Technology+Culture+People // テクノロジーとか、人とか、文化とか。

Sudden resolution of cognitive incongruencies often causes a rush or euphoria that includes joy and laughter (Berlyne, 1969; Zillman, 2000a). Humor (including funny jokes) develops from a puzzling incongruency that suddenly is resolved. The resolution is often due to a plot or punch-line that allows the audience to comprehend and to solve such incongruency. But the case of nonsense humor, a resolution might just as well bethe realization that there is nothing to resolve (cf. Zillman, 2000a).

Bryant, J. (2008). Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research (Lea’s Communication Series). New York: Routledge. P. 541

So humor seems to root from either the plot or punchline resolving a proposed problem, or a discovery that there was no problem to start with. This seems to be one of the problems when describing Japanese humor, because Western humor seems to assume the presence of linearity in the context, flow, and a resolution in any form of humor. On the other hand, there are more humor in Japan (and perhaps Eastern nations) that even lack the context in which incongruities can be proposed.

I wonder if it has to do with the high degree of cultural agreement of what can be considered “funny” or not, and that that takes the need away of contextual linearity?

I mean, how do you explain this?

»English Article (via: Penn State Live) || »日本語の記事（via: AD Innovator)

Companies are also benefiting from Twitter, where 20 percent of the tweets contain requests for product information or responses to the requests, according to Jim Jansen, associate professor of information science and technology in the College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) at Penn State.

The researchers examined half a million tweets during the study. The team looked for tweets mentioning a brand and why the brand was mentioned — to inform others, express a view on the brand or something else — and found that people were using tweets to connect with the products.

Results from the study found that users employ Twitter to inquire about product information. About 20 percent of the tweets contained product information in the form of asking and providing, thus giving companies a “rich source” of information concerning issues and questions that customers have regarding their products.

Jansen’s prediction was not far off from the results, though some results did surprise him.

“A lot of the brand comments were positive,” he said. “There are some good products out there, or at least products that people are happy with.”

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Penn State UniversityのCollege of Information Science and Technologyの調査によると、Twitterでのつぶやき（Tweet)の20％は、製品に関する情報を求めたり、それに答えたりするものだとい う。この調査では50万のTweetを分析した結果で、企業はブランド認知、ブランドに対する知識、消費者との関係を構築するためにTwitterなどマ イクロコミュニケーションを使っているという。

»English Article (via: Mashable)

Nielsen’s research shows that “57 percent of TV viewers in the U.S. who have Internet access use both mediums at the same time at least once a month. That translates to more than 128 million U.S. consumers.”

Another data that points to the importance of cross-media integration. The question is where those viewer’s focuses are. Contents such as real-time discussion forums (for soap operas, dramas, reality shows, sports broadcast, etc) that enhance the TV experience through internet, or TV-Twitter mashup could be the next stage of digital media communication.

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クロスメディアを通じてユーザー体験を拡張させる事の大切さを裏付ける新しいデータ。要するに、メディアコンシューマーが一つの媒体に全てのアテンションを注ぐ時代は終わったって事だと思う。デジタルメディアの次のステージはクロスメディア体験だろうなー。

たとえば、テレビ番組の感想を述べあるリアルタイム掲示板（２ちゃんでいう「実況板」）とか、こんな試みがこれからドンドン増えていくと思う。

»English Article (via: Wired) || »日本語の記事 (via: WiredVision)

Johnson’s team put eleven female and five male college students inside an fMRI machine, which measures real-time patterns of blood flow in the brain. Each student was shown a list of words, then asked to say each word backwards, think of how it could be used, and imagine how an artist would draw it.

Twenty minutes later, the researchers showed them the list again, and asked the students to remember what they could of each word.

Recollection triggered the original learning patterns, a process known technically as reinstatement; the stronger the memory, the stronger the signal.

But at the weak end of the gradient, where the students’ conscious recall had faded to zero, the signal was still there.

It’s possible that the students lied about what they remembered. But if not, then memory may truly persist. The question then is how long memories could last — weeks, months, even years.

What is truly amazing about this experiment is that it has the potential to change the conventional definition of “memory.” A “memory” could be redefined as not just the past occurrences that we can actively recall, but those past occurrences that we may not be able to actively recall however still “exists” in our brain as subtle signals.

What is even more striking is that once we can find the appropriate triggers that can revoke those “forgotten memories,” it will greatly impact industries such as marketing, branding, and advertising.

In the future, the focus of such industries may shift from “showing something impressionable in certain places and situations” to “showing something that could be recalled in many different places and situations.” People, THIS is a paradigm shift.

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この発見の何が凄いかって、今まで使われてきた「記憶」という言葉の定義を変えてしまう可能性があるんだよね。だって、今まで記憶って言うと僕たちが経験した過去の出来事の中で自発的に思い出す事の出来る事象だったけど、思い出せない事でも確かに「存在」していることが証明されちゃったから、「記憶」そのものの定義がもう少し広義になるかもしれないよね。

さらに凄いことに、もし「忘れられた記憶」をトリガーするモノが発見されたとすれば、それはマーケティング、ブランディング、広告に多大な影響を及ぼすだろう。だって、今までは記憶してもらわなければ意味の無かった物が、「思い出せれば良い物」になるから。

つまり、限られた場所やシチュエーションの中ででより印象的に体験させる事よりも、より多くの場所やシチュエーションで「再び思い出してもえる」広告が価値のあるものとして認識されるようになる。

A great presentation by Dan Pink. Why is it amazing? Because he does a great job in elaborating on well established and replicated scientific studies. He’s got the basics down, and even more so he knows how to present his materials. What an engaging speech. It surely did not feel like it was 18 minutes long.

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ダン・ピンクによる素晴らしいスピーチ。なにが素晴らしいって、基礎となる、科学的に立証された、繰り返し再現された研究を基盤に話を組み立てているから。その上このひとプレゼンが半端なく上手い。１８分が一瞬のように過ぎていった。

»English Article (via: Wired.com) || »日本語の記事 (via: WiredVision) || »Original Study

Researchers presented four crows with a challenge from Aesop’s fable “The Crow and the Pitcher”: a container of water not quite full enough for the birds to reach with their beaks. Just like Aesop’s crow, all four birds figured out how to raise the water level by dropping stones into the glass. The crows also selectively chose large pebbles over small ones, and quickly realized that dropping rocks into a container of sawdust didn’t have the same effect.

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研究者たちは、カラスの中でも利口な種であるミヤマガラスの成鳥4羽を連れてきて、くちばしがぎりぎり届かない水位まで水が入った容器に、ミヤマガラスが好む虫を浮かべて誘惑した。

続いて、ミヤマガラスの隣に小石を山積みした。4羽のミヤマガラスは、容器の上や横から水位を調べた後、水位が上昇して目当ての虫を捕まえられるようになるまで、容器に石を落とし続けた。

»English Article (via: Los Angeles Times) || »日本語の記事 (via:ITMedia) || »Press Release (via: University of Guelph)

A very interesting study conducted by Ms. Amy Muise and Ms. Emily Christofides at the University of Guelf in Canada. Their survey study has revealed that Facebook causes jealousy and hampers romance because of the available information regarding the past romantic partners of one’s current significant other.

Nearly 75 per cent of those surveyed said they had previous romantic or sexual partners as “friends” on Facebook, and close to 80 per cent reported that their partner also had previous partners as “friends.”

“It fosters a vicious cycle,” Christofides said. “If one partner in a relationship discloses personal information, it increases the likelihood that the other person will do the same, which increases the likelihood of jealousy.”

There is also a feedbackloop aspect to this phenomena, in which when one finds such jealousy-causing information, they will come back to that source for new information, making them more likely to encounter similar information. Interesting…

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今までは手に入りにくかった、今の恋人の元カレ（カノ）の情報が手軽に手に入るから、嫉妬心を醸成しやすいらしい。

調査した学生の うち約75％は、元恋人をFacebook上で「友人」として登録していた。また80％は、「自分の恋人が元恋人を友人として登録している」と答えた。さ らにFacebook上で嫉妬を感じる状況などについて質問したところ、同サービスの利用と嫉妬の間に明確な関係があることが分かったという。オンライン で過ごす時間が長いほど、疑り深くなる傾向も示された。

また、そういった情報を能動的に手に入れにいくために、新たに嫉妬心を煽る情報に遭遇し易くなり、悪循環が発生するらしい。ここで言う「情報」は、写真とか、過去に彼らがやり取りしていた発言（掲示板みたいになってて、デフォルトの設定は誰でも見ることができる）だと思う。どっちにしろ、こういう人間の感情に迫る研究って興味深いね。

»English Article (via: Advertising Lab) || »Press Release (via:comScore)

1. Heavy clickers represent just 6% of the online population yet account for 50% of all display ad clicks.
2. Heavy clickers are not representative of the general public. In fact, heavy clickers skew towards Internet users between the ages of 25-44 and households with an income under $40,000.
3. Heavy clickers behave very differently online than the typical Internet user, and while they spend four times more time online than non-clickers, their spending does not proportionately reflect this very heavy Internet usage.
4. No correlation between display ad clicks and brand metrics, and show no connection between measured attitude towards a brand and the number of times an ad for that brand was clicked
5. when digital campaigns have a branding objective, optimizing for high click rates does not necessarily improve campaign performance

While the click can continue to be a relevant metric for direct response advertising campaigns, this study demonstrates that click performance is the wrong measure for the effectiveness of brand-building campaigns

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1. バナー広告のヘビークリッカーはネット人口全体のわずか6%あまりだが、彼らのクリックは全クリックレートの50%を占めている。
2. ヘビークリッカーは一般人口とは異なる存在である。そのほとんどが世帯年収が400万円以下の25-44歳である。
3. ヘビークリッカーは一般ネットユーザーとも異なる存在である。彼らのネット利用時間は一般ユーザーの約4倍だが、ネット上で使うお金の額はそれに比例していない。
4. バナークリックとブランド認知、およびそれから派生する購買は比例しない。バナークリックとブランドに対するイメージは関連しない。
5. ブランディングを主な目的としたデジタルキャンペーンの場合、クリックレートの最大化はキャンペーンの成功の尺度に必ずしもなり得ない。

バナーのクリックレートはダイレクトレスポンスキャンペーンでは有効な尺度ではあるが、ブランディングキャンペーンの効果を測定するには不正確な物差しであろう。

…だそうです。

日本語版記事 || English Article || Original Study

Before you read on, make sure you see  the YouTube video (I will not be writing about Schizophrenia in this post. Rather, I will focus on the illusion itself)

This is a very good video demonstrating an optical illusion called the “Hollow-mask Illusion.” I’m sure you noticed that when the mask of Charlie Chaplin revolved to reveal is opposite side, the concave surface (where your face fits the mask) appears as though it was a convex surface. Pretty cool.

The reason why this happens is pretty simple: since we do not usually see people having concave faces, our brain is accustomed to recognizing all “face-like objects” as having a convex surface. Since the opposite side of the mask has exactly the same features as the normal side, despite the color, our brain still recognizes it as a “face” and therefore our perception is tricked.

Our brain often makes these kinds of generalization, or stereotyping regarding objects that we come into contact with frequently. It’s a part of the process of “becoming familiar” with something. Our brain cannot afford to process every single object that we see as if we see them for the first time; it takes too much time and effort to perceive, recognize, and comprehend everything from head to tail. Hence we make a template, or a “scheme” to recognize and understand certain familiar objects.

My mind understands what’s going on in my brain, but my body still cannot resist the illusion.

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なんかココまで書いて、日本語訳を書くのがめんどくさくなっちゃったw

とりあえず記事の大事な部分を引用しますw

この錯視は、人間の脳が視覚世界を解釈する際の戦略によって起こる。それは、実際に目に見えるもの(ボトムアップ処理と呼ばれる情報処理法)と、過去の経験に基づいて見えると予想されるもの(トップダウン処理)を組み合わせて判断するという戦略だ。（中略）「脳内のモデルでは、すべて顔が凸面になっているため、どんな顔を見ても、当然凸面のはずだと考えてしまう」

頭では現象を理解していても、僕の体はまだ騙されてしまう。おもしれー