The aim of this study is to present a novel three dimensional (3D) facial animation method for morphing emotions and facial expressions from one face model to another. For this purpose, smooth and realistic face models were animated with thin plate splines (TPS). Neutral face models were animated and compared with the actual expressive face models. Neutral and expressive face models were obtained from subjects via a 3D face scanner. The face models were preprocessed for pose and size normalization. Then muscle and wrinkle control points were located to the source face with neutral expression according to the human anatomy. Facial Action Coding System (FACS) was used to determine the control points and the face regions in the underlying model. The final positions of the control points after a facial expression were received from the expressive scan data of the source face. Afterwards control points were transferred to the target face using the facial landmarks and TPS as the morphing function. Finally, the neutral target face was animated with control points by TPS. In order to visualize the method, face scans with expressions composed of a selected subset of action units found in Bosphorus Database were used. Five lower-face and three-upper face action units are simulated during this study. For experimental results, the facial expressions were created on the 3D neutral face scan data of a human subject and the synthetic faces were compared to the subject&rsquo / s actual 3D scan data with the same facial expressions taken from the dataset.

Research on learning styles often focuses on the learning style of the student; however, the learning style of the educator may affect instructional choices and student learning. Few studies have addressed the lack of knowledge that exists in universities with respect to educators' learning styles and a lesson framework (development, delivery, and debriefing). This sequential mixed methods study explored university educators' conscious, reflective instructional choices as they related to learning styles application within a lesson. Two theoretical frameworks and one conceptual framework drew on Kolb's experiential learning theory; Bloom's, Reigeluth's, and Gagné's instructional design theories and models; and Fiddler and Marienau's events model of learning from experience. Research questions addressed learning styles, usage patterns, instructional choices, and reflections of university educators within a lesson framework. An online inventory recorded 38 university educators' instructional choices, learning styles, and learning styles patterns within the framework of a lesson. Interviews were conducted with 7 of the university educators to document their conscious reflections regarding their instructional choices. Results from the inventory identified that more than 56% of university educators applied the accommodation learning style during the stages of development and delivery of a lesson, and 34% applied the assimilation learning style during the debriefing stage; these findings were supported by detailed reflections about participants' instructional choices in relation to their learning styles. The knowledge acquired about learning styles applications within a lesson framework may benefit university educators' teaching, thereby providing a foundation for positive social change within academic and social communities.

The inter-subjective and dialogical nature of narrative therapy, as commonly practiced, remains unarticulated. Further, there currently exists no rigorous empirical research investigating the process or outcome of narrative therapy. The research aim, to investigate the process and outcome of narrative therapy, comprised theoretical and empirical objectives. The first objective was to articulate a theoretical synthesis of narrative theory, research and practice. The process of narrative reflexivity was identified as a theoretical construct linking narrative theory with narrative research and practice. The second objective was to substantiate this synthesis empirically by examining narrative therapy processes, specifically narrative reflexivity and the therapeutic alliance, and their relation to therapy outcomes. The third objective was to support the proposed synthesis of theory, research and practice and provide quantitative evidence for the utility of narrative therapy, by evaluating depressive symptom and inter-personal relatedness outcomes through analyses of statistical significance, clinical significance and benchmarking. Founded in theories of self, language and narrative (James, 1890; Bruner, 1986; Gergen, 1991; Hollway, 2006; Vygotsky, 1934/ 1987), narrative therapy was conceptualized as involving dialogical and intra-personal processes. Narrative therapists generally apply a story metaphor and commonly focus on the inter-personal field (White, 2007). This thesis recognised the storied and inter-personal nature of narrative therapy, but proposed this does not represent narrative therapy in its entirety. The notion of story connotes monological processes, inconsistent with the conversations of narrative practice, and neglect of intra-personal dimensions is inconsistent with narrative notions of inter-subjectivity. This thesis proposed an integration of dialogical narrative theory (Cooper, 2003; Hermans & Kempen, 1993; Lysaker & Lysaker, 2006) and narrative research (Angus, Levitt, & Hardtke, 1999) provides a model for understanding narrative therapy (White, 2007) as involving the inter-subjective and dialogical process of narrative reflexivity. During the process of narrative reflexivity, a person engages in dialogue with his or her own self and others as extensions of self, interpreting experience from diverse perspectives in the context of personal aspects, such as beliefs, values and intentions that give meaning to experience, to achieve a rich narrative and a sense of well-being. To support this theoretical synthesis, a process-outcome trial evaluated eight-sessions of narrative therapy for 47 adults with major depressive disorder. Dependent process variables were narrative reflexivity (assessed at Sessions 1 and 8) and therapeutic alliance (assessed at Sessions 1, 3 and 8). Primary dependent outcome variables were depressive symptoms and inter-personal relatedness. Primary analyses assessed therapy outcome at pre-therapy, post-therapy and three-month follow-up and utilized a benchmarking strategy to the evaluate pre-therapy to post-therapy and post-therapy to follow-up gains, effect size and pre-therapy to post-therapy clinical significance. Results indicated that when a sub-sample of clients were categorised into five least-improved and five most-improved groups (according to depressive symptom change), there was a differential change in the percentage of reflexive sequences in the discourse of clients at the end of therapy depending on outcome. Improvement in the quality of the working alliance was associated with improvements in depressive symptoms and inter-personal relatedness, with working alliance improvement from Session 1 to 8 sharing 19% of the variance in depressive symptom improvement and 17% of the variance in inter-personal relatedness improvement from pre-therapy to post-therapy. The clinical trial provided empirical support for the utility of narrative therapy in improving depressive symptoms and inter-personal relatedness from pre-therapy to post-therapy: the magnitude of change indicating large effect sizes (d = 1.10 to 1.36) for depressive symptoms and medium effect sizes (d = .52 to .62) for inter-personal relatedness. Therapy was effective in reducing depressive symptoms in clients with moderate and severe pre-therapy depressive symptom severity. Improvements in depressive symptoms, but not inter-personal relatedness, were maintained three-months following therapy. The reduction in depressive symptoms and the proportion of clients who achieved clinically significant improvement (53%) in depressive symptoms at post-therapy were comparable to improvements from standard psychotherapies, reported in benchmark research. This research has implications for assisting our understanding of narrative approaches, refining strategies that will facilitate recovery from psychological disorder and providing clinicians with a broader evidence base for narrative practice. Despite limitations of a repeated-measures research design, use of a standardised intervention protocol, coupled with outcome evaluation of clinical significance enhanced internal validity. Future research could examine narrative therapy in a larger sample, with different disorders, and with an alternative therapy or control group. Coding a greater number of therapy transcripts for evaluating associations of narrative reflexivity with working alliance and outcomes could enhance understanding of narrative reflexivity. Thesis strengths included a strong theoretical foundation underpinning the research design and arguments, examination of therapy process in the context of outcome, and a parsimonious evaluation of narrative therapy outcomes.

Cette thèse de doctorat vise à améliorer la compréhension de la dynamique des groupes, et en particulier à apporter une analyse des liens entre types d’interactions jouées dans des équipes et performance, satisfaction et conflit perçu.Dans un premier temps, la question de l’outil visant à coder les interactions est abordée. Une revue de littérature exhaustive sur les grilles de codage des interactions existantes est effectuée et indique leurs limites et, dès lors, la nécessité de créer une nouvelle grille de codage des interactions. La création d’un nouvel outil tridimensionnel, nommé INSIDE TEAMS3D (IT3D), ainsi que d’un manuel de codage précis, est détaillée. La grille de codage INSIDE TEAMS3D (IT3D) prend en compte la nature des interactions, la convergence entre interactions (accords, désaccords), ainsi qu’une composante socio-émotionnelle (constituante affective ou relationnelle). Son caractère user-friendly, son utilisabilité en temps réel et la fiabilité intercodeurs sont vérifiés.Dans un second temps, des données liant interactions, performance, satisfaction et conflit perçu, sont recueillies auprès de 41 groupes se réunissant et impliquant 264 membres. L’analyse des liens entre types d’interactions jouées et la performance des groupes constitue la première partie de la recherche. La compréhension des liens entre types d’interactions, satisfaction et conflit perçu par les membres est au cœur de la seconde partie de la recherche.Des pistes de développement futur et d’application dans des milieux professionnels sont enfin évoquées. This PhD thesis aims at improving our understanding of group dynamics, and particularly at bringing an analysis of the connections between types of team interactions and performance, satisfaction and perceived conflict. Firstly, the issue of the tool necessary to code interactions is raised. A comprehensive literature review on existing interaction coding systems is done, highlighting their limitations and therefore the need for a new interaction coding system. The creation of a new tri-dimensional tool, called INSIDE TEAMS3D (IT3D), and a coding manual is detailed. The interaction coding system INSIDE TEAMS3D (IT3D) takes into account the functional meaning of interactions, the convergence among interactions (agreements, disagreements) and the interpersonal emotional meaning of interactions (affective or relational part). Its user-friendliness, its usability under live conditions and its interrater reliability are ensured. Secondly, data on interactions, performance, satisfaction and perceived conflict, are gathered from 41 groups and 264 members during meetings. The first part of the research is dedicated to the analysis of the connections between interactions types and group performance. The understanding of the connections between interactions types, satisfaction and perceived conflict is central to the second part of the research.Avenues for future development and possible professional applications are discussed. / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

We present a set of easy-to-use methods and tools to analyze human attention, behaviour, and physiological responses. A potential application of our work is evaluating user interfaces being used in a natural manner. Our approach is designed to be scalable and to work remotely on regular personal computers using expensive and noninvasive equipment. The data sources our tool processes are nonintrusive, and captured from video; i.e. eye tracking, and facial expressions. For video data retrieval, we use a basic webcam. We investigate combinations of observation modalities to detect and extract affective and mental states. Our tool provides a pipeline-based approach that 1) collects observational, data 2) incorporates and synchronizes the signal modality mentioned above, 3) detects users' affective and mental state, 4) records user interaction with applications and pinpoints the parts of the screen users are looking at, 5) analyzes and visualizes results. We describe the design, implementation, and validation of a novel multimodal signal fusion engine, Deep Temporal Credence Network (DTCN). The engine uses Deep Neural Networks to provide 1) a generative and probabilistic inference model, and 2) to handle multimodal data such that its performance does not degrade due to the absence of some modalities. We report on the recognition accuracy of basic emotions for each modality. Then, we evaluate our engine in terms of effectiveness of recognizing basic six emotions and six mental states, which are agreeing, concentrating, disagreeing, interested, thinking, and unsure. Our principal contributions include the implementation of a 1) multimodal signal fusion engine, 2) real time recognition of affective and primary mental states from nonintrusive and inexpensive modality, 3) novel mental state-based visualization techniques, 3D heatmaps, 3D scanpaths, and widget heatmaps that find parts of the user interface where users are perhaps unsure, annoyed, frustrated, or satisfied.

This work involves in anti-error coding systems with interleaving. At first is given summary of high-frequency use error correction codes. Below there are described two basic techniques of interleaving and their confrontation. The next text is focusing on survey and characteristics of codes which conform to submission. After selection of optimal system is verified its function in MATLAB environment. Final step is creation of functional application in C++ environment. This application serves to transmission of error correction BMP pictures.

Les comportements stéréotypés et les intérêts restreints sont des comportements à valeur diagnostique dans l’autisme. Pourtant, il y a des lacunes en clinique, dans la façon de détecter ces comportements, considérant l’absence d’instruments standardisés les suscitant et en recherche, dans la façon de documenter ces comportements pour arriver à les définir de façon opérationnelle. Cette thèse a pour objectif de mieux documenter, par une situation d’observation, les comportements stéréotypés et les intérêts restreints en bas âge dans l’autisme, et de permettre l’utilisation de cette situation en clinique. Deux étapes préliminaires ont permis de documenter les comportements stéréotypés et les intérêts restreints en bas âge dans l’autisme. La première, l’élaboration d’un questionnaire sur les comportements stéréotypés et les intérêts restreints et les objets qui les déclenchent complété par des experts dans le domaine. Ce questionnaire a permis de construire la grille de cotation et la situation de stimulation. La seconde la construction d’une grille de cotation qui apporte une définition opérationnelle des comportements stéréotypés et des intérêts restreints en bas âge dans l’autisme et vise à les colliger. L’étape principale de la présente recherche consiste en l’élaboration d’une situation de stimulation suscitant des comportements stéréotypés et des intérêts restreints par l’exposition à des objets qui les déclenchent. Cette situation a permis de documenter, par observation, les comportements stéréotypés et les intérêts restreints en bas âge dans l’autisme. La validation de la situation de stimulation a été appliquée auprès de deux groupes d’enfants âgés de 24 à 72 mois appariés en âge chronologique, 21 enfants portant un diagnostic d’autisme et 24 enfants au développement typique Les résultats montrent que la situation de stimulation est un instrument suffisamment sensible pour détecter des comportements stéréotypés et des intérêts restreints en bas âge dans l’autisme et d’identifier des objets d’intérêt. En effet, lors de l’exposition à la situation de stimulation, les enfants autistes se distinguent des enfants typiques sur la base du nombre et de la durée des comportements stéréotypés et des intérêts restreints qu’ils présentent. Les enfants autistes montrent une fréquence significativement plus élevé pour les CSIR suivants: maniérismes des mains et des doigts, crispation des doigts, sautillement, doigts dans la bouche, objets dans la bouche, exploration visuelle: regard rapproché, met les objets en mouvement non circulaire. Les enfants autistes se distinguent également des enfants typiques sur la base de l’exploration des objets, en fréquence et en durée, significativement, pour les objets: Bateau: marteau et balles et lettres et chiffres. Cette étude est la première qui passe par un protocole d’observation systématique, pour documenter les comportements stéréotypés et les intérêts restreints, ainsi que les objets qui les déclenchent, des objets d’intérêt, en bas âge dans l’autisme. Cette situation pourrait ultimement faire partie du processus d’évaluation diagnostique ou de dépistage de l’autisme permettant d’identifier en bas âge des enfants autistes ou à risque d’autisme. / Restricted interests and repetitive behaviours constitute one of the three core domains of symptoms required for an autism spectrum diagnosis. However, the detection of these behaviours in clinical practice remains limited by the lack of validated instruments designed to elicit these behaviours during clinical assessment. Moreover, a lack of clear operational definitions of target behaviours limits the generalisation of findings amongst studies and its application to clinical practice. The aim of this thesis is to document the occurrence and quality of restricted interests and repetitive behaviours in young autistic children and to develop a validated stimulating play situation that can readily be use to elicit target behaviours in clinical assessments. Preliminary steps documented the various restricted interests and repetitive behaviours as well as the objects likely to trigger these behaviours in children with autism using a questionnaire completed by experts in the field. The list of the most common behaviours was used to build the observational rating scale based on operational definitions of the restricted interests and repetitive behaviours. The main part of this study was to develop a stimulating play situation designed to elicit restricted interests and repetitive behaviours through exposure to specific objects previously identified as potential triggers. This situation documented, through detailed observation, restricted interests and repetitive behaviours most commonly found in autism during infancy. Validation of the stimulating play situation consisted in exposing twenty one (21) autistic experimental subjects and twenty four (24) typically developing control subjects, aged from 24 to 72 months, matched for chronological and developmental non-verbal age. Results demonstrate sufficient sensitivity of the stimulating play situation to accurately detect restricted interests and repetitive behaviours as well as objects of interest in children with autism. Autistic children differ from typically developing children on the amount and duration of restricted interests and repetitive behaviours, significantly for: hand flapping, hand and fingers posturing, hopping, putting finger in mouth, putting objects in mouth, putting object in movement, and visual exploration. Regarding which objects were explored, a greater proportion of autistic participants played with the hammer and balls toy and did so more frequently and for a longer period of time than typical children. This study is the first to use a systematic observation protocol to document restricted interests and repetitive behaviours and objects of interest in autism during early childhood. This new instrument could ultimately be used in the identification of young autistic children as part of the diagnostic or screening assessment.

Les comportements stéréotypés et les intérêts restreints sont des comportements à valeur diagnostique dans l’autisme. Pourtant, il y a des lacunes en clinique, dans la façon de détecter ces comportements, considérant l’absence d’instruments standardisés les suscitant et en recherche, dans la façon de documenter ces comportements pour arriver à les définir de façon opérationnelle. Cette thèse a pour objectif de mieux documenter, par une situation d’observation, les comportements stéréotypés et les intérêts restreints en bas âge dans l’autisme, et de permettre l’utilisation de cette situation en clinique. Deux étapes préliminaires ont permis de documenter les comportements stéréotypés et les intérêts restreints en bas âge dans l’autisme. La première, l’élaboration d’un questionnaire sur les comportements stéréotypés et les intérêts restreints et les objets qui les déclenchent complété par des experts dans le domaine. Ce questionnaire a permis de construire la grille de cotation et la situation de stimulation. La seconde la construction d’une grille de cotation qui apporte une définition opérationnelle des comportements stéréotypés et des intérêts restreints en bas âge dans l’autisme et vise à les colliger. L’étape principale de la présente recherche consiste en l’élaboration d’une situation de stimulation suscitant des comportements stéréotypés et des intérêts restreints par l’exposition à des objets qui les déclenchent. Cette situation a permis de documenter, par observation, les comportements stéréotypés et les intérêts restreints en bas âge dans l’autisme. La validation de la situation de stimulation a été appliquée auprès de deux groupes d’enfants âgés de 24 à 72 mois appariés en âge chronologique, 21 enfants portant un diagnostic d’autisme et 24 enfants au développement typique Les résultats montrent que la situation de stimulation est un instrument suffisamment sensible pour détecter des comportements stéréotypés et des intérêts restreints en bas âge dans l’autisme et d’identifier des objets d’intérêt. En effet, lors de l’exposition à la situation de stimulation, les enfants autistes se distinguent des enfants typiques sur la base du nombre et de la durée des comportements stéréotypés et des intérêts restreints qu’ils présentent. Les enfants autistes montrent une fréquence significativement plus élevé pour les CSIR suivants: maniérismes des mains et des doigts, crispation des doigts, sautillement, doigts dans la bouche, objets dans la bouche, exploration visuelle: regard rapproché, met les objets en mouvement non circulaire. Les enfants autistes se distinguent également des enfants typiques sur la base de l’exploration des objets, en fréquence et en durée, significativement, pour les objets: Bateau: marteau et balles et lettres et chiffres. Cette étude est la première qui passe par un protocole d’observation systématique, pour documenter les comportements stéréotypés et les intérêts restreints, ainsi que les objets qui les déclenchent, des objets d’intérêt, en bas âge dans l’autisme. Cette situation pourrait ultimement faire partie du processus d’évaluation diagnostique ou de dépistage de l’autisme permettant d’identifier en bas âge des enfants autistes ou à risque d’autisme. / Restricted interests and repetitive behaviours constitute one of the three core domains of symptoms required for an autism spectrum diagnosis. However, the detection of these behaviours in clinical practice remains limited by the lack of validated instruments designed to elicit these behaviours during clinical assessment. Moreover, a lack of clear operational definitions of target behaviours limits the generalisation of findings amongst studies and its application to clinical practice. The aim of this thesis is to document the occurrence and quality of restricted interests and repetitive behaviours in young autistic children and to develop a validated stimulating play situation that can readily be use to elicit target behaviours in clinical assessments. Preliminary steps documented the various restricted interests and repetitive behaviours as well as the objects likely to trigger these behaviours in children with autism using a questionnaire completed by experts in the field. The list of the most common behaviours was used to build the observational rating scale based on operational definitions of the restricted interests and repetitive behaviours. The main part of this study was to develop a stimulating play situation designed to elicit restricted interests and repetitive behaviours through exposure to specific objects previously identified as potential triggers. This situation documented, through detailed observation, restricted interests and repetitive behaviours most commonly found in autism during infancy. Validation of the stimulating play situation consisted in exposing twenty one (21) autistic experimental subjects and twenty four (24) typically developing control subjects, aged from 24 to 72 months, matched for chronological and developmental non-verbal age. Results demonstrate sufficient sensitivity of the stimulating play situation to accurately detect restricted interests and repetitive behaviours as well as objects of interest in children with autism. Autistic children differ from typically developing children on the amount and duration of restricted interests and repetitive behaviours, significantly for: hand flapping, hand and fingers posturing, hopping, putting finger in mouth, putting objects in mouth, putting object in movement, and visual exploration. Regarding which objects were explored, a greater proportion of autistic participants played with the hammer and balls toy and did so more frequently and for a longer period of time than typical children. This study is the first to use a systematic observation protocol to document restricted interests and repetitive behaviours and objects of interest in autism during early childhood. This new instrument could ultimately be used in the identification of young autistic children as part of the diagnostic or screening assessment.

Ce travail de thèse, inclus dans un projet structurant plus vaste, projet SIMOVI (SImulation des MOuvements du VIsage), s’attache à étudier spécifiquement la mimique faciale en corrélant les déplacements visibles du revêtement cutané et les mouvements musculaires internes à travers le développement de plusieurs méthodologies. L’ensemble de la mimique faciale ne pouvant être étudié, étant donné la multitude d’expressions, les mouvements pertinents à étudier dans nos travaux ont été identifiés. Ces mouvements ont été caractérisés chez 23 sujets jeunes dans une analyse descriptive qualitative et clinique, basée sur une méthodologie s’appuyant sur l’analyse d’enregistrements vidéoscopiques, et le développement d’un codage issu du FACS (Facial Action Coding System). Une cohorte de référence a ainsi été constituée. Après avoir validé notre méthodologie pour la caractérisation externe de la mimique, l’analyse des muscles peauciers par l’IRM a été réalisée sur 10 hémifaces parmi les sujets sains issus de la cohorte. Cette caractérisation a fait appel, à partir d’une anatomie in vivo, à une modélisation de certains muscles peauciers (zygomaticus major en particulier) afin d’extraire des paramètres morphologiques, de réaliser une analyse plus fine de la morphologie musculaire en 3 dimensions, et d’apporter une meilleure compréhension du comportement cinématique du muscle dans différentes positions. Par son intégration dans un questionnement plus vaste :- comment caractériser objectivement la mimique faciale ? - quels sont les indicateurs qualitatifs et quantitatifs de la mimique que nous pouvons recueillir, et comment réaliser ce recueil ? - comment utiliser les développements technologiques dans les applications cliniques ? Ce travail constitue une étape préliminaire à d’autres travaux. Il pourra fournir des données de référence à des fins de modélisation, de simulation de la mimique faciale, ou de développements d’outil de mesures pour le suivi et l’évaluation des déficits de la mimique faciale. / The aim of this research is to study facials mimics movements and to correlate externat soft tissue (i.e., cutaneous) movement during facial mimics with internal (i.e., facial mimic muscle) movement. The entire facial mimicry couldn't be studied, that's why relevant movements had been selected. Those movements were characterised by a clinically qualitative analysis in 23 young healthy volunteers. The analysis was performed with video recordings including scaling derived from the FACS (Facial Action Coding System). After the validation of external characterisation by this method, internal characterisation of the mimic facial muscle was carried out in 10 volunteers. A modelization of selected facial mimic muscle as Zygomaticus Major was achieved. With this work, morphological parameters could be extracted, 3D morphometric data were analysed to provide a better understanding of cinematic behaviour of muscle in different positions.This research is included in the Simovi Project, which aims to determine to what extent a facial mimic can be evaluated objectively, to select the qualitative and quantitative indicators for evaluation of mimic facial disorders, and to transfer our technological developments in clinical field. This research is a first step and provides data for simulation or developments of measurement tools in evaluation and follow-up of mimic facial disorders.

The unprecedented turbulence and uncertainty experienced in global economic and financial markets because of the 'credit crunch' has had a damaging impact on consumer confidence. Trust and credibility have been eroded as many customers feel let down by the banks suggesting the need for banks to rebuild constructive dialogue and long-term, meaningful relationships with their customers again. Though financial service, in this case, is considered a utilitarian service, based on the fact that money is needed to support people‘s daily activities, the present state of financial service has suggested the need for banks to appeal to consumers‘ emotions with the aim of improving their reputation. Also, the competition within the industry also could suggest the need to adopt an emotionally appealing advertisement strategy as emotions are known to play an influential role in building robust brand preference. This study builds on the communication theory, meaning transfer theory and consumer involvement theory, to understand the messages the banks are sending out and to elicit consumers‘ emotional reaction. One thousand, two hundred and seventy-four UK bank advertisements in nine national newspapers were content-analysed to identify the emotional appeals presented by the banks. The perception of these appeals and their associated meanings were sought through semi-structured interviews with 33 participants in London and Luton. The results of the analysis indicated that UK Banks are utilising emotional appeal in their advertisements to reach out to the consumers to convince them to upgrade their account, to open an additional account or switch their account. The most predominantly used appeals were relief and relaxation followed by excitement and happiness or satisfaction with the bank, and finally, security and adventure. However, variations were found in different financial products that employed emotional appeals. It was found that high-involvement products such as mortgages and loans used fewer emotional appeals. Both bank groups - high street banks, including the big four (Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and RBS) and non-high street banks, such as the new entrants, supermarket brands, and online banks were using emotional appeals. However, it is acknowledged that the communication strategies between these banks could be different as the non-high street banks are more likely to repeat and publish the same messages across many newspapers, instead of publishing different emotionally appealing advertisements. Though consumers acknowledged these emotional appeals in the advertisements, they were more concerned about their relationship with the banks as they don‘t rely on advertisements to make a financial decision. Rather, recommendations from families, friends and associates and also branch location are more important when deciding on which bank to choose. The lack of congruency between financial services and emotional appeals in advertisements is also observed as customers are more likely to be persuaded by rational appeals however this study has not completely ruled out emotional appeals in bank advertisements as the use of both types of appeals is recommended. The study provides important theoretical and managerial contributions to understanding how the consumers understand meaning-embedded advertisements produced by the banks. Managers will be able to consider the implications of advertisements in enhancing their brand equity and building relationships with customers in anticipation that, by word of the mouth and established relationship, their bank‘s reputation will be enhanced. Limitations of the study and opportunities for future research are identified.