# Presentation: 013099

## Dr. Larry Percy

- a strategic positioning company

## Explore cognitive associations with the subject and construct a ‘map’ of the cognitive structure likely to be involved.

## Cognitive responses for:

- atmosphere
- climate
- coastlines
- floods
- hurricanes

- ice storms
- lightning
- oceans
- weather

## Associations in memory were largely descriptive

- Concrete noun or adjective attributes
- (rain, snow, salty, Texas, white, Atlantic)
- Subjective characteristics
- (variable, massive, drama, powerful, development)

## Associations in memory

- Overall, about 1/4 were negative
- (polluted, danger, depleted, scary)
- Only 10% were clearly positive
- (beautiful, awesome, stunning)
- Only one association reflected an emotion
- (sad)

## Associations in memory

- A surprising lack of any priming effect
- Suggest no common neural network, which is surprising given their clear association at a macro level

## Associations in memory

- Given the highly charged attention to environmental issues, it is surprising that
- there is no emotional response
- a relatively low level of negative associations

## Associations in memory

- The descriptive nature of the cognitive responses, coupled with no emotional response suggests very little involvement with the issue

## Associations in memory

- Other topics that ‘belonged’ with the list being discussed were solicited, and of the 30 additions offered, only three were mentioned in more than one group

## Associations in memory

- This again suggests no common schema and strong evidence that there is not a neural network in place for what might be called ‘the environment’

## Associations in memory

- This can make communication difficult when dealing with more than one of these topics that are broadly part of the Earth’s environment

## Cognitive structure

- An important consideration in the development of a communication program is an understanding of how people ‘see’ and understand the subject of the communication

## Cognitive structure

- This will influence how messages are processed and interpreted, and reflects what is called a cognitive structure

## Cognitive structure for ‘Environment’

- There seems to be no set meaning in memory
- It appears more conceptual, lacking any definite structure
- Six unrelated schema are activated by the word ‘environment’
- With essentially no secondary association

## The schema identified were:

- Need for action
- Problems
- Danger
- My world
- Eco-system
- Positives

- protection, conservation, recycle
- pollution, dirty, global warming
- messed up, dying, danger, death
- world around us, surroundings, living space
- climate, eco, eco-system
- healthy, wonderful, good, beautiful

## Cognitive structure for ‘Climate Change’

- Again, a diverse set of schema, but there is some linkage at the secondary level
- This suggests at least some underlying stability to the construct

## Cognitive structure for ‘Climate Change’

- People appear to have one of two general structures:
- some see ‘climate change’ as a problem
- others as being more benign

## Cognitive structure for ‘Climate Change’ as a problem

**Cognitive structure for ‘Climate Change’ as a problem**

## Cognitive structure for ‘Climate Change’

- Regardless of the schema involved, for these people ‘climate change’ is linked in memory with concern, fear, and need to do something about it

## Cognitive structure for ‘Climate Change’

- In communication, climate change should be discussed at the secondary level, not in terms of the ‘problem’ because there is no interrelationship among the perceived problems

## Cognitive structure for ‘Climate Change’ as benign

**Cognitive structure for ‘Climate Change’ as benign**

## Cognitive structure for ‘Climate Change’

- While there is some suggestion of low-level concern among a few, basically for these people climate change simply means changing seasons

## Emotion

- Modern neuroscience tells us that humans use emotion to help guide their rational decisions and behavior

## The Amygdala: Where it Happens

- The idea of a separate brain system for emotions was perhaps first suggested by James Papez in 1937
- The importance of the amygdala to emotions was identified in 1939 by Klöva and Bucy

## The Amygdala: Where it Happens

- The amygdala plays a central role in the basic emotional system, and
- Neuroscience research increasingly shows the amygdala-centered neural system of emotion interacts extensively with those underlying cognitive processes

## The right and left ventromedial parts of the prefrontal cortex are essential for the integration of emotions into decision making

- Bechara et al., 2000

## Limbic System

## The Amygdala: Where it Happens

- Emotion, via the amygdala, influences cognition by mediating the long-term retention and awareness of emotional events, as well as
- Immediate stimulus processing by modulating attention and perception

## The Amygdala: Where it Happens

- Amygdala influence on attention and perception suggests that relative to neutral stimuli, processing emotional stimuli will be enhanced
- This should lead to greater memory encoding, resulting in both greater immediate and later awareness

## Accessing Correct Emotional Memories

- The amygdala is at the heart of a specific memory system that mediates the learning and expression of emotional response to stimuli of learned significance
- This can occur even in the absence of conscious memory for the events associated with the learning experience

## Immediately Present Stimuli

**Amygdala-DependentEmotional Arousal**

**Hippocampal-DependentExplicit Memory**

## Emotion

- Stronger emotional associations are more likely to be verbalized
- Given the high arousal levels in the media, the paucity of emotional involvement with ‘environment’ and ‘climate change’ is surprising

## Emotion

- When discussing specific ‘concerns’ about the environment and climate change, only 9 of 34 people included an emotional association

## Emotion

- When specifically asked for emotional associations with the environment and climate change, half did not provide one

## Emotion

- Among those who did, most were negative
- environment: fear, sadness, some anger
- climate change: mild anxiety, some sadness

## Emotion

- These are primary emotions, not secondary or social emotions, suggesting that at least these people may be aroused
- But because it followed specific probing, it is unlikely to be energizing

## Some implications for communication

- The paucity of emotional responses and the descriptive nature of most of the discussion suggests that while topical, the subject has not been given much real consideration
- There is a need and opportunity for education

## Some implications for communication

- Messages must be very carefully framed, defining explicitly what is meant, and
- Messages should be positioned against secondary levels of cognition, linking them to an appropriate, clearly defined anchor

## Some implications for communication

- This will be a challenge
- But, the lack of consistent, focused memories or established cognitive structure provides an opportunity to build appropriate associations in memory

## Key: Identify the appropriate links