a atitude, foram utilizadas duas escalas: uma escala criada por Ho e MacDorman (2010; 2016) para mensurar a estranheza, e uma escala de atitude criada por Martin et al. (2004). Um total de 396 pessoas responderam a pesquisa online, predominando mulheres (60%), pessoas do Estado de São Paulo (58%), com Ensino Superior Completo ou mais (80%) e média de 29 anos. Foram utilizados os procedimentos de validação de escala para adaptar a escala da estranheza ao contexto brasileiro (DEVELLIS, 2003). Os resultados sugerem a existência de um modelo de estranheza bifatorial com 4 fatores. Contudo, o modelo de segunda ordem com a variável dependente não passou no teste de ajuste exato e aproximado do modelo. Entende-se que essa pesquisa faz contribuições relevantes às Ciências da Comunicação por lançar mão de uma teoria complementar às pesquisas do campo, e de uma metodologia pouco utilizada pelas pesquisas da área. / This research have as a main objective the study of brand characters in light of Uncanny Valley theory, regarding that brand characters that are considered eerie can influence reception (SPADONI, 2000; TINWELL, 2014). Since Masahiro Mori seminal article, in 1970, when the author propose that characaters who appear almost, but not exactly, like real human beings elicit feelings of eeriness and revulsion among some observers, has been show that this reaction occurs always when an stimuli cannot be categorized as human or non-human (SAYGIN et al., 2012). The theoretical implication of this approach by Communication Studies are explored in Chapter 1 and Chapter 2. To measure the uncanny effect toward attitude, two scales has been used: one developed by Ho and MacDorman (2010; 2016) to measure the uncanny, and second to measure attitude developed proposed by Martin et al. (2004). 396 participantes were recruited and answered the online survey, prevailling women (60%), people from São Paulo State (58%), people with Graduate Degree (80%) and an average of 29 years old. Procedures for scale validation has been used to adapt the Uncanny Valley scale to brazilian contexto (DEVELLIS, 2003). The results suggest that the existence of an bifactorial model of Uncanny with 4 factors. However, the second order model with an dependent variable cannot be accepted by statistical índices of exact and approximation test. It is understood that this research makes relevant contributions to the Communication Sciences by using a theory complementary to the field, also by using a methodology that has not been used by other researchs of the area.

Matrix inductive reasoning has been a popular research topic due to its claimed relationship with the general factor of intelligence. In this research, four subabilities were identified: working memory, rule induction, rule application, and figure detection. This quantitative study examined the relationship between these four subabilites and students' general ability to solve Matrix Reasoning problems. Using tests developed for this research to measure the identified subabilities, the data were collected from 334 Chinese students aged from 12 to 15. Structural equation modeling method was used to analyze the collected data and to evaluate the hypothesized models. Results from the analysis showed that a valid model existed to represent the construct of matrix inductive reasoning. Except for figural detection ability, the other three subabilities had significant direct effects on matrix inductive reasoning ability. Readers should interpret from this result with caution due to the unsatisfactory reliability of the Figure Detection scores. To improve the validity of the interpretation, a new model without the latent variable of figure detection was reexamined. In this analysis, significant relationships still existed from the three subablities to matrix inductive reasoning ability. The strongest relationship existed from working memory ability to matrix reasoning ability, with a standardized coefficient of .52. Effects from rule induction and rule application ability to matrix reasoning dropped to .36 and .34 respectively. These results suggested the important role of working memory on solving inductive reasoning problems. In addition, a significant and substantial indirect path was found that lead from working memory to rule induction to rule application to matrix reasoning. The indirect path indicated that a process existed when students solved Matrix Reasoning tasks.

A Monte Carlo simulation study on class enumeration with latent class regression models. / Latent class regression (LCR) is a statistical method used to identify qualitatively different groups or latent classes within a heterogeneous population and commonly used in the behavioural, health, and social sciences. Despite the vast applications, an agreed fit index to correctly determine the number of latent classes is hotly debated. To add, there are also conflicting views on whether covariates should or should not be included into the class enumeration process. We conduct a simulation study to determine the impact of covariates on the class enumeration accuracy as well as study the performance of several commonly used fit indices under different population models and modelling conditions. Our results indicate that of the eight fit indices considered, the aBIC and BLRT proved to be the best performing fit indices for class enumeration. Furthermore, we found that covariates should not be included into the enumeration procedure. Our results illustrate that an unconditional LCA model can enumerate equivalently as well as a conditional LCA model with its true covariate specification. Even with the presence of large covariate effects in the population, the unconditional model is capable of enumerating with high accuracy. As noted by Nylund and Gibson (2016), a misspecified covariate specification can easily lead to an overestimation of latent classes. Therefore, we recommend to perform class enumeration without covariates and determine a set of candidate latent class models with the aBIC. Once that is determined, the BLRT can be utilized on the set of candidate models and confirm whether results obtained by the BLRT match the results of the aBIC. By separating the enumeration procedure of the BLRT, it still allows one to use the BLRT but reduce the heavy computational burden that is associated with this fit index. Subsequent analysis can then be pursued accordingly after the number of latent classes is determined. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)