Neuromarketing and the Potential Application of Scientific Methods in Measuring Consumer Behaviour

Consumer behaviour studies have taken a new turn. Marketers, economists and other consumer related disciplines are looking to science to accurately determine consumer behaviour. The purpose of this chapter is to provide insight into a burgeoning field of study, neuromarketing, documenting various research studies and applications of mechanisms in determining brain activities and other uses of science to benefit marketing research. Data for the study is derived from impartial cross-referencing of conceptual and empirical articles published in major journals. The application of neuroimaging technique in research have provided marketers with concrete evidence of brain activation that signal increased activities during stimulation (Lewis & Bridger, 2005; Rossiter et al., 2001). Further, the implication and causes of concern in using neuroscience methods in marketing are highlighted. Developing country studies on neuromarketing are examined to determine its application and use as a marketing research tool.

Neuromarketing Perspective of Consumer Choice

Behavioural research attempts to study how individuals make decisions and interact and influence other individuals, organizations, markets and society. In this regard, applied neuroscience in human decision-making has gained an increasing attention in recent decades with emergence of two disciplines; namely neuroeconomics and neuromarketing. Indeed, neuroeconomics has emerged as a multidisciplinary research area that integrates knowledge from neuroscience, psychology, and economics to better understand economic decision making and to specify more accurate models of choice and decision. In particular, neuroeconomics is becoming an attractive area of study and research in financial decision making with particular emphasis on understanding investor sentiment and fear when faced to different investment opportunities characterized by various scenarios. In particular, it aims to understand and explain consumer decision process and influence of marketing key factors on consumer choice. As a result, companies may define appropriate marketing strategies based on neuromarketing studies.

Integrating Interpersonal Neurobiology Into the Play Therapy Process

Advancements in neuroscience provide theoretical support for principles and practices of counseling and play therapy intervention (Badenoch & Kestley, 2015; Siegel, 2012). Likewise, AdPT shares many conceptual similarities with IPNB and neuroscience research including emphasis on childhood experience, social interest and relationships, purposefulness of behavior, holism, and the internalized narrative or self-schema. This chapter per the authors will (a) develop connections from neuroscience and IPNB to play and play therapy, (b) review the IPNB model's domains of integration and their relationship to AdPT, and (c) provide an updated AdPT framework that encompasses the most recent neuroscience empirical support.

Cognitive and Neural Mechanisms Involved in Interactions Between Touch and Emotion

Touch has been described as the most fundamental means of contact with the world and the most primitive modality among all sensory systems. In the past, the study of emotional communication has focused almost exclusively on facial and vocal channels but has ignored the channel for the sense of touch. However, the latest studies have documented that the sense of touch can convey at least six emotions, and its accuracy rate is comparable to that of facial expressions and vocal communication. Moreover, there is also mounting evidence indicating that the modality of touch encompasses two dimensions, which provide not only its well-recognized discriminative input from glabrous skin to sensory cortex but also an affective input from hairy skin to the insular cortex because a type of low-threshold mechanosensitive receptor that innervates hairy skin has been shown to convey emotions via C fibers. In light of recent advances in our research, this chapter aims to illustrate the cognitive and neural mechanisms that underlie interactions between touch and emotion.

Perceptual Processes and Multisensoriality

Perception seems to be an overly discussed subject in theories of Art, giving us the impression that there is nothing new to add. So much research and so many conceptions have been developed on the subject. Nevertheless, many holes can be perceived in these theories with regard to the mental process that operates in the perception phenomena. We have chosen to look to neuroscience for possible answers to these holes. In this paper, based on the knowledge of Vilayanur S. Ramachandran and António Damásio, among others, we focus on that which we are emphasizing as “perceptual processes”. We will restrict ourselves herein to the perceptual processes of a multisensory nature that take place in the perceivers' relationship with the artworks, which contain multimodal stimuli, promoted by physical and digital interfaces of an assistive nature. Said perceivers, however, are both people with severe motor and vocal disabilities as well as those without these restrictions.

Understanding the Interdisciplinary Meaning of Beauty to Neuroscience

The search for the source of beauty has exercised the speculation of philosophers and writers throughout the ages. The classical conception is that beauty consists of an arrangement of integral parts into a coherent whole, according to proportion, harmony, symmetry, and similar notions. The opposing view is that art is a fully subjective enterprise and our preferences are shaped by our values and experiences. To study beauty, neuroscience evokes the juxtaposition of concepts such as symmetry, geometry, proportion, judgment, affection, grotesque, erotic, sensitive with certain loci in the human brain. However, to explain and understand the aesthetic experiences at the network level, neuroscience have to incorporate the ambiguity in their research field. And with the continuous increasing of knowledge and comprehension of how beauty is perceived by the human brain, the world in its wholeness will be highly impacted, since we will start to live in pleasant societies.

Measuring Cognitive and Emotional Processes in Retail

The purpose of this chapter is to share scientific methods for the quantitative measurement of emotion through the recording of physiologic and cerebral variables of consumers in relation to advertising stimuli and during the purchase in the store. For this reason, the authors describe the way to estimate the emotion along the visit of a shop by using the approach-withdrawal index. It demonstrates how it is possible to describe the variation of the appreciation of a shop visit by two groups of persons. The specific contribution to the scientific literature is the use of such approach-withdrawal index and the estimation of the emotion linked with the visit of a large point of sale (e.g. a supermarket). The proper use of these methodologies can provide information related to cognitive and emotional aspects of persons involved in the appreciation of products in retail points of sale.

Assessing Consumer Reactions with Neuroscientific Measurements

Positive consumer reactions to corporate marketing activities are regarded a key driver of business success. Since consumer reactions occur to a large extent on non-conscious levels, traditional market research approaches provide limited insights into the consumer's perceptions and intentions. This chapter demonstrates how neuroscientific measurements can contribute to a deeper understanding about critical processes in the consumer's “black box”. Two generic approaches will be outlined: Whereas brain imaging techniques create pictures reflecting brain activity in response to marketing stimuli, psychophysiological methods assess body signals as correlates of neural activity. The chapter provides a general understanding about the meaningful application of neuroscientific measurements in consumer research and presents a critical reflection on the opportunities and challenges of different neuroscientific measurements.

Exploring Perception, Cognition, and Neural Pathways of Stereo Vision and the Split–Brain Human Computer Interface

This chapter examines research from psychology of perception and cognition as well as select developments in the visual arts that inspired the design of the split-brain user interface developed for the interactive documentary Anita und Clarence in der Hölle: An Opera for Split-Brains in Modular Parts (Garvey, 2002). This experimental interface aims at ‘enhanced' interaction while creating a new aesthetic experience. This emergent aesthetic might also be described as induced artificial cognitive dissonance and recalls select innovations in the rise of modernism notably the experiments of the Surrealists. The split-brain interface project offers a model for further investigations of human perception, neural processing and cognition through experimentation with the basic principles of stereo and binocular vision. It is conceivable that such an interface could be a design strategy for augmented or virtual reality or even wearable computing. The chapter concludes with a short discussion of potential avenues for further experimentation and development.

A Study on the Interface Between Arts and Sciences

This chapter discusses issues related to two fields of knowledge: neuroesthetics and cognitive neuroscience of art. These two fields represent areas that link historically dichotomic instances: nature and culture. In the first section, the author introduces a brief discussion on this dichotomy, reified here as science and art/aesthetics. Based on a preliminary analysis of these fields, as well as potential interfaces and articulations, the author then situates neuroesthetics and cognitive science of art. In both cases, the main definitions, usual criticisms, and comments on potential expectations regarding the future of these two areas will be presented.