Neuropsychological Aspects of Perception of Emotionally Loaded and Neutral Advertising Illustrations

Abstract

[b]Background:[/b]The differences between perception and the recollection of emotionally loaded, provocative, and neutral illustrations were mea sur ed. It was hypothesized that the provocative illustrations will be better remembered as they evoke emotions. [b]Material/Methods:[/b]The program SMI Experiment Center was used, with the movements of the participants’ eye-balls being recorded on the Eye- tracker iViewX RED500. Two types of advertisements were presented to the participants: (1) those evoking emotions, and (2) neutral ones. In consequence, six illustrations were used. Three were of a provocative character and three were neutral. The neutral advertisements were modifications of the provocative ones. Forty four undergraduate students answered questions concerning individual elements of the presented pictures. This enabled an analysis of the relationships between the type of the advertisement watched and the number of elements memorized. The participants were also asked to select the answer concerning: the degree of a particular advertisement’s attractiveness, the strength of its emotional impact, and the types of evoked emotions (positive – neutral – negative). [b]Results: [/b]Emotionally loaded illustrations provoked participant interest increasing the amount of the information processed. However, only provocative advertisements of a positive nature were better memorized than their neutral counterpart. The study revealed that an examination of eye movements is a useful and desirable measure providing detailed information on the manner our brain processes perceived data. [b]Conclusions:[/b] It was found that the intensity of such emotions as sadness, disgust, surprise, and anger were significantly higher in the experimental group than in the control group. No significant differences in the degree of positive emotions were noted. This leads to the conclusion that we should be very careful while selecting the illustration to be presented to patients.