This motivation in ads assignment showcases how companies use Maslow's pyramid of needs to motivate consumers to buy their products. In this assignment I analyzed a revlon makeup ad and an amazon Alexa ad. Part 1Ad oneRevlon's PhotoReady Insta-Filter foundation ad portrays women dancing and singing along to a song while applying the Insta-Filter foundation. It has been advertised throughout the internet in an attempt to make women want to buy the product in order to feel younger, and more attractive. Selling makeup can be quite difficult as a product that individuals do not really need. Ads can combats this problem by targeting a specific audience, this ad in particular targets young adult consumers as the models are seen dancing around, filming themselves and overall living a young adult lifestyle. The Insta-Filter foundation ad also uses the power of imagery to communicate that this makeup product will help produce the pleasure or perfection the consumer seeks. The ad also uses a catchy song that will make you think of the product throughout the day, when the song is stuck in your head. Makeup fits under the self-esteem level of Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Women around the world wear makeup to make them feel more confident and beautiful. Others wear makeup completely for themselves, there are those who wear makeup for the perceived benefit of others, or who feel they look unacceptable without it. Either way, makeup highers your self-esteem as it can be used as a mask to hide behind when facing the world. Ad twoAmazon’s “Alexa lost her voice” ad was very popular during the Superbowl. The ad features Alexa an artificial intelligence device that users can ask questions or give it a demand. During the ad, Alexa is seen losing her “voice” and well-known celebrities take over her role, answering strangers questions. This ad was a major success as it was very humorous and it starred famous celebrities. Amazon had an intention to sell their product as well getting people talking more about the company and their products. The Alexa product falls under the social needs and self-esteem needs in Maslow’s pyramid. The product can be used to socialize with others through sending text messages and listening to the news… The product could also make one's self-esteem higher, as amazon’s artificial intelligence products can be quite pricey. Some people feel better about themselves when they own expensive things. Which ad is more effective?Both ads are very effective at sending the message they wanted to send however, I think that Amazon’s “Alexa lost her voice ad” was more efficient. When watching the ad, I laughed and it made me want the Alexa product. The ad even came up in some of my conversations with my friends so, I think the ad creators accomplished what they were trying to do. The Revlon ad was also very effective but I do not think it stuck out more than any other makeup ad. I did not find Revlon's ad to be as unique and attention capturing as the Alexa ad. Part two1. Self-esteem and self-fulfillment needs are most powerful in motivating someone to buy a product. Commercial or ads that play with your emotions are the ones that will often fool you into buying something you don’t actually need. Advertisers advertise their products as being life-changing and guarantee that they will improve your lifestyle. We want to be the best we can be and we want to feel good about ourselves so if a certain product can make you feel more beautiful, rich, better... than you will most likely buy it.
2. Advertisers appeal to our needs to convince us that we need their products. Advertisers think about what consumers want and need, and how they can meet those wants and needs. At a creative level, marketers come up with branded messages to share with consumers to spark interest and create behavior change. I think this is ethical because we have the option of not reading the ad or not watching it. 3. Grades are given to students when they do their work, students will work hard in order to get good grades and bring up their self-esteem and self-fulfillment. Prizes are given to the winner of a race to also, bring up their self-esteem. Food is distributed at events to encourage people to come and satisfy their hunger...
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In this memory assignment, I analyzed how they portrayed anterograde amnesia in the movie "Fifty-first dates". This assignment served to help us better understand how mental illnesses are portrayed in the media. Fifty-first dates, a romantic comedy starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore is the story of a man who falls in love with a woman who has been diagnosed with anterograde amnesia. Every day he must win her over again because she can’t even remember last nights date! (Segal, 2004). Anterograde amnesia is a form of memory loss that affects the ability of memories to become transferred from the short term to the long-term memory, usually after a traumatizing accident (Kasschau, 2001). Patients with anterograde amnesia often can recall memories of events prior to the incident responsible for the memory deficit but have severely impaired abilities to anamnesis information about events occurring after the incident (McLeod, S. A. 2011).
Anterograde amnesia is a disorder that can be permanent or short-term, (Human-memory.net, 2018). Damages to the memory-making part of the brain; the fornix, hippocampus, and mammillary bodies are the main cause of amnesia's onsets (Cherney, 2017). The symptoms of anterograde amnesia primarily affect short-term memory processing; the impairment of the semantic and episodic memory (Cherney, 2017). Interestingly, most people with anterograde amnesia are able to remember how to do things, such as ride a bike or play an instrument but are not able to recall when and how they learned it. This phenomenon was observed in the case study of H.M, a man who underwent brain surgery to ease the severe symptoms of epilepsy (Kasschau, 2001). Although his surgery alleviated his epileptic seizures, he was completely unable to transfer any new information into his long-term memory, however, his cognitive functioning was normal (Kasschau, 2001). He was able to learn and he remembered how to interact with the environment, but he needed reminding of what he was capable of doing (Kasschau, 2001).Currently, there are no treatments that can essentially cure amnesia, but instead, treatments concentrate on managing the patient’s condition (Cherney, 2017). In 50 first dates, Lucy Whitmore, the main character, is in a car accident a couple years prior to the movie. As a result, she suffers from anterograde amnesia, the film describes it as “the loss of her short-term memory” (Segal, 2004). Every night when she falls asleep, her memory is restored to the day of her accident. When Henry Roth, falls in love with her, he must continually reintroduce himself over and over again, making every day like their first date. Lucy’s family and friends are very protective of her and take very good care of Lucy. Her father and her brother spend everyday recreating the day of the accident, which happens to be the father birthday, they go through elaborate schemes to “trick” her into avoiding the reality of her condition. Near the end of the movie, Henry makes a video documentary of every major event that has occurred since the time of her accident which he shows lucy every morning when she gets up. Lucy is quite disturbed at the beginning but after a short period of time, she adjusts to this new reality and keeps going on with her day (Segal, 2004). One very common treatment for those who have anterograde amnesia is keeping a diary. (Cherney, 2017). This is mirrored in 50 first dates as every night Lucy writes in her diary to remember her adventures with Henry. Overall, 50 first dates is a quite accurate portrayal of someone with anterograde amnesia however, there are some faults in the movie. The first inaccuracy is the fact that most amnesia patients don’t have the luxury of a support system who can stop their own lives to devote all of their time exclusively to the patient. Second, Lucy allegedly has a form of amnesia called “Goldfield’s Syndrome.” (Segal,2004). This term is not an actual disease, as it was made up solely for the purpose of the film (Goodfriend, 2012). The film also refers to her disease as “short-term memory loss” nevertheless, it is incorrect due to the fact that there is nothing wrong with her short-term memory itself, rather the ability of the brain to encode the information into the long-term memory (Goodfriend, 2012). The reality of anterograde amnesia matches the film very closely, as anterograde amnesia is typically caused by an accident that damages the brain (Human-memory.net, 2018). In the film, Lucy has permanent brain damage due to her car accident. Essentially patients with anterograde amnesia are “stuck in time” they are unable to encode memories into their long-term memory and as a result, they believe that every day is the day the amnesia commenced, just like in the film (Cherney, 2017). Anterograde amnesia is a serious brain condition that decreases your ability to retain new information(Kasschau, 2001).The movie 50 first dates clearly illustrates the conditions of people who have been diagnosed with the disease, even though there are minor inaccuracies. Lucy wakes up everyday forgetting everything from the day before, however with the help of her diary and paintings, she starts dreaming about a mysterious man named Henry (Segal, 2004). References McLeod, S. A. (2011). Anterograde amnesia Retrieved from www.simplypsychology.org/anterograde-amnesia.html Kasschau, Richard A. (2001). Glencoe understanding psychology. New York, N.Y. :Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, Kristeen Cherney, 2017. Anterograde amnesia. Retrieved from https://www.healthline.com/health/amnesia/anterograde-amnesia Goodfriend,Wind 2012. Amnesia in '50 First Dates'. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/psychologist-the-movies/201212/amnesia-in-50-first-dates Human-memory.net 2018, The Human memory , Retrieved from http://www.human-memory.net/disorders_anterograde.html Segal, Peter. (Director). (2004). 50 First Dates. [Motion Picture]. United States: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Debasis, Sahu 2010, Short term memory loss or Anterograde Amnesia, Retrieved from https://www.biotecharticles.com/Biology-Article/Short-Term-Memory-Loss-Or-Anterograde-Amnesia-474.html
This learning lab served to help us better understand the different learning theories. Cayley and I trained a dog to smile on command using operant conditioning. We then analyzed our results and reflected on our findings.
Question: Is it possible to teach a dog to exhibit abnormal behaviour such as showing its teeth or “smiling” on command by using operant conditioning?
Background Information: Us both being dog owners are aware that dogs are capable of gaining new skills through the use of reinforcers. Operant conditioning is used on dogs on a daily basis as they are quick to grasp new information when they are rewarded. Operant conditioning is a learning process that attempts to modify behavior through the use of positive and negative reinforcement. Using operant conditioning, a person or animal makes associations between a particular behavior and a consequence (reinforcer.) Teaching dogs to perform basic skills like sitting down or giving the paw is quite effortless and expeditious, however, more complex maneuvers are slightly more difficult and time consuming. Training a canine to “smile” or show its teeth is quite challenging as a dog showing its teeth, is typically a measure of aggression. Hypothesis: With the use of positive reinforcers and a variable-interval schedule, over time, the dog will be able to “smile” on command Materials: - dog(s) - dog treats Method: 1. Obtain a dog and dog treats. 2. Make sure to ask the dog's owner for permission and you respect the APA and CPA ethic codes. 3. Bring the dog into a non distracting environment. 4. Begin when your dog is happy and relaxed. 5. Give the command “smile” in a happy high pitched voice. 6. Lift up the dog's upper lip to imitate a smiling expression. 7. Immediately reward and praise the dog. 8. Repeat steps 4-6 until desired behaviour is obtained without the use of reinforcement. 9. Congratulations your dog can “smile” on command! Data:
Results: Overtime we could see a progression in the dog’s understanding of the command “smile.” At the very beginning of the experimental week, the dog showed no sign of the desired response. Throughout the week the dog would begin to exhibit little signs of understanding that showing its teeth would lead to receiving a treat. On day 5 the dog was able to independently “smile” when given the command, and reinforcers were no longer needed.
Analysis: Based on operant conditioning principles, we can alter a dog’s behavior by adding or taking away a reward stimulus. As different stimuli have different effects on dog’s learning, we decided to use dog treats as our reward stimulus for this experiment. Dog treats are very effective when trying to teach a dog good behaviour or a trick. Using this reward stimuli allowed the idea of aggression to be suppressed for the dog. The desire for the treat overcame the dogs natural instincts to not show its teeth. Conclusion: Our experiment was able to prove our hypothesis to be correct. The dog was able to smile as a result of a command and reinforcement. Sources of Error: The test dog was easily distracted by another dog in the room. We could have been more efficient if we had separated the two from each other. The dog also ended up learning to smile with its mouth open instead of our intentions of it just showing its teeth. This was due to the fact that we began rewarding it when it would pant on our command. Questions for Further Investigation: - What other abnormal behaviours could be taught to a dog using operant conditioning? -Why was the dog’s learning gradual and not spontaneous? - What could happen if the experiment was run on a variable-ratio schedule? -Would the lab results be the same if negative reinforcement was used instead of positive reinforcement? -Would you be able to teach a dog to “smile” using classical conditioning? This mind map demonstrates the three theories of learning and how they are connected. I created this cognitive map using popplet. Cognitive Map of Learning Theories Assignment
1. Will there ever be any new learning theories discovered?
2. Could the dog we trained, still smile on command today? 3. Why do movies often portray mental illness differently then they really are? |