ABSTRACT
Scholars involved in the birth of media effects research investigated the phenomenon from the behaviorism perspective (Sparks, 2002). Behaviorism discounted any effort to investigate the inner workings of the mind and led to a very general conceptual definition of “receiver” as simply an individual to which a message is delivered (Chaffee, 1980). Fortunately, with the occurrence of the cognitive revolution in psychology, a subset of the field of media research recognized the importance of more specifically defining receiver as an individual
whose mind is actively engaged in information processing of a message (Geiger & Newhagen, 1993). EMC goes even further by more specifically articulating the nature of the mind engaged in information processing of a message. EMC has emerged from recent research in neuropsychology exploring how the brain produces the mental experiences that constitute the mind (Berntson & Cacioppo, 2008). The foundational theoretical assumption made about the nature of the mind under this framework is that the mind is an embodied phenomenon (Cacioppo, Tassinary, & Berntson, 2007). What this means is that mental experience-including advertising exposure-emerges from the ongoing physical activity of the brain. Put more directly, mental experience does not exist without the continuous physical activity of the brain-in essence, the mind is the brain, and the brain is the mind. The brain, through its connection with every part of the body via the nervous system, directs us as we negotiate our social environment. Along the way, it produces a continuous stream of mental experiences reaching varying levels of consciousness that include the mental experience of processing and responding to advertising. This leads to the conclusion that the key defining feature of a “receiver” is the fact that it is an individual consisting of an embodied mind that is engaged in real time interactions with brand messages delivered through advertising channels. The assumption that mental experience is embodied in the brain allows researchers to use psychophysiological measures of nervous system activity associated with brain processes to investigate how receivers of advertising mentally process such messages. The second theoretical proposition made about the nature of the mind within this framework is that the embodied mind is a motivated information processor (Lang, Bradley, & Cuthbert, 1997). This means that basic motivational processes implemented in the human brain drive information processing. The motivational system embodied in the brain is believed to consist of independent motivational subsystems referred to as the appetitive and aversive systems (Lang & Bradley, 2010). The appetitive system drives approach-related responses to environmental stimuli and is generally activated by information perceived as pleasant, while the aversive system drives defensive responses and is generally activated by unpleasant information (Lang & Bradley, 2008). An important feature of motivated processing is that activation of the appetitive and aversive systems can be reciprocal, coactive, or uncoupled (Cacioppo, Gardner, & Berntson, 1999). Reciprocal activation occurs when activation of one system decreases activation of the other; coactive activity occurs when there is an increase or decrease in activation of both systems; uncoupled activation results when activity in one system does not significantly affect activation of the other. Under the EMC perspective, motivational activation-the level of activity in the appetitive and aversive motivational systems-is a core defining feature of
information processing (Norris, Golan, Berntson, & Cacioppo, 2010). The fundamental task of the embodied mind is to determine the motivational relevance of stimuli encountered in our social environment and execute adaptive responses through motivational activation (Lang & Bradley, 2010). Adaptive responses include variation in the allocation of cognitive resources to memory, affective feelings, as well as the formation of attitudes and behavioral intentions (Yegiyan & Lang, 2010). EMC yields a unique explication of “receiver” as an individual with an embodied mind that motivationally processes brand messages delivered through advertising channels, forming memory representations of the brand and message, including affective feelings, attitudes, and behavioral intentions.
