Media and Politics Essay

We all agree that a well-informed public leads to a more open, just and civic-minded society. Yet today it seems every major and minor news network has a Sunday talk show or weekly roundtable dedicated to â€Å"educating† the American public about politics. In addition, with the growth of the Internet, thousands of Web sites exist with information on politics and government. The irony is that while the quantity of places we can go for political information continues to increase, the quality of that information has not. Recent voter turnout shows an American public with a general apathy toward government and the political process. If we continue to focus on innuendo instead of insight, we threaten to create even more public apathy. For everything a quick sound bite delivers in sharpness, it often loses the same in substance when the message reaches the public. While it may be easy to fault the media for the lack of public confidence in America’s political system, policymakers are also partly to blame. Because increased political partisanship has led to an adversarial relationship between policymakers, it has created a disconnect with the media who cover them. It is only natural for the media to present the news in this â€Å"crossfire† approach when that is all it hears from politicians on a daily basis. Thus, instead of creating a well-informed society, policymakers, and the media can inadvertently work together to give the appearance that complicated issuesare black or white, with no in-between. We all know this is not true. For television, and the American media generally, the election of 2000 will be the first real taste of things to come, the beginning of the end of an era if not the end itself. Whispers of the â€Å"information revolution† could be heard in 1994, mostly in the accents of the Right, but in 2000, the Internet’s campaign presence will be sounded in shouts and with cymbals.  Campaigning via Websites and the use of e-mail, already routine, will edge toward dominance. In addition, a significant fraction of the public will be getting its politics from the Internet: the Pew Research Center found that in 1995, only 4 percent of adults went on-line for news at least once a week; by 1998, the figure had reached 20 percent, and rising. Today, however, television, which displaced the press and radio (and movies, for that matter), is itself substantially being shouldered aside. It is not even surprising that, according to the Pew Research Center, while 60 percent of adults â€Å"r egularly† watched TV news in 1993, that figure dropped to 38 percent in 1998. Like the press and like radio, television will retain much of its power; its quality of its influence may even rise; what is certain, however, is that it will have to change. If we are lucky, that change will help Americans reclaim some of democracy’s old charm. Our communities have been weakened or shattered by the market, mobility, and technology, and the centralization of the media and of party politics has taken much of the spirit out of our politics, emphasizing mass and hierarchy, and leading citizens to seek dignity in a private life that seems increasingly confined. Our politics, like our society, is more and more divided into two tiers. The elite levels, especially around the national capital and the media centers, are dense with organized groups and with information about the subtleties of policy and politics†¦The great majority of Americans, by contrast, are socially distant from power, baffled by its intricacies, anxious about change, and inundated by the welter of information being made available to them. The links that connect citizens to government are thin, mostly top-down, and dominated by money: the parties are increasingly c entralized bureaucracies, and â€Å"participation† is apt to take the form of donating money in response to direct appeals, voicelessly, without any say in group leadership or policy. As for the dominant news media, they are not seen as a stratum between citizens and centers of power, but as part of the powerhouse, an element of the elite or in its service. The great majority of Americans know that they depend on the media†¦the media decide what opinions to attend to and in what ways. Viewers, lacking a voice, can assert their discontents only by changing channels or by turning off the set, and in relation to politics, tuning out has become startlingly common, a silent protest against indignity. It does  not help that, eager to cultivate and hold a mass audience, the news media tend to dumb down their political coverage, as indicated by the ever-shrinking sound bite afforded to candidates and leaders. It is probably even worse that the media also pander, playing to our worst impulses. Early and consistently, polls showed that most Americans were convinced that coverage of the Lewinsky affair was doing damage to our institutions, telling pollsters that they wanted it to receive much less attention from the media. However, media leaders knew, of course, that despite this public-regarding judgment, very few Americans, as private ind ividuals, would be able to resist getting caught up in the tacky salacity of the thing. As a result, we got coverage in agonizing detail: Russell Baker called it â€Å"disgusting,† an indication that the media market is dominated by â€Å"edge, attitude, and smut.† Moreover, it encouraged millions of Americans to view the media, for all their power, as worthy of contempt. Political societies can be symbolized but not seen, and the most important political controversies turn on words–like justice, equality or liberty–and hence on public speech. A picture makes a strong impression, but one that tends to be superficial. Many see who you appear to be, Machiavelli advised the prince, but not many will recognize who you are. And often, visual coverage of politics is banal or beside the point. In the internet, a good many observers discerned a trend toward a more decentralized communication and politics, more interactive and hence friendlier to democratic citizenship. However, the Internet, at least so far, is not leading us to the public square. It does enable minorities to find like-minded people, to avoid the sense of being alone, and sometimes this gives strength and assurance to our better angels, although at least as often it gives scope to the dark side. In general, however, the Internet creates groups that lack what Tocqueville called the â€Å"power of meeting,† the face-to-face communication that makes claims on our senses, bodies as well as minds. — Over the past five decades, the American electorate has come to depend more and more on the news media for learning about political candidates and making voting decisions. The growth of all forms of media and the rise of â€Å"objectivity† in the press†¦ has made voters more dependent on the news media for campaign information. Today, about seven in 10 voters depend mainly on the news media for information to make choices when they cast their ballot. Voters’ dependence on the news increases the importance of the role that the news media play in American elections. But what do American voters want from election news coverage? And how do voters evaluate the news media’s coverage of presidential elections? In a word, â€Å"lukewarm† describes the general feeling of voters about the performance of the news media in covering presidential campaigns, according to national scientific surveys of the American electorate conducted from February through November 1996, as well as a more recent survey, conducted in October 1999, on the current campaign. The surveys were conducted by the Center for Survey Research and Analysis (CSRA) at the University ofConnecticut. Funding for the 1996 surveys was provided by The Freedom Forum. Why the tepid feelings? American voters are quite consistent in what they say they want from election news–and they are quite clear in saying that what they want is often not what they get. The American electorate is hungry for news and information that allow it to evaluate the substance of presidential candidacies on the basis of issue positions and on the likely consequences of electing a particular candidate to office. News provided outside of these parameters, while perhaps entertaining, is viewed as â€Å"nonsense† in the words of our focus group participant. Two types of stories–those that review how candidates stand on issues and those that describe how election outcomes might affect voters–are clearly the kinds of stories in which voters express the highest levels of intere st. The remedies suggested†¦.enhanced coverage of issues and candidates positions, more coverage of the possible impact of election outcomes on public policy and broader coverage of the  full field of candidates, not just the front-runners–could improve the quality of news and promote voter learning, which would be healthy for American democracy. At the same time, less coverage of the election as a sporting horse race and less obsession with entertaining stories about candidates personal lives would, according to voters, be an improvement. In election periods, the polls highlight the role of public opinion in the political process. They also illuminate the importance of public opinion measurements in the media. Fundamentally, and at their best, media polls are a way for public opinion to be reported and perceived, thus fulfilling the eminent 19th-century British visitor James Bryce’s conception of the American press as the â€Å"chief organ of public opinion,† and community â€Å"weathercock.† However, when employed inappropriately by overzealous reporters and analysts, polls can be used to create an exaggerated sense of precision that misleads more than it informs. Polls routinely bring the public into election campaigns. In an otherwise fragmented and even alienated society, poll reports may be the only means individual members of the public have in situating themselves in the greater society. News reports of poll results tell individuals that they are part of a majority or a minority on various issues. In campaigns with more than two candidates, especially early in the primary season, information about relativecandidate standing gives voters the information to help them cast a vote that is strategically advantageous. But most importantly, polls take that strategic information about candidate performance away from politicians’ control and places it in the hands of the public. News organizations no longer are forced to rely on the instincts of party leaders  or on carefully orchestrated leaks from partisan pollsters for data. Because they are numbers, poll results sometimes create the appearance of a false precision in reporting of candidate support or presidential approval. In fact, some polling organizations flaunt this alleged precision by displaying results to a 10th of a percentage point. Of course, the error due simply to the sampling design is usually at least 30 times greater than the specificity presented. Moreover, there are growing concerns about the ability of su rvey researchers to reach the majority of households selected in their sample. Some respondents refuse to be interviewed. Others have become ever more difficult to reach during the short news survey-interviewing period that must be sandwiched between public events. This perception of precision and accuracy leads journalists into making blunders, including attempting to find deep meaning when there probably isn’t any. Newspaper and television reporters often try to attribute a three-point difference in the margin between two candidates to some campaign action. Either the â€Å"slipping† candidate has made a mistake, or there has been a successful strategic decision that has brought supporters to the â€Å"rising† candidate. Sometimes small movements in the percentages of subgroups that form only a part of the total sample are given the same â€Å"explanatory† treatment. Those â€Å"differences,† however, are more likely to be caused by sampling error than by campaign events. In mid-October, a prominent presidential candidate addressed his largest audience. Hundreds of thousands of voters heard his message–but they never got the news that his message contained some distortions, omissions, and half-truths. Those significant matters were either ignored or buried in coverage by the leading news media. Why? It was not because of bias. It was because the candidate’s message was delivered not at a campaign event but in campaign television ads. And when candidates communicate via ads on the tube  instead of on the stump, journalists act as if we are stumped about our role and responsibility. Journalists at most major and medium-sized newspapers are proud that they are now at least covering political advertisements at all. They report on them in small-boxed features called â€Å"Ad Watch† or something of the sort. But they haven’t figured out that they are still being manipulated by the ad-makers. The â€Å"Ad Watch† reports c arry the transcript of the 30-second ad, followed by a small section in which a reporter subjectively interprets the ad-maker’s strategy. Then–in the most valuable section–the reports briefly focus on the factual accuracy of the ad’s claims. Newspapers display these â€Å"Ad Watch† boxes on inside pages, back with the snow tire and truss ads. Think about it from a journalist’s viewpoint: when a candidate distorts his record in a huge rally speech, a good reporter fact checks the claims. The resulting news story will surely focus in part on the candidate’s omissions and distortions that present a different and more accurate picture of his record.And that may well be a page one story. Now think about it from the political strategist’s viewpoint: Democratic and Republican strategists expect print journalists will check ads for accuracy but then downplay the results. So, being skilled manipulators, they are willing to take a light hit in a box that is buried back with the truss ads and will run just once if they can pour their unfiltered, exaggerated and distorted message in to living rooms where it may be seen by millions, not just once but perhaps 10 times in a campaign. There is one mistake that all journalists make whether we are covering politics at the White House, state house, or courthouse. Every time we report on money and politics, we fail to tell people the real story about how the system really works because we are using the wrong words to describe what is happening right before our eyes, every day. So no wonder people just shrug when we report that a special interest â€Å"contributed† $100,000 to Democrats or Republicans. Because, this special interest really did not â€Å"contribute† this money (which my dictionary explains means that it was given as though to a charity). What the special interest representative really did was â€Å"invest† $100,000 in the Democrats or Republicans. Big business people (see also: big labor, trial lawyers, et al) â€Å"invest† in politics for the same reason that they invest in anything–to reap a profitable return on their â€Å"investment.† Use the right word and suddenly  everybody understands what is really going on. They will especially understand when we regularly report that the largest agribusiness â€Å"investments† in Senate and House races routinely go to the top agriculture committee members, and largest energy special interest â€Å"investments† go to the top energy committee members, and so on. Use the right word and suddenly our next task as journalists becomes clear–and clearly difficult: we need to do a better job of discovering the campaign investors’ motives. We need to ask, Just what profitable return did the investor expect to reap for that campaign investment? A tax subsidy? A regulation waived? A loophole that is difficult for a squinting journalist to see with a naked eye? Whatever the return, this much is clear: the money ultimately comes out of the U.S. Treasury. Clearly, our present system, which we like to say is based on private financing of campaigns, can also be viewed as a form of backdoor public funding–where the taxpayers pay the final tab, no doubt many times over. We journalists have yet to find a way to calculate how many billions of tax dollars it now costs us to finance election campaigns through the back door. At least we can begin using a vocabulary that will finally tell it like it is.

A Critical Essay on Raimondo Pannikar Essay

Raimondo Panikkar is a Roman Catholic Priest who specializes in the survey of comparative doctrine of faith. He was born in Barcelona Spain on November 03. 1918. Possibly. the assorted inter faith matrimony of his female parent. who was a Catholic from Catalonia Spain. and his male parent who was a Hindu from a extremely situated caste Nair from South India. histories most for his involvement in comparative spiritual doctrine. His instruction besides contributed much in this. He was educated in a Jesuit school and he took up chemical science and doctrine at universities in Madrid. Barcelona and Bonn. After being ordained as a Roman Catholic Priest in 1946. and keeping doctor's degrees in Philosophy and Science ( Complutense University. Madrid 1945 and 1958 ) and divinity ( Pontifical Lateran University. Rome. 1961 ) . he left for India in 1953 to set about surveies in Indian doctrine and faith at the University of Mysore and at the Banaras Hindu University. He authored 40 books and about a 1000 articles covering with comparative doctrine and faith and has deliberated on rules and patterns of multi-faith. which includes among others. duologues between Christian-Hindu. Christian-Buddhist and Christian-Secularist. In the book Intrareligious Dialouges. Panikkar said â€Å"I left as a Christian ; found myself a Hindu ; and I return as a Buddhist. without holding ceased to be a Christian. † ( Panikkar. Paulist Press ; revised edition. July 1999. ISBN 0809137631 ) . Panikkar’s parts are widely quoted and to a great extent used to back up the theory of ( your household name 2 ) spiritual pluralism. interfaith and multi-faith surveies every bit good as spiritual comparative doctrine. THE WEBSITE HTTP: //WWW. RELIGIOUSTOLERANCE. ORG No affair how you describe yourself. you should happen your beliefs and patterns accurately represented in this web site. – ( ReligiousTolerance. org ) This site is a copyrighted side by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. In their Statement of belief the web Masterss said that they are a multi-faith group. As of 2008-FEB. we consist of one Atheist. Agnostic. Christian. Wiccan and Zen Buddhist. Therefore. the OCRT staff deficiency understanding on about all theological affairs. such as belief in a supreme being. the nature of God. reading of the Bible and other holy texts. whether life after decease exists. what form the hereafter may take. etc. ( ReligiousTolerance. org ) They proceed to recite cardinal points in their belief system in a slug manner. and among others. said that they In working towards a civilization that is comparatively free of favoritism on the footing of gender. race. sexual orientation. gender individuality. faith. national beginning. physical disablement. age. etc. ( ReligiousTolerance. org ) . On the left manus side of the web site there are clickable links of articles and essays that list among others. the major faiths of the universe. Non-theistic articles such as Agnosticism and Humanism. There are besides articles on Religious Ethical motives. Peace and Conflict. â€Å"Hot† Topics every bit good as Laws and News. Over-all the web site is apparent and straightforward. The interface is really easy to ( your household name 3 ) usage and really user friendly. The web site has patrons ads. but none of the usual annoyance pop-ups. and/or raging background music and other doodads that are found in other web sites. The articles in the web site presented in a logic manner. are easy to utilize and subjects are indexed clearly for easy referencing and retrieval. It is besides peppered with nuggets and quotation marks from spiritual leaders and other noteworthy characters. One such illustration is on the bottom portion of the web page. from Mahatma Gandhi â€Å"The demand of the minute is non one faith. but common regard and tolerance of the fans of the different faiths. ( Ghandi ) . The web site is a valuable resource for information in the major faiths of the universe. It is an first-class beginning of in deepness spiritual comparative articles every bit good as current issues impacting religion and pattern. WORKS CITED Pannikar. Raimondo. Intrareligious Dialouges: Paulist Press ; revised edition. July 1999. ISBN 0809137631 ) . Raimon-Panikkar. org Fundacion Vivarium Raimon Panikkar – Tavertet ( Catalunya ) Retrieved February 25. 2009. hypertext transfer protocol: //www. raimon-panikkar. org/index. html ReligiousTolerance. Org. Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. Retrieved February 25. 2009. hypertext transfer protocol: //www. religioustolerance. org/

Three Generation By Nick Quackin

CHARACTERS AND CHARACTERIZATIONS:Anastacia- the old lady who told the heantation to Agueda Agueda- the young lady who bravely to see his husband to be on the midnight of May Day eve. Badoy- the man who fell in love with Agueda and eventually became his wife.PLOT:The story is about a girl who happened to believe that he could see his husband to be on a May Day eve. It was an old wives take but it ought to be true when he married the man he saw on the mirror. In one part, Joaquin intends to present the circumstances of Agueda describing her encounter with the devil in the mirror to her young daughter. The child is keen in fact sees a similarity of his father to the description of the devil by her mother. The ambiguity of Agueda weeping towards the end renders innumerable possibilities. In yet another part Joaquin is more determined to show the circumstances of Don Badoy Montiya’s recollection of seeing a witch in the mirror. Teary eyed, he recalls to his grandson that he saw sta nding before the mirror the witch.Some have been guilty of looking at the story as a simple tale for little children, but Joaquin aims at something grander and loftier. His attention to present a man and a woman holding on to love until the death of them is worthy of note. His intention to exhibit the hazy romance of the old world, the quiet consummation of their love, itself an elevated thought, is a result of his great imaginative power. THEME:It was a love story that came in seemingly impossible superstitions.POINT OF VIEW:The author is the one who narrated the storySUMMARY:May Day eve of 1847 when Agueda tried to take a peek of the one she would  fated Mary. She walked down the living room and made the incantation when the young Badoy Montiya appeared before her. Agueda was really annoyed with Badoy and later on she had been offended and bit the knuckles of the young Badoy Montiya. Badoy wan to have revenge when he found himself falling in love with Agueda. Years have passed a nd they were already married and had a family. Agueda told her daughter what happened to that May Day Eve of 1847.Badoy reminisce on how he fell in love with Agueda on that evening, telling the story to his grandson. And the memories of him and her late wife keep coming back.SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TITLE:According to the story, one could see his or her husband or wife to be when they peer in a mirror at the midnight of May Day eve. The superstion was said to be done at May Day eve and the story emphasizes the title May day eve. Three Generation by Nick Quackin SETTINGS:Philippines,1847 Philippines,1890CHARACTERS AND CHARACTERIZATIONS:Anastacia- the old lady who told the heantation to Agueda Agueda- the young lady who bravely to see his husband to be on the midnight of May Day eve. Badoy- the man who fell in love with Agueda and eventually became his wife.PLOT:The story is about a girl who happened to believe that he could see his husband to be on a May Day eve. It was an old wives take but it ought to be true when he married the man he saw on the mirror. In one part, Joaquin intends to present the circumstances of Agueda describing her encounter with the devil in the mirror to her young daughter. The child is keen in fact sees a similarity of his father to the description of the devil by her mother. The ambiguity of Agueda weeping towards the end renders innumerable possibilities.In yet another part Joaquin is more determined to show the circumstances of Don Badoy Montiya’s recollection of seeing a witch in the mirror. Teary eyed, h e recalls to his grandson that he saw standing before the mirror the witch. Some have been guilty of looking at the story as a simple tale for little children, but Joaquin aims at something grander and loftier. His attention to present a man and a woman holding on to love until the death of them is worthy of note. His intention to exhibit the hazy romance of the old world, the quiet consummation of their love, itself an elevated thought, is a result of his great imaginative power.THEME:It was a love story that came in seemingly impossible superstitions. POINT OF VIEW: The author is the one who narrated the story SUMMARY:May Day eve of 1847 when Agueda tried to take a peek of the one she would  fated Mary. She walked down the living room and made the incantation when the young Badoy Montiya appeared before her. Agueda was really annoyed with Badoy and later on she had been offended and bit the knuckles of the young Badoy Montiya.Badoy wan to have revenge when he found himself falli ng in love with Agueda. Years have passed and they were already married and had a family. Agueda told her daughter what happened to that May Day Eve of 1847.Badoy reminisce on how he fell in love with Agueda on that evening, telling the story to his grandson. And the memories of him and her late wife keep coming back.SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TITLE:According to the story, one could see his or her husband or wife to be when they peer in a mirror at the midnight of May Day eve. The superstion was said to be done at May Day eve and the story emphasizes the title May day eve.

Graduate study plan Essay

I currently poses an undergraduate degree in Health Care Administration, from Sacramento State University. My current career is within the Health Care field at Kaiser Permanente hospital Health Connect Department in Pleasanton, California. This is the regional department for, electronic medical records. I manage projects for system upgrades, and any technical issues that require a fix. I have worked for Kaiser Permanente for five years and wish to succeed at a higher level within the organization. In this paper I will give an insight into my reasons for pursuing my graduate degree, and strategies I will use for personal success and achievement. I have managed always to accomplish both personal and professional goals that I set. It is important to have a goal, whether personal or professional that one is striving to accomplish, so they are motivated to work harder. My short-term personal goal is completing my Master’s Degree. A few personal long-term goals, are to have an open mind to change, effective time management, and continuing to grow as an individual and Mother. A long-term goal in my professional career is becoming a manager or director within Kaiser Permanente or another organization. In lieu of the professional job opportunities and accomplishments, confidence, and knowledge is a professional area I am striving to gain more of, which is a main reason for advancing my education to the graduate level. Obtaining a Master’s Degree will permit expansion in knowledge and skills within area’s I did not advance at the undergraduate level. I am pursuing my degree, to grow as an individual and in my professional career, this degree will expand my skills, knowledge, and confidence to perform at a higher level. Pursuing a degree will open job opportunities, and a higher pay scale. Setting goals is the easy part, but achieving them is the hard part. Challenges will arise and everyday life may interfere. Three challenges I face in meeting both short and long-term goals, is lack of time, personal life distractions, and control in advancing professionally. I have to focus on incorporating better time management and stress management into my every day schedule, so lack of time is not an issue. Personal life distractions, include a Forty-hour work week and commute, my fourth month old baby girl, and leisure activities. What I have learned is to plan out a time each day for these activities. It helps manage my time and stress, by keeping track of all activities and obligations on a calendar. If I have a written schedule that I visually can see, I stay focused. Finding a good balance in life is what keeps me moving forward and accomplishing my goals. One may not always have complete control in accomplishing goals one may have for themselves, an example is my goal to achieve at a higher level professionally. Sure I can have an abundance of knowledge and work hard every day, but in the end it will be the hirer who determines if I am a good fit for the position. Competition in the job industry is at its all-around high, but the key to success is, never give up. Graduating with a Master’s Degree is a milestone in achieving my short-term goal, and advancing professionally in a new career as well as showing confidence, by performing at a higher level is a long-term milestone that will mark my achievement in the goals I have set. I believe effective communication is an essential factor in overcoming differences and creating an environment that people can come together to learn, work, or play. Communication on the surface seems straight forward, but I am guilty of a weaknesses related to how I communicate, which includes relating to the audiences age or gender when communicating. In practice, it is troubled with multiple issues dependent on the parties involved, who convey, and receive messages. A couple of questions that one can ask to improve communication, are, â€Å"Is it possible to convey a message and have it received as the speaker intended? What happens between the voicing of a message and the hearing of a message? Under what conditions does accurate communication occur? Do our own mental models affect interactions with others? What can leaders do to create the conditions for clear  communication?† (â€Å"Creating the Conditions for Effective Communication and Learning in Organizations,† 2008, p. 11). These are numerous examples of questions one should ask themselves, and I will use these examples of what I can ask myself to improve my method of communication. A challenge between faculty and students is to communicate as clearly as possible to ensure students receive the information they need. Given this, I have also noticed how often miscommunication happens between staff and their students. In the journal article titled, â€Å"Creating the Conditions for Effective Communication and Learning in Organization,† it was stated that traditional communication strategies, such as paraphrasing to ensure a faculty member understands a student and asking him or her to articulate back their understanding of what was said. It was observed that no matter how skilled the speaker, there are still many interpretations by the receiver (Scott, 2008). Three strategies I will practice as a communicator are, ask myself questions that may benefit how effective my communication is before communicating to a specific audience, have the audience restate how they understood my statement or question and be as detailed as possible so my information is not misconstrued. Regarding my stronger aspects of communicating, I am clear and concise, an experienced public speaker, and able to communicate effectively in a business environment. Communication is one of the main planks on which organizational success rests in today’s tough business environment. As a result effective communication skills have become essential to enable professionals to achieve the exact levels of performance demanded by them. Apart from the practical aspects if one has a grasp on basic concepts of communication, it can further assist professionals to communicate skillfully and persuasively (Rai & Rai, 2002). Suggesting that the saying â€Å"It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it† rings true for effective communication. Possessing the quality of effective communication heads toward a high quality leader because it enables one to express ideas successfully (Rolle, 2002). Effective time management, reasonable goals, overcoming obstacles, and  effective communication will lead to success in acquiring a graduate degree. If one strives to succeed and manages their time efficiently, this is easily obtainable. Re-evaluating my goals and strategies to overcome obstacles, and analyzing my communication level, has already advanced me closer to success. Recognition is a way to advance both personally and professionally. References  Rai, S. M., & Rai, U. (2002, September). Effective Communication. Effective Communication, 16(3), 1129-1130. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com/docview/224372918?accountid=35812 Rolle, J. R. (2002). The Role of Communication in Effective Leadership. The Role of Communication in Effective Leadership, 16. Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=ED467282 Scott, M. (2008). Creating the Conditions for Effective Communication and Learning in Organizations. Creating the Conditions for Effective Communication and Learning in Organizations, 11(3), 11. Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=EJ830651

Best War Ever Essay

The Causes of World War II History 1302 In the book The Best War Ever: America and World War II by Michael C.C. Adams, Adams discusses the misconceptions about world war two that America had and still has today. Through the title, one can assume that Americans came out of the five year war with a positive view. This was due to the way theatre and television portrayed it to the public, and like naà ¯ve children America ate it up. Television and other media didn’t want America to see the true horror that actually took place overseas, but what they didn’t know was how mislead America was going to become. This essay will discuss the argument Adams creates in chapter 6 about how sugar coating the war for America, was in a sense best for them, but for small businesses, immigrants and teens it was a different story. Before World War II became the center of attention in America, people lived their everyday lives. Most were small business owners that were just trying to make a living. As the war went on overseas, Pearl Harbor was attacked, which led to the U.S. joining the war. Do to this sudden need to protect our country, America became â€Å"obsessed† and young men volunteered to fight for the country they loved. Everyone including women and children had this attitude of supporting the troops and doing everything they could to help out, by women working jobs in factories that were originally created for men. As these factories like Ford, Coca-Cola, and Wrigley’s grew, â€Å"World War II undermined the world of the small producer in business and agriculture, completing the triumph of large corporations†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (The Best War Ever: America and World War II, 1994)1. Small businesses closing down wasn’t the only cause of America joining the war but also, families losing their homes, farms, towns, and well basically their lives. These people had to move to bigger cities where factories that were being recognized, due to the war, were the o nly jobs available. While factories grew, violence towards immigrants grew as well. Due to Pearl Harbor being attacked by the Japanese, Japanese-Americans were seen as a threat and removed from their homes and put into detention centers. â€Å"More  than two-thirds of the Japanese who were interned in the spring of 1942 were citizens of the United States.† (Japanese Relocation Centers: During World War II, nearly 120,000 Japanese Americans were under lock and key, 2007)2. President Roosevelt felt that they were a threat to America and that anyone of them could be a spy. African-Americans were facing hard times as well, though racism was still going strong, many African-Americans were being attacked and miss treated because of mixed work environments as Adams states in his book (1994) â€Å"A white man in a wildcat strike at a Packard plant said ‘I’d rather see Hitler and Hirohito win the war than work beside a nigger on the assembly line.’†3 Wives of African-American men in the army were also treated as lower class while the American women would get preferred treatment. Another race that was targeted were American-born Hispanics. Teen Hispanics began to form gangs and â€Å"challeng[e] the traditional restraints of their behavior†. They did this by wearing zoot Suits. Because of this new fashion trend amongst Hispanics, military men began to harass and ended up creating a riot known as the â€Å"Zoot Suit Riot† . In this riot military and Hispanic men attacked each other but only the Hispanic teens got arrested for the violence. As immigrants were mistreated, young American teens were feeling a sense of freedom, this was due to the lack of parental control. â€Å"More girls got pregnant. And the venereal disease rate rose : between 194 and 1944, New York City’s VD rate among girls aged fifteen to eighteen years old increased 204 percent.† (The Best War Ever: America and World War II, 1994)4. Teens were getting into trouble cutting school and joining gangs. It was hard for schools to maintain a strong education among the youth and so a decline in intellectual quality began in young Americans. Media also had a small part to play in this lack of education. Mass entertainment was trying to win over the youth through T.V. and movies and because of this the armed services saw that students in this generation weren’t as prepared as generations before them, they lacked skills learned in high school. But one reason that as a main factor were the number of jobs that were available. Teens were able to get a job as young as thirteen years old, even though the job wasn’t helping out the war, money made the youth feel free like they could do anything they wanted, which they did. In conclusion, World War II in a sense was the best war ever but for small businesses, immigrants and teens, it was a war that ended up changing tradition into trends and  violence. Americans w ere blinded and lied to and through this it brought grave consequences . â€Å"†¦ it is the danger of arrogance and hubris – that is, the danger of going to war because a nation’s leaders are convinced of their own righteousness, or have persuaded themselves and the public that a foreign country should be attacked because its government or society is not merely alien, hostile or threatening, but â€Å"evil.†(The ‘Good War’ Myth of World War Two, 2008)5. Bibliography Michael C. C. Adams, The Best War Ever: America and world War II (Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1994) Japanese Relocation Centers: During World War II, nearly 120,000 Japanese Americans were under lock and key, 2007 http://www.infoplease.com/spot/internment1.html The ‘Good War’ Myth of World War Two, May 24, 2008 http://www.ihr.org/news/weber_ww2_may08.html

Advertising Creativity Matters

Advertising Creativity Matters MICAEL DAHLEN Stockholm School of Could â€Å"wasteful† advertising creativity that does not add to the functionaiity of the advertisement (i. e. , it neither enhances recaii and iiking of the advertising, nor Economics micael,[email  protected] se increases comprehension and persuasiveness of the communicated message) be useful? An experimentai study shows that it can. By signaling greater effort on behaif SARA ROSENGREN Stockholm School of Economics sara. [email  protected],se of the advertiser and a greater ability of the brand, advertising creativity enhances both brand interest and perceived brand quaiity.The effects are mediated by consumer-perceived creativity, suggesting that consumers are important Judges of FREDRIK TORN creativity. Bringing advertising creativity into new iight, the resuits provide impiications Stockholm School of for the development, measurement, and positioning of creative advertising. Economics fredrik,[email   protected] se INTRODUCTION There is no guarantee that creativity in an advertisement makes it more memorable or appealing to consumers (Kover, Goldberg, and James, 1995). In fact, research by, for example, Kover, James, and Sonner (1997) suggests that many creative advertising efforts may be wasted, in the sense hat they do not add to the functionality of the advertisement (i. e. , they neither enhance consumer recall and liking of the advertising, nor increase comprehension and persuasiveness of the communicated message). However, this article argues that such wasteful advertising creativity may have other positive effects. Previous research on advertising spending has found that, when bypassing functional aspects of high spending, for example, that bigger advertisements increase attention or that repeated exposures facilitate comprehension and breed liking, wasteful expenses have positive effects on brand perceptions (e. g..Ambler and HoUier, 2004; Kirmani and Rao, 2000). The pres ent research investigates whether or not the same conclusion follows with respect to advertising creativity. A common view is that creativity is a mission of the entire advertising industry, its raison d'etre (Koslow, Sasser, and Riordan, 2003). The fact that 3 9 2 JDUBOIIL OF (IDUERTISinG BESEflRCH September 2 0 0 8 advertising agencies spend a great deal of time and energy competing for creative awards, even though they are not sure that these efforts actually increase the functionality of their work, suggests that creativity is perceived to be important in its own right (e. g. Helgesen, 1994; Kover, James, and Sonner, 1997). In a frequently cited study. Gross (1972) showed that wasteful advertising creativity in advertising agencies, in the form of an abundance of creative ideas, yield more effective advertisements in the long run. This article takes the notion of wasteful advertising creativity to the level of the individual advertisement to see whether an abundance of creativit y (that does not enhance functionality) in a single advertisement yields positive effects. Building on the research on marketing signals, we suggest it does. Studies show that the very employment of various marketing elements, such s warranties (long-lasting) or price (correlates with quality), sends signals about the brand that guide consumer evaluations and choice (e. g. , Kirmani and Rao, 2000). Advertising expense has been found to be a signal that consumers interpret as the marketers' efforts due to their belief in the brand (Kirmani, 1990; Kirmani and Wright, 1989) or as proof of the brand's superiority or â€Å"brand DOI: 10. 2501/S002184990808046X ADVERTISING CREATIVITY MAHERS fitness† (Amhler and Hollier, 2004): The greater the expense, the more confident the marketer and the more fit the brand. Categorizing advertising creativity as a arketing signal, we expect that greater creativity signals more effort (as creative advertising is harder to produce than â€Å"nofr ills† advertising) and greater fitness (as the sender must have the knowledge resources to take the extra communicative leap and communicate in a nontraditional marmer) and thus produces more favorable brand perceptions. By investigating the signaling effects of advertising creativity on brand perceptions, we bypass the functional aspects that have previously been in focus in creativity research. Previous research focuses on intermediate effects such as advertising recall, liking, and comprehension (e. . , Kover, James, and Sonner, 1997; Stone, Besser, and Lewis, 2000; Till and Baack, 2005), or different facets of creativity, such as originality, meaningfulness, and emotions (e. g. , Ang and Low, 2000; Kover, Goldberg, and James, 1995; White and Smith, 2001). As advertising (and creativity) can take many shapes and forms, it is not very surprising that most authors seem to agree that the research on advertising creativity to date is troubled by contradictory and inconclusive f indings (e. g. , ElMurad and West, 2004; Koslow, Sasser, and Riordan, 2003: Stone, Besser, and Lewis, 2000).For instance, some (awardwinning, which is often the criterion in these studies) creative advertising may be very original and yield high recall, but low liking, whereas other advertising could produce strong emotions and liking, but be harder to recall. Avoiding such obstacles may be achievable by focusing on creativity as a signal in itself, rather than its facets and intermediate effects. The present study includes a number of elements that are novel to advertising creativity research. First, rather than using real advertisements as representatives of more versus less creative advertising, the tudy manipulates advertising creativity in the same manner as Ambler and Hollier (2004) manipulate advertising expense. Thus, we are able to compare advertising for the same brands with the same messages and control for the functionality of the tested advertisements. Most research to date has employed real advertisements, which makes it harder to discern the effects of the creativity in itself, as it also becomes a matter of different brands with different messages. Second, our manipulation does not produce creative advertising that is â€Å"outstanding,† but rather moderately creative. As noted by Haberland and Dacin (1992), the focus n awards creates a dichotomous view of advertising as creative yes/no. It is more likely that advertising varies in its degree of creativity. Not all advertisements win prizes for creativity, but that does not mean that those advertisements are not creative. Third, in addition to manipulating advertising creativity, we also measure consumer-perceived creativity. Previous research has usually kept the degree of creativity â€Å"hidden† from consumers, utilizing awards and expert judgments as assessments of creativity. Whereas advertising effects materialize to a considerable degree without consumer awareness (e. g..He ath and Nairn, 2005), the present study tests the notion that consumer explicit thoughts about advertising creativity matter. ADVERTISING CREATIVITY AS A MARKETING SIGNAL Most markets are flooded with products for consumers to choose between. As consumers are unable to sample all products that are available to them, or even assess the quality of all the products they have actually consumed, they rely on marketing signals (Kirmani and Rao, 2000). Ad- vertising expense is the marketing signal that has gained most attention in advertising research. According to Kirmani and Wright (1989), advertising expense is an ndicator of marketing effort: The more money spent on advertising, the greater the effort—meaning that the advertiser must really believe in the product. Spending a great deal of money on advertising is a more powerful signal to consumers about the quality of the product than the content of the advertising, as the advertiser â€Å"put their money where their mouth is. † More money means greater risk, and thus consumers feel safe that the advertiser will deliver on her promise (Kirmani, 1997). In tests of advertising expense, Kirmani (1990,1997) manipulates advertising sizes, colors, endorsers, and repetition and finds hat they may all increase perceived marketing effort. Interestingly, Kirmani (1990) notes that it is possible that perceived advertising quality (â€Å"includes the care and creativity used to design the ad†) could also have an effect on perceptions of marketing effort. However, Kirmani (1990) does not manipulate advertising quality (and more specifically, advertising creativity). Such a manipulation would result in perceptions of greater marketing effort. Coming up with a creative concept is more demanding for the advertiser than simply applying a standard solution based one's own or others' previous efforts.Consumers are â€Å"advertising literate† enough today to infer that creative advertising is probably the result of a development process that is both longer and more costly (they may even refer this to the employment of a â€Å"fancy advertising agency†). HI: Advertising creativity increases perceived marketing effort. Ambler and Hollier (2004) suggest that advertising expense may not only serve September 2 0 0 8 JDUIIOIIL OF HDUERTISIOG RESEHRCH 3 9 3 ADVERTISING CREATIVITY IVIATTERS An extra degree of creativity may send signais about tiie advertiser tiiat rub off on consumer perceptions of tiie brand. as a signal of effort, but also as a more irect signal of â€Å"brand fitness. † Referring to the biological theory of handicapping, they argue that advertising expense may be a signal of wealth—arguably, the advertiser can afford such wastefully expensive advertising. The wealth, in tum, could be interpreted as proof of previous success due to the brand's great ability to serve the market. Extending the reasoning to advertising creativity, wasteful creativity (i. e. , the surplus creativity that does not add to the functionality of the advertisement) could work as a signal of wealth as well, wealth in the form of knowledge and smartness. For example, the literature n rhetorical figures (which are a form of wasteful creativity as they convey nessages in unnecessarily clever ways) suggests that they may signal smartness on behalf of the sender (e. g. , Toncar and Munch, 2001, 2003). However, this notion has not been tested. Ambler and Hollier's (2004) concept of â€Å"brand fitness† is especially interesting in light of the growing body of research on perceived corporate ability. Perceived corporate ability refers to consumers' beliefs that the company is able to improve the quality of existing products and to generate new products innovatively (Luo and Bhattacharya, 2006).Studies show that perceived corporate ability influences the success of new-product introductions and marketing activities, as well as the market value of the entire company. In fact, perceived corporate ability may be the most powerful source of sustainable competitive advantage (Brown and Dacin, 1997; Luo and Bhattacharya, 2006). Advertising creativity could be a signal of brand ability (the equivalent of corporate ability on the individual, advertised, brand level). Coming up with a creative advertising concept signals the ability and desire to â€Å"think outside the box† and think in new and different ways compared to he competition and compared to the brand's history. Thus, advertising creativity says less about the brand's historical success and more about what could be expected from it in the future. H2: Advertising creativity increases customers' perceived abuity in the brand. ADVERTISING CREATIVITY'S EFFECTS ON BRAND PERCEPTIONS Recent advertising literature argues that the most important and reliable measures of advertising effectiveness are consumers' perceptions and experiences of the brand rather than of the advertising its elf. This influence is due to the facts that consumers are not able to remember r discern all the advertising they encounter (e. g.. Heath and Nairn, 2005; Weilbacher, 2003). Powerful advertising affects consumers' perceptions of the brand immediately (Hall, 2002). As creativity is supposed to make powerful advertising, the expectation is that more versus less powerful advertising results in immediate effects on brand perceptions. The main brand perception that has been uncovered in previous studies of marketing signals is perceived quality. As mentioned previously, perceived marketing effort signals confidence on behalf of 3 9 4 JOUIIIlflL DfflDUERTISinGRESEflRCH September 2 0 0 8 he advertiser (e. g. , Kirmani and Rao, 2000). Perceived brand ability would also signal high quality, as corsumers expect the brand to improve quality over the competition. Therefore, the hypothesis is that advertising creativity enhances perceived brand quality. H3: Advertising creativity enhances custo mers' perceptions of brand quality. Conventional wisdom holds that creative advertising pushes the message into consumers' minds (e. g. , El-Murad and West, 2004; Kover, James, and Sonner, 1997). However, recent literature argues that the individual brand does not really have much to say (e. g. Ehrenberg, Barnard, Kennedy, and Bloom, 2002; Heath and Nairn, 2005). In the massive marketspace and mindspace competition, it is increasingly difficult to be unique and virtually impossible to persuade consumers to buy your product (Weilbacher, 2003). In line with this notion, a survey among top-level agency creatives ranked the sameness among brands as the number one reason for improved creativity; rather than communicating a specific message (which is likely to resemble competitors'), advertising creativity must make the brand interesting and exciting (Reid, Whitehill King, and DeLorme, 1998).This goal is particularly relevant to established brands, which make up the majority of the market place. The greatest enemies to these brands are predictability and consumer disinterest (Machleit, Allen, and Madden, 1993). Brands must continuously reinvent themselves and challenge expectations to stay in touch with consumers. This touch could be achievable with creative advertising. Creative advertising in itself suggests that the brand has something interesting to offer, as it signals effort and confidence, and ability to deliver ADVERTISING CREATIVITY MAHERS something different from the competition. Therefore, the study expects a positive elationship between advertising creativity and brand interest. H4: Advertising creativity enhances brand interest. CONSUMERS AS JUDGES OF ADVERTISING CREATIVITY Most research on advertising creativity conceptualizes it as a â€Å"hidden tool† for advertising professionals to create powerful advertising. That is, it is important that the professionals perceive the advertising to be creative for it to be effective, but consumers are not supposed to think in such terms, rather just to like the advertising, remember it, and select the brand (e. g. , Koslow, Sasser, and Riordan, 2003; Stone, Besser, and Lewis, 2000; Till and Baack, 2005).However, a professional judgment of advertising creativity is no guarantee that the advertising will be successful (e. g. , Kover, James, and Sonner, 1997). For instance. Stone, Besser, and Lewis (2000) found that while 70 percent of the advertising that consumers remembered and liked was categorized as creative by trained judges, 47 percent of strongly disliked advertising was also categorized as creative by the judges. White and Smith (2001) compare creativity ratings between advertising professionals and the general public and found that the two groups differed in their ratings. The question is, who is the better judge?Kover, James, and Sonner (1997) argue that less professionalism is needed in the judgments of creativity, as at the end of the day, consumers' perceptions are what m atter. The present study puts this argument to the test by testing whether manipulated advertising creativity (pretested on advertising professionals) has a direct effect on our hypothesized variables, without consumers being aware of this â€Å"hidden tool,† or if consumer perceptions of advertising creativity are necessary and mediate the effects. The hypothesis is that consumer perception of the advertising creativity is the first step n the process that leads to all the hypothesized effects in H1-H4: H5: The effects of advertising creativity are mediated by consumerperceived creativity. METHOD To test the hypotheses, we must be able to compare responses between consumers who have been exposed to a more creative versus a less creative advertisement for the same brand with the same message. Furthermore, to test with certainty whether consumer-perceived advertising creativity is an intervening, mediating step between manipulated creativity and our hypothesized effects, we mu st measure creativity perception before versus after he other variables (for H5 to hold, creativity perception should have a greater effect when measured before the other variables, cf. Kenny, 1975). To this end, we chose a 2 (more creative/less creative advertisement) X 2 (perceived creativity before/after) experimental design where informants were randomly assigned to one of the four cells. To avoid stimulus specific effects, four different brands and accompanying messages were used for a total of 16 experiment cells. All four brands are established and well known in their respective product categories (pain relief, coffee, vodka, and condoms). We chose well-known rands for two reasons. First, the majority of advertising in major media are for established brands (e. g. , Kent, 2002). Second, as consumer perceptions of wellknown brands are harder to influence than those of unfamiliar brands, the test brands make a more robust test of our hypotheses. Research instrument development Similar to Ambler and Hollier (2004), we wanted to ensure that only the wastefulness of creativity would differ between advertisements, not their functionality with respect to what was communicated. Therefore, we needed to develop advertising stimuli differing only with respect to the creative execution.To this end, a method similar to that of Toncar and Munch (2003) was used. Four pairs of print advertisements were developed, one pair for each brand. Print advertisements usually have three main elements: the brand, text, and pictorial. In our manipulation, the brand and the pictorial was kept constant, while the text was varied to communicate the same message in a more (employing rhetorical figures, cf. Tom and Eves, 1999) or less (without rhetorical figures) creative way. The number of words was kept constant. The advertisements were pretested to make sure that the pairs communicated the same message, and equally strongly.Twenty plus twenty consumers from the target population (be low) were asked â€Å"how well do you agree that the advertisement's main message is. .. † and rated one of the advertisements from each pair on a scale of 1 = totally disagree/ 7 = totally agree. There were no significant differences within the pairs (A^more creative = 5. 4 verSUS Mjess creative = 5. 5). Next, 12 plus 12 advertising professionals from eight major agencies rated one of the advertisements from each pair on creativity (scale: 1 = not at all creative/ 7 = very creative). The more creative advertisements rated significantly higher than the less creative advertisements Mmore creative = 4. 0 verSUS Mjess creative = 2. 7, p < 0. 01). Notably, although significantly different from each other, neither of the two groups of advertisements was seen as particularly creative. However, September 2 0 0 8 JOURIIIIL OF HDUERTISIOG RESERRCH 3 9 5 ADVERTISING CREATIVITY MAHERS By focusing too much on award-winning advertising and treating creativity as a yes/no variabie, one mis ses out on ail the improvements that can be made and effects that can be attained at more moderate leveis. â€Å"How much do you think development of the advertisement cost? † (1 = very cheap/7 = very expensive), and â€Å"How uch time do you think has been devoted to the development of the advertisement? † (1 = very little/7 = very much). We included the variables both separately and as an index (r = 0. 52) in the analyses. Perceived brand ability ( H2) was mea- we are not interested in the absolute levels of creativity; the goal is to compare differences in degree of creativity. This approach differs from most previous research, which often employs â€Å"outstanding† (award-winning) creative advertisements. The fact that the degree of creativity is fairly low in our more creative advertisements makes our test of the effects of advertising creativity more robust.It also makes the results more applicable in practice, as most advertisements do not win awards, but may still be creative (e. g. , Haberland and Dacin, 1992; Kover, James, and Sonner, 1997). Procedure We employed a procedure similar to Ambler and Hollier (2004). The participants were part of an internet panel of a professional market research firm and recruited to represent a cross section of the working population (56/44 female-male breakdown, age range 18-65 years, average 39 years). In total, 1,284 consumers participated in the study, making a cell size of approximately 80 respondents. Asked to participate in an advertising retest, consumers were randomly exposed to one of the stimulus print advertisements online and then directly filled out a questionnaire. Measures A number of measures were employed to test the advertisement's functionality (which is supposed to be the same across conditions): Brand identification w as measured as an open-ended question, where respondents typed in the brand name they believed was featured in the advertisement. Key message identification w as measured by asking respondents to tick the correct message out of four alternatives (the alternatives were the same across all cells and were designed to be plausible for all four rands). Furthermore, we measured difficulty of comprehension (1 = very easy to comprehend/7 = very difficult to comprehend), advertising attitude (â€Å"What is your opinion about the advertisement you just saw? â€Å"), and brand attitude [â€Å"What is your opinion of (brand)? ,† both on a scale from 1 (very bad) to 7 (very good)]. We also measured brand familiarity and price estimates to rule out confounding effects of consumer knowledge or competing signals (cf. Kirmani and Rao, 2000). Similar to Till and Baack (2005) familiarity with the brand was measured before exposure (1 = never heard of it/7 = know t very well). Price estimates were measured after exposure with an open-ended question where respondents were asked to type in how much they estimated that the advertised product cost (employ ing familiar brands and products in the study, we expected no differences between conditions). We calculated differences in price estimates within the advertising pairs and compared them by product category. The following measures were used for the hypothesis tests: Perceived marketing effort ( HI) was mea- sured with two items on a 7-point scale. 3 9 6 JOUBflflL OFflDUERTISlOGflESEflRCHS eptember 2 0 0 8 ured with three items (1 = do not agree/ 7 = agree completely): â€Å"(Brand) is smart,† â€Å"(Brand) is likely to develop valuable products in the future,† and â€Å"(Brand) is good at solving consumers' problems. † We included the items both separately and as an index (Cronbach's alpha = 0. 83) in the analyses. Perceived brand quality (H3) was as- sessed by asking: â€Å"What is the general quality level of the brand? † with answers given on a scale from 1 (very low quality) to 7 (very high quality). Brand interest (H4) was measured with two items on a 7-point scale: â€Å"I find (brand) interesting,† and â€Å"I want to buy the brand† 1 = do not agree/7 = agree completely). We included the variables both separately and as an index (r = 0. 68) in the analyses. Perceived advertising creativity (H5) was measured by asking: â€Å"To what extent do you think that the advertisement you just saw is creative? † (1 – not at all creative/ 7 = very creative). The question was placed before the measures of perceived effort (HI) and brand ability (H2) in one-half of the questionnaires and after the same measures in the other half. This design enables us to test the direction of causalities between the variables (Kenny, 1975). It has been used in previous research on, for xample, the causal effects between slogan evaluations and brand perceptions (Dahlen and Rosengren, 2005). RESULTS Manipulation and confound checks Comparing the groups of more creative versus less creative advertisements. ADVERTISING CREATIVITY M AHERS perceived creativity rated significantly TABLE 1 higher for the group of more creative ad- Effects of Advertising Creativity vertisements (M = 3. 94 versus M = 3. 37, p ; 0. 01), suggesting that our manipulation of advertising creativity was successful. See Table 1. Furthermore, the analyses include testing for differences in function- More Creative Less CreativeAdvertisements, Advertisements, Planned M {SD) M (SD) Comparisons ,. . ,. Manipulation check ality between the groups with respect to †¢ ^ 5 iF brand identification, message identification, comprehension, and advertising and brand attitudes. Only comprehension and advertising attitude differed between conditions, suggesting that the more creative advertisements were more difficult to com, , . , ,. , , , , prehend and were better liked than the less creative advertisements. To rule out competing effects from these variables. they were included as covariates in the subsequent analyses, meaning that these ^ †¢;  ° ifferences were accounted for in the re- r, †¢ ^ †¢Ã¢â‚¬ ¢ Perceived creativity 3,94 (1. 51) 3. 37 (1. 64) p ; 0 . 01 ^^'^^  °^ advertising functionality †¦. ^rapd identification 0. 99(0. 26) iVIessage identification 0. 99(0. 18) Comprehension 4. 96 (1. 71) 0,98(0. 28) 0,99(0,11) 4. 64 (1. 79) n . s. n,s, p < 0 . 01 Advertising attitude  ° †¦.. ^. ‘[^uf?.. ^. ^^. ‘! ^. ‘^. ^.? Confounding variables Brand familiarity ^ ^. ^ . . ,. „ Estimated pnce, difference ,. ^ by product category 4. 08(1. 47) †¢ f^. :^l. ‘ih^^). 3. 81(1. 28) p < 0 . 01 †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ ^. ^^.. {hf! ‘^). â€Å". :! ; 4-,58 (2,23) „„^ +0. 04 4. 44 (2. 23) :28. (1:45) 3. 14 (1. 54) 3,41 (1,75) 2. 96 (1. 58) 2. 78 (1,50) 3. 16 (1. 71) p < 0 . 01 p < 0 . 01 p < 0 . 01 3 . 67(1,71) †¢ †¢ 3. 22 (;i. 26) 4. 25 (1. 19) ^ . . ,^ ,-^^ 3. 44 (1. 51) 3,42(1. 40) †¢ †¢ †¢ 3. -. 04. (1. 37) 4. 00 (1 ,70) ^ ^ , r-^ 3. 12 (1,50) p < 0 . 01 †¢ †¢ P†¦ ; p < 0. 01 † r†¦ 7. Smart 4. 02 (1. 53) 2. 37 (1. 40) p ; 0. 01 significantly greater when consumer- Develop valuable products 5. 02 (1. 25) 3. 35 (1. 55) p ; 0. 01 perceived creativity precedes the other vari- Good problem solver 4. 20 (2. 44) 2. 29 (1. 67) p ; 0. 01 Perceived brand quaiity 5. 48 (1. 16) 4. 02 (1. 0) p ; 0 . 01 DiSCUSSION Waste in advertising creativity matters. Brand interest 4. 62 (1. 51) 2. 56 (1. 41) p ; 0. 01 The results of the present study show that Interesting 4. 50 (1. 62) 2. 39 (1. 43) p ; 0. 01 Purchase intention 4. 73 (1. 71) ;. ! 2. 73 (1. 78) . ; p ; 0. 01 † r:.. 7. ^^^ † â€Å"^^ ^†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ^^^^ ^ ^ * ^ ^^^^- ^^^^^' * ^^† improving the functionality of the adver.. ^ j u .. u tisement and push the message into †¢^ †¦. P^. ‘P^. ‘y^. l^^O':* H2 consumer-perceived creativity and the mar, .. . , j /o^ ^u i†¢ ketmg signals, and (2) the correlations are ables, implying a causal direction from he former onto the latter. H3 H4 Note: F(4, 729) = 80. 40, p < 0. 01, Wilkes' lambda, 0. 53. Consumers' minds, which conventional September 2 0 0 8 JDUROHL OF RDUERTISIIIG RESEHRCH 3 9 9 ADVERTISING CREATIVITY MAHERS lished brands that consumers were familiar Regression Coefficients, Test of Mediation by Perceived _ .. Advertismg Creativity s ? Coefficient t-Statistic p< Dependent variable Perceived marketing effort Independent variables .^, ,^ .. v ertising creativity is a p owerful signal when communicating familiar brands a s ,, well. The signaling power of Advertising creativity 0. 18 2. 31 0. 1 Advertising creativity (after inclusion of 0. 02 0. 16 n. s. perceived advertising creativity) Perceived advertising creativity , v ant mamly when communicating with c onsumers that a re u nfamiliar with t he b rand (e. g. , Kirmani a nd R ao, 2000), a d- Standardized gg^g Variables k eting signals argues that they a re r ele- 0 . 33 7. 69 0. 01 advertising creativity Recent research suggests that it is b ecom†^g i ncreasingly harder t o p osition a nd differentiate brands with advertising (e. g.. Ehrenberg, Barnard, Kennedy, a nd Bloom, Dependent variable 2002; Heath a nd N airn, 2005). A s m arkets †¦ ^. ^. ‘[^^}}'. ^^.. ^. ^^! ^^.. ^'! ^'! }]^y.. a re c rowded with similar products, c om- Independent variables m unicating a u nique message or m aking Advertising creativity 0 . 29 2. 56 0. 01 a dvertising that sticks is v irtually impos- Advertising creativity (after inclusion of perceived advertising creativity) 0. 16 0. 99 n. s. 0. 38 5. 76 0. 01 ^^^^^ â„ ¢ ^ ^^^ ‘ ^^ ^ °Ã¢â‚¬ ^^ * ° ‘^†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ^'^^^'^^ ‘ ^^^ † ‘^ â€Å"†Ã¢â‚¬ Ã¢â‚¬ Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ^ important than ever to use creativity that really pushes the message ,, . / I T-,  » , , j , . , r,r,r,A^ t hrough (cf. E l-Murad a nd West, 2004). A nother Conclusion would b e t hat creativ-P erceived advertising creativity ^ Note: n. s. = noi significant. ity becomes less a m atter of m essage a nd content generation, a nd m ore a m atter of y/^BLE 5 form a nd s ignaling power. Crowded m ar- Correlation Coefficients, Test of Causality ^^*' ^†'^ ^^†^  °^ differentiation are the very reasons provided for the use of m ar- Perceived Creativity Perceived Creativity k eting signals such a s a dvertising e x-  »Ã¢â‚¬ ¢perceived creativity x „.. „ Perceived effort iVIeasured First -„_ 0 . 35 iVIeasured Last ^„, 0. 24 Difference „„^ p ; 0 . 05 P^-^ived ability Perceived quality 0 . 42 0 . 43 0. 32 0. 4 p ; 0 . 01 p ; 0 . 01 Brand interest 0 . 49 0. 40 p ; 0 . 01 p ense (Kirmani a nd R ao, 2000). Focusing on the execution in itself, rather than the actual message, t he a dvertiser could u se c reativity a s a p owerful marketing signal a s w ell. O † ‘ a nalysis reveals that more versus less advertising creativity pr oduces a s ignal of m arketing effort that is s imilar t o advertising expense. This is g ood news, wisdom holds t o be the major benefit of t aken a s proof of the b rand's smartness, a s t his revelation implies that t he a dver- creativity, a n e xtra degree of c reativity nd ability t o s olve problems a nd de- t iser does n ot n eed t o s pend excessive may send signals about t he a dvertiser that velop valuable products. A s a r esult, con- a mounts of m oney t o s ignal confidence i n rub off on c onsumer perceptions of the s umers became more interested i n the her p roduct. Instead of s pending money brand. I n our e xperiment, more versus brand a nd p erceived it to be of h igher o n b igger advertising spaces or l onger less creative advertising signaled greater quality. T he l atter is a p articularly inter- a nd m ore frequent campaigns (e. g. , Kir- ffort o n the a dvertiser's behalf a nd was e sting result, a s t he s tudy featured estab- mani, 1990, 1997), t he s ame effects m ay 4 0 0 JDUBnflL OF eOUERTISIIlG BESEIIIICH September 2 0 0 8 ADVERTISING CREATIVITY MAHERS be attainable by increasing creativity instead. Thus, the present study provides compelling evidence that creativity could be a way to produce greater results per advertising dollar. Creativity seems to have the greater effect through signaling brand ability than through effort. One reason for this is that creativity may fit more logically with what the brand, and advertising in general, is erceived to be about: displaying great solutions in the advertised product category. While high versus low creativity also has a signaling effect through perceived effort, most consumers would probably agree that trying hard is not the true purpose of any advertising or brand. Advertising is not primarily about spending money; advertising is about cleverly presenting the brand, and a desirable goal for any brand should be to deliver a more sophisticated product than the competition (cf. Brown a nd Dacin, 1997). The very (creative) form of the advertising could be a powerful clue to consumers about the brand.Creativity Is not a yes/no The presented numbers reveal that the advertising creativity in our study was not very high (ratings were not above the midpoint of the scale for either the more or the less creative advertisements). Thus, the study does not test the effects of outstandingly creative advertisements. Neither of the advertisements in the study would likely win an award. Still, at these (relative to previous research and to awardcompeting advertisements) low levels of creativity, increases did matter. This result provides evidence that creativity is not only important at an award-winning level, t is important at any level. By focusing too much on award-winning advertising and treating creativity as a yes/no variable, one misses out on all the improvements that can be made and effects that Consumer perceptions of the creativity in an advertisement mediate the adve rtisement's effects on the brand and malee the impact of the manipulated (â€Å"hidden†) creativity much greater. can be attained at more moderate levels. Considering the high risk that is associated with high levels of creativity (e. g. , El-Murad and West, 2003; West, 1999), taking baby steps is both easier and safer han quantum leaps—viewing creativity as a spectrum rather than a high absolute level encourages increases in advertising creativity across all advertising campaigns. Creativity is not a iiidden tool Given the signaling power of advertising creativity, viewing creativity as a hidden tool for advertising professionals is a mistake. Consumer perceptions of the creativity in an advertisement mediate the advertisement's effects on the brand and make the impact of the manipulated (â€Å"hidden†) creativity much greater. This is a powerful case for Kover, James, and Sonner's (1997) call to bring consumers nto the agencies' processes and invite them to pa rtake in the development—and definition—of creative advertising. Whereas copy testing is becoming more common in practice, advertising professionals still interpret the results on behalf of the consumer, deciding whether her responses indicate that the advertisement is creative or not. Not surprisingly, Koslow, Sasser, and Riordan (2006) find that formal testing had no effect on agencies' self-assessed creative output. If advertising professionals both ask the questions and interpret consumers' answers to them, what need is there to actuaUy ask consumers?If agencies had included consumer perceptions of the advertisements' creativity in the testing, Koslow, Sasser, and Riordan's findings would probably have been different. As Kover, James, and Sonner (1997) suggest, taking a consumer perspective offers new ideas and nuances in the creative process and provides more concrete feedback on the creative level of the advertising that would facilitate benchmarking and enhancem ent of the creative output. In enhancing perceived brand ability, the very creative form of advertising could be a way of branding. As suggested in the corporate ability literature, ability could e a powerful positioning in itself (Biehal and Sheinin, 2007; Brown and Dacin, 1997). For brands that have no particular unique feature, becoming increasingly common with the overwhelming number of alternatives available in most markets, ability in itself could be a sustainable source of advantage leveraging consumer expectations and trust in any product the brand introduces. This view is particularly interesting considering the trend toward continuously releasing new products under the same brand (Biehal and Sheinin, 2007). The research on marketing signals focuses mainly on unfamiliar brands (Kirmani and Rao, 2000).Whereas it still needs to be tested, creativity should have important effects on unfamiliar brands as well, as they may benefit more from marketing signals in general. However, the present study shows that high versus low creativity works as a signal for familiar and September 2 0 0 8 JDURHIIL OF BDOERTISIIIG RESEflRCH 4 0 1 ADVERTISING CREATIVITY MAHERS Creative advertising does increase consumer interest in ations and Consumer Product Responses. † Journal of Marketing 6 1, 1 (1997): 68-84. the brands, not by communicating a new message, but by COHEN, JACOB, a nd P ATRICI COHEN. Applied ommunicating the same message in another way. Multiple Regression/Correlation Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences. H iilsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 1983. established brands. Such brands make up the bulk of advertising in major media (Kent, 2002), They need to stay interesting to consumers even when they have nothing new to say (Machleit, Allen, and Madden, 1993), Creative advertising does increase consumer interest in the brands, not by communicating a new message, but by communicating the same message in another way. The present study focuses on a small number of advertis ements for consumer products.We employed only one exposure that was forced on consumers. Our experimental design was a way to test previously uncovered effects of creativity in a controlled setting. This way, we show that advertising creativity may work in different ways than in previous literature and have powerful effects. Whether these effects materialize in a real setting (with noise, less motivated consumers), and for different kinds of products, must be subject to further research, within advertising, PR, and brand communications DAHLEN, MICAEL, a nd SARA ROSENGREN, † Brands have been published in, for example, the Journal ofAffect Slogans Affect Brands? Brand Equity, Com- Advertising Research, the Journal of Advertising, the petitive Interference, and the Brand-Slogan Link. † Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, Journal of Brand Management 1 2,3 (2005): 151-64, and the Journal of Brand Management. EHRENBERG, ANDREW S . C , N E I L BARNARD, FREDRI K TORN is a Ph. D. candidate at the Stockholm RACHEL KENNEDY, a nd H ELEN BLOOM, † Brand School of Economics, focusing on incongruent brand Advertising a s C reative Publicity. † Journal of communications. His studies have been published in, Advertising Research 42, 4 (2002): 7-18. or example, the Journal of Advertising, the Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, and the Journal of Consumer Behavior. EL-MURAD, JAAEAR, a nd D OUGLAS C . W EST, â€Å"Risk and Creativity in A dvertising,† Journal of Marketing Management 19, 4 (2003): 657-73, REFERENCES and â€Å"The Definition a nd Mea- surement of C reativity: What D o We K now? † AMBLER, T IM, a nd E. A N N H OLLIER † The Waste Journal of Advertising in Advertising Is the P art That Works. † Journal 188-201. Research 44, 2 (2004): of Advertising Research 44, 4 (2004): 375-89, GROSS, IRWIN, † The Creative Aspects of AdverANG, SWEE HOON, a nd S HARON Y.M , LOW. â€Å"Explorin g t he D imensions of Ad C reativity,† tising. † Sloan Management Review, 14, 1 (1972): 83-109. Psychology & Marketing 17, 10 (2000): 835-54, MICAEL DAHLEN is a professor of marketing at the BARON, REUBEN M , , a nd D AVID A. K ENNY, † The Stockholm School of Economics, His research fo- Moderator-Mediator Variable Distinction in So- cuses on innovative advertising and brand strategies, cial Psychological Research: Conceptual, Stra- with the ambition to join creativity, business, and con- tegic, a nd Statistical Considerations,† Journal of sumer value. Having been published in, for example,Personality and Social Psychology 5 1, 6 (1986): the Journal of Advertising Research, the Journal of HABERLAND, GABRIELE S. , and P ETER A, D A – 1173-82. GIN. † The Development of a M easure to Assess Viewers' Judgments of the C reativity of an Advertisement: A P reliminary Study,† Advances in Consumer Research 19 (1992): 817-25, Advertising, Psychology & Marketing, the Journal of HALL, BRUCE F . † A New Model for Measuring Brand Management, he has taken the first baby steps BiEHAL, G ABRIEL J. , and D ANIEL A, S HEININ, Advertising Effectiveness,† Journal of Advertis- toward realizing that ambition. The Influence of C orporate Messages o n the ing Research 42, 2 (2002): 2 3-31. Product Portfolio. † Journal of Marketing 7 1, 2 SARA ROSENGREN is a Ph. D. candidate at the Stock- (2007): 1 2-25. holm School of Economics, presenting her thesis on HEATH, ROBERT, a nd A GNES NAIRN. † Measur- ing Affective Advertising: Implications of L ow marketing communications in cluttered environments BROWN, T OM J. , and P ETER A, D ACIN, † The Attention Processing o n Recall,† Journal of Ad- in the fall of 2 008, Her experiments on competition Company a nd the P roduct: Corporate Associ- vertising Research 45, 2 (2005): 2 69-81, 0 2 JOUBUfiL OF BDUEBTISinG RESERRCH September 2 0 0 8 ADVERTISING CREATIVITY MATTERS HELGESEN, THOROLF. † Advertising Awards and cies. † Journal of Advertising Research 4 3,1 (2003): STONE, GERALD, DONNA BESSER, a nd L ORAN E . Advertising Agency Performance Criteria. † Jour- 96-110. LEWIS. â€Å"Recall, Liking a nd C reativity in TV nal of Advertising Research 34, 4 (1994): 4 3-53. Commercials: A N ew Approach. † Journal of Adand â€Å"Do Marketers G et KENNY, DWAYNE A . â€Å"Cross-Lagged Panel Cor- the Advertising They Need or t he A dvertising relation: A Test for S puriousness. † Psychological They Deserve?Agency Views of H ow C lients Bulletin 82, 6 (1975): 887-903. Influence Creativity. † Journal of Advertising 35, vertising Research 40, 3 (2000): 7 -18. TILL, BRIAN D . , a nd D ANIEL W . BAAGK. â€Å"Recall 3 (2006): 8 1-101. and Persuasion. Does Creativity Matter? † Journal of Advertising 34, 3 (2005): 47-57. KENT, ROBERT J. â€Å"The Effects of M edia-Source Cues i n Ad Recall Tests. † Journal of Current KOVER, ARTHUR J. , S TEPHEN M . G OLDBERG, a nd Issues and Research in Advertising 24, 1 (2002): WILLIAM M . J AMES. † Creativity v s. Effective- TOM, GAIL, a nd A NMARIE EVES. † The Use of 1-9. ness?A n I ntegrating Classification for A dver- Rhetorical Devices i n A dvertising. † Journal of tising. † Journal of Advertising Research 3 5,6 (1995): Advertising Research 39, 4 (1999): 3 9-43. KIRMANI, AMNA. † The Effect of P erceived A d- 29-40. vertising Costs o n B rand Perceptions. † Journal ToNGAR, M ARK E , a nd J AMES MUNGH. † Con, W ILLIAM L . J AMES, a nd B RENDA S . S ON- of Consumer Research 17, 2 (1990): 1 60-71. NER. â€Å"To Whom Do Advertising Creatives Write? sumer Responses t o Tropes in P rint Advertising. † Journal of Advertising 30, 1 (2001): 55-65. An Inferential Answer. † Journal of Advertising â€Å"Advertising Repetition as a Signal of Research 37, 1 (1997): 4 1-53. Quality: If I t's A dvertised So M uch, S omething , a nd Must Be W rong. † Journal of Advertising 26, 3 . â€Å"The Influence of S imple , a nd AKSHAY R . R AO. † N O P ain, N o Gain: Luo, XuEMiNG, and C. B. BHATTAGHARYA. â€Å"Cor- porate Social Responsibility, Customer Satisfac- tance a nd M emory. † Journal of Marketing Theory tion, a nd M arket Value. † Journal of Marketing (1997): 7 7-86. and Complex Tropes o n Believability, Impor- & Practice 11, 4 (2003): 3 9-53. 70, 4 (2006): 1-18. A Critical Review of t he L iterature o n SignalWEILBAGHER, WILLIAM M . H O W A dvertising ing Unobservable Product Quality. † Journal of Marketing 64, 2 (2000): 66-79. MAGHLEIT, KAREN A. , C HRIS T . A LLEN, a nd Affects Consumers. † Journal of Advertising Re- THOMAS J. M ADDEN. † The M ature Brand a nd search 4 3, 2 (2003): 230-34. Brand Interest: A n A lternative Consequence of , a nd P ETER WRIGHT. † Money Talks: Per- ceived Advertising Expense a nd Expected Prod- Ad-Evoked Affect. â €  Journal of Marketing 57, 4 WEST, DOUGLAS C . â€Å"360 ° of C reative Risk. † (1993): 7 2-82. Journal of Advertising Research 2 9,1 (1999): 39-50. uct Quality. † Journal of Consumer Research 16, 3 1989): 3 44-53. REID, L EONARD N . , K AREN WHITEHILL KING, KOSLOW, SCOTT, SHEILA L . SASSER, a nd E D – Creatives Look a t A dvertising Creativity Then ing Advertising Creativity Using t he C reative WARD A. R IORDAN. † What is C reative t o W hom and N ow. † Journal of Advertising 27, 2 (1998): Product Semantic Scale. † Journal of Advertising and Why? Perceptions o n A dvertising Agen- 1-16. Research 4 1, 6 (2001): 27-34. and D ENISE E . D ELORME. â€Å"Top-Level Agency WHITE, ALISA, a nd BRUGE L . S MITH. † Assess- September 2 0 0 8 JDURDHL OF HDUEIITISIOG RESEflRCH 4 0 3

Learning and Memory Paper Essay

Human memory has been a significant interest concerning how people develop memory and process memory. Researchers and educators are diligently interested on the neuroanatomical neural processes related to learning and the current literature, neuroanatomical and neural processes related to memory and the current literature. In addition, the relationship between learning and memory form functional perspective. Researchers discuss the reasons learning and memory are interdependent, and have performed testing through case studies using animal studies because they are most useful and replicable studies for understanding the learning-to-memory-link. The examples from research help researchers with solving the mystery of the memory processes. Researchers discuss the importance of lifelong learning and brain stimulation to longevity and quality of life to obtain knowledge and how the human individual develops their capabilities to obtain memory and how memory can affect human behaviors. To u nderstand the functional relationship between learning and memory we must first define what both learning and memory is. Learning is described as â€Å"the acquisition of knowledge or skills through experience, practice, or study, or by being taught† (Merriam-Webster, 2011). While â€Å"Memory is the means by which we draw on our past experiences in order to use this information in the present† (Sternberg, 1999). Therefore, as one can tell memory is essential to all of our lives. Without a memory of the past, we cannot operate in the present or think about the future. We would not be able to remember what we did yesterday, what we have done today or what we plan to do tomorrow. Without memory, we could not learn anything. Learning and Memory are linked to cognitive abilities in both humans and animals. A well-known example to show the relationship between learning and memory is the classic rat in maze. Rats have been used in experimental mazes since at least the 20th century. Thousands of studies have examined how rat’s run different types of mazes, from T-maze to radial arm mazes to water mazes. These maze studies are used to study spatial learning and memory in rats. Maze studies helped uncover general principles about learning that can be applied to many species, including humans. Today, mazes are used to determine whether different treatments or conditions affect learning and memory in rats. To take a step further, According to Kolata al, 2005 case study the tasks that comprise the learning battery (e.g., Lashley lll maze, passive avoidance, spatial water maze, order discrimination, fear conditioning) were explicitly chosen so that each one places unique sensory, motor, motivational, and information processing demands on the animals. Briefly, performance in the Lashley lll maze depends on animals’ use of fixed motor patterns (egocentric navigation) motivated by a search for food. Passive avoidance is an operant conditioning paradigm in which the animals must learn to be passive in order to avoid aversive light and noise stimulation. The spatial water maze encourages the animals to integrate spatial information to efficiently escape from a pool of water. Odor discrimination is a task in which animals must discriminate and use a target odor to guide their search for food. Finally, fear conditioning (assessed by behavioral freezing) is a conditioning test in which the animals learn to associate a tone with a shock. We reported a positive correlation between the aggregate performance of individual outbred mice in the learning battery described above and their subsequent ability to accommodate competing demands on their spatial working memory capacity. Specifically, we observe that when mice required performing in two arm mazes concurrently (a manipulation intended to place demands on working memory capacity), their performance in the target maze positively correlated with their general learning abilities. These results are suggestive of a relationship between working memory capacity and general learning abilities in mice. Memory is the process by which information is saved as knowledge and retained for further use as needed. Neuroanatomy, is the study of a particular nerve and are located, or rather memory is stored diffusely through the structures of the brain that particularly in its original state. There are four neural structures that play a role in memory. For example, (1) hippocampus and (2) perirhinal cortex have roles in spatial and object memory and (3) the mediodorsal nucleus and (4) the basal forebrain are implicated in memory. The medial temporal lobe memory system, is part of the system for memory in the medial temporal lobe (MTL), this neural system consists of the hippocampus and adjacent anatomically related cortex, including entorhinal, perirhinal, and parahippocampal cortices. According to (Squire, Larry R.: Zola-Morgan, Stuart, 1991,)†These structures are essentially for establishing long-term memory for facts and events (declarative memory). The MTL memory system is needed to bind together the distrusted storage sites in neocortex that represent a whole memory. However, the role of this system is only temporary.†P1. When time goes on after learning, our memory stored in neocortex slowly and eventually becomes independent of MTL structures. Rats have been used in experimental mazes since at least the 20th century. Thousands of studies have examined how rat’s run different types of mazes, from T-maze to radial arm mazes to water mazes. These maze studies are used to study spatial learning and memory in rats. Maze studies helped uncover general principles about learning that can be applied to many species, including humans. Today, mazes are used to determine whether different treatments or retrieval is established, encoding processes that initiate priming and explicit memory have not yet been anatomically separated, and we investigate then using event related functional magnetic resonance imaging. According to (Schott, Bjorn H.: Richardson-Klavehn, Alan; Henson Richard N. A; Becker, Christine; Heinze, Hans-Jochen; Duzel, Emrah, 2006,)†Activations precedicting later explicit memory occurred in the bilateral medial temporal lobe (MTL) and left prefrontal cortex (PFC). Activity predicting later priming did not occur in these areas, but rather in the bilateral extrastriate cortex, left fusiform gyrus, and bilateral inferior PFC, areas linked with stimulus identification,† P 2. However, these areas showed response reductions, and researchers results, illustrated that priming and explicit memory have distinctive functional neuroanatomies concerning encoding with MTL activations being strictly for explicit memory, and influence that priming is initiated by sharpness of neural responding in stimulus identification areas, that are consistent with recent electrophysiological evidence regarding priming related neural oscillations at encoding. Lifelong learning and brain stimulation are essential to mental and physical health, especially in old age. Throughout life, learning is what allows us to adapt to new situations, and learn how to survive and thrive in our current environment at any given time. As we learn, our brain becomes more active, taking in new information and comparing it with old. The new data is either corroborated by the old, or there is a conflict, at which point we must use judgment to determine which information we should keep and what we should discard. Learning can never stop, or it would mean the end of growth, and possibly the end of life, for an individual. Our environment changes every day, and new stimuli are encountered. Even if we have knowledge of what cars and streets are, and know how to practice safety when they are near, we are presented with new combinations and variables on these constructs every day. We must constantly assess the people and places around us, analyze them, and apply any new information to what we already know. This process, some would argue, is what makes us alive, intelligent creatures at the top of our ecological food chain. As for quality of life, very little is more important than keeping the brain active. As we age, the brain and its synaptic processes slow down and decay. Older people are more prone to dementia and other degenerative diseases. Working word puzzles or simply keeping a part time job to occupy the brain and keep it active and learning can extend the quality of life for any aging individuals, doing the same thing, while young can have the same effect. Our mental health is tied closely to our survival and our quality of living. If we can keep our brain learning, it can stay active and alert much longer than if we sit in front of screens and stop learning early in life. Human memory has been a significant interest concerning how people develop memory and process memory. From inspirational design in testing using animals, such a mice and mice being the greater source of exp erimental advances in research in the investigation of memory and human subject use. Researchers have unfolded how memory is developed, through the experiments of these subjects. Although, there is still much more investigation greed towards how memory effects how we learn, to how we store memory and process memory. We must continue the investigation; whereas so many people suffer memory dysfunctions; due to human illnesses and diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, brain damage and learning process needs. Bio-psychologist, work closely with other fields of psychology, biological factors and psychological factors that play a role in the memory processes. Learning can be defined as the process in which one’s experiences are combined into memory. One type of the traditional learning is school learning; this is done by incorporating textbook facts in which is called declarative memory. Not only does one have declarative memory, but also learning of procedural memories. Declarative memory is an explicit memory, a type of long-term memory in which one will store memories of fact (Psychology Glossary). Having memories of things, such as when Columbus sailed to America or on what day and time your baby brother was born, one has declarative memories. Procedural memory is the most basic form of memory. For example, this type of memory is used for procedures or furthermore the basic associations between stimuli and responses (Psychology Glossary). Having the memory of riding a bike is an example of procedural memory. Once an individual has learned what the proper procedure for riding a bike, it is then stored within the procedural memory. The limbic system actually focuses on the frontal lobe and the hippocampus. This system communicates by shooting of the electrical impulses in one’s neurons (Morin 2009). The neurons then become accountable for the storing of information. Brain plasticity refers to the ability for nerve cells to change through new experiences. These neurons take the information when an individual has been exposed to the stimulus to be learned. The retrieving of information is somewhat of a different process, however still maintains some of the same comparisons. Retrieving information becomes an activity of â€Å"re-activating† of those neurons. For both the long-term memory and the short-term memory these types of memories are then stored into many different places. The long-term memory process ensures that an individual will store these memories permanently (Morin 2009). This includes the changes to the cell structure and the creation of the new and unused synapses. Synapses are the junction between the neurons where a neural cell will communicate with a target cell. This is done when translating stimuli into a storage system that is used by the brain, linking the encoded stimuli in the memory and then accessing the memory of the stimuli at the time when it is needed, otherwise known as encoding, consolidation, and retrieval. REFERENCES Kolata, S., Light, K., Townsend, D.A., Hale, G., Grossman, H.C., Matzel, L.D. (2005) Variations in working memory capacity predict individual differences in general learning abilities among genetically diverse mice. Neurobiol. Learn. Mem. 84:241–246. Learning. 2011. In Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved Jan 16, 2013, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/learning Sternberg, R. J. (1999). Cognitive psychology (2 nd ed.). Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace College Publishers. Neuroanatomical Dissociation of Encoding Processes Relater to Priming and Explicit Memory. By: Schott, Bjorn H.: Richardson-Klavehn, Alan; Henson, Richard N. A.: Becker, Christine; Heinze, Hans-Jochen; Duzel, Emrah. Journal of Neuroscience. 1/18/2006, Vol. 26 Issue 3, p792-800, 9p. 5 The Medial Temporal Lobe Memory System Squire, Larry R.; Zola-Morgan, Stuart Science, Vol. 253(5026), Sep 1991, 1380-1386. doi: 10.1126/science. 1896849 Fernandez, A. (2007). Brain Exercise and Lifelong Learning for Alzheimer’s Prevention Alzheimer Disease. Article Directory – Find, Search, Reprint & Submit Articles for Free. Retrieved November 02, 2010, from http://www.articlesphere.com/Article/Brain- Exercise-and-Lifelong-Learning-for-Alzheimer-s-Prevention/94361 Salthouse, T. A. (2006). Mental Exercise and Mental Aging. Evaluating the Validity of the â€Å"Use It or Lose It† Hypothesis. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 1(1), 68-87. doi: 10.1111/j.1745-6916.2006.00005.x Morin, Chrisophe; September 14, 2009 The Neural Basis of Learning Psychology Glossary; www.alleydog.com

Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory

In the twentieth century, Sigmund Freud, had been labeled as the father of psychoanalysis. Working with many great theorists in his lifetime, they helped him expand his thinking too create many theories of his own, one in particular, the psychoanalytic theory. Even though many theorists did not agree with his theory, because of his addiction to cocaine, many believe he was one of the greatest. Sigmund Freud was born in Moravia in May 6, 1856 into Jewish parents. In 1860 his family migrated to Vienna, where he resided for about eighty years.He then left Vienna moving to London after the Nazis overran Austria. Since when he was young, Freud wanted to be a scientist. In 1873, Freud enters the medical school of University of Vienna, graduating eight years later. (Hall, 1970) In 1886 He married to Martha Bernays and opened his own practice. (Wollheim, 1971) After studying and working with Jean Charcot a French psychiatrist and Joseph Breuer a Viennese physician, Freud realized that Charco t’s hypnosis treatment was not impressive and Breuer’s conservative view on sexual conflict where the cause of hysteria left Freud working alone.Working alone helped Freud form the foundation of psychoanalytic theory. (Hall, 1970) Psychoanalytic theory is the belief that a dynamic struggle takes place within the human psych between unconscious forces. That’s where the structure of personality takes place. The structure of personality is made up of three main mental entities, Id, Ego, and Superego. Id operates only in the unconscious mind containing basic animal drives as instinctual impulses, hunger, thirst, sex, and aggression.Id follows the pressure principle and demand for instant gratification. Ego represents reason and good sense. Id organizes the ways to handle the delay of gratification by coping with frustration by operating in the reality of principles, seeking to satisfy instinctual demands in way that are practical and socially acceptable. Ego attends to avoid social disapproval. Superego is the interval moral guardian or conscience. Develops by internalizing the moral teachings of parents or other significant others.The ego has to make the compromise between the id and superego. (Quigley, 1998) In the end, balance and interactions of these three parts is determined by our behavior and our ability to meet the life challenges we face. To understand it better in a criminology way an example of the theory would be John is at the mall and sees the diamond on a ring shine right on him and his id thinks, â€Å"I’d like to go and snatch it right off the show case. The ego then says, â€Å"Wait there’s not enough people, you’re in a plain site, let’s wait for the room to get busy. † The superego then says, â€Å"Wait, you can’t do that, you can pay for it. † In 1880s Sigmund Freud started experimenting with cocaine. He believed that cocaine lifted his spirit when he was at a low period i n his life. Freud stated that with brilliant success he was able to observe the effects cocaine took on him when he used small doses, regularly for depression and against indigestion. Cocaine) Because of this experimenting stage many has challenge Freud psychoanalytic theory. In practically, Darwin, who critisized Freud theory because it was generated by confusions arising Freud long standing use of cocaine. (Freud, 2010) Also, Breuer, a mentor and friend, disagree with Freud when it came to talking treatment for hysteria because sexual desires lay at the bottom of all these hysterical neuroses and like stated before Breuer was conservative towards the subject. (Boeree, 1997)In 1939, Sigmund Freud died of cancer to the mouth and jaw, after battling it for almost 20 years. Some of Freud's ideas are tied to his culture and era; other ideas are not easily testable. Some may even of Freud's own personality and experiences. But Freud was a great observer of the human condition, and enoug h of what he said has meaning today that he will be a part of personality textbooks for years to come. Even when theorists come up with dramatically different ideas about how we work, they compare their ideas with Freud's.