The utility of arc length for continuous response measurement of audience responses to humour

Continuous response measures of viewers’ reactions to media stimuli have advantages over retrospective self-report measures (Poels & Dewitte, 2006). However, it is difficult to capture continuous measures using single numbers, such as the mean, velocity (the slope), peak, and area under the curve (Kahneman, 2000). Dynamic models are required to illuminate dynamic interactions between audio-visual presentations and audience responses so as not to lose the rich data that is otherwise lost in static measures aggregated over time (Wang, Lang, and Busemeyer, 2011). This is especially the case for humour, which results from a trajectory over time. First there is the set-up, then there is the pay-off. A mean that averages over both these phases is meaningless. In this article, we propose a new measure for characterizing continuous responses: arc length, which is a measure of the length of the curve, or the length of the journey that a measure undergoes during a certain time period

Unlocking the "reminder" potential when viewers pause programs : results from a laboratory test of a new online medium

The branded pause advertisement is a recently developed online television-advertising format that displays a full-screen still-image banner ad whenever a viewer pauses a streaming-video program. This study used a controlled lab experiment to compare the effectiveness of branded pause advertisements with normal online television advertisements. The results demonstrate that branded pause advertisements are effective but only when combined with a long-exposure advertisement for the same brand. Despite their short exposure time, pause advertisements function as effective reminders, building awareness through repeat exposure. The findings of the current study were similar regardless of whether pause advertisements were activated as a result of viewers’ pausing at a time of their own choosing or whether viewers were interrupted

Identification of Changes in Mean with Regression Trees: An Application to Market Research

In this article we present a computationally efficient method for finding multiple structural breaks at unknown dates based on regression trees. We outline the procedure and present the results of a simulation study to assess the performance of the method and to compare it with the procedure proposed by Bai and Perron. We find the tree-based method performs well in long series which are impractical to analyze with current methods. We apply these methods plus the CUSUM test to the market share of Crest toothpaste between 1958 and 1963.Identification of multiple structural breaks at unknown times, Time series analysis,

Effects of fetal antiepileptic drug exposure Outcomes at age 4.5 years

OBJECTIVE: To examine outcomes at age 4.5 years and compare to earlier ages in children with fetal antiepileptic drug (AED) exposure. METHODS: The NEAD Study is an ongoing prospective observational multicenter study, which enrolled pregnant women with epilepsy on AED monotherapy (1999–2004) to determine if differential long-term neurodevelopmental effects exist across 4 commonly used AEDs (carbamazepine, lamotrigine, phenytoin, or valproate). The primary outcome is IQ at 6 years of age. Planned analyses were conducted using Bayley Scales of Infant Development (BSID at age 2) and Differential Ability Scale (IQ at ages 3 and 4.5). RESULTS: Multivariate intent-to-treat (n = 310) and completer (n = 209) analyses of age 4.5 IQ revealed significant effects for AED group. IQ for children exposed to valproate was lower than each other AED. Adjusted means (95% confidence intervals) were carbamazepine 106 (102–109), lamotrigine 106 (102–109), phenytoin 105 (102–109), valproate 96 (91–100). IQ was negatively associated with valproate dose, but not other AEDs. Maternal IQ correlated with child IQ for children exposed to the other AEDs, but not valproate. Age 4.5 IQ correlated with age 2 BSID and age 3 IQ. Frequency of marked intellectual impairment diminished with age except for valproate (10% with IQ <70 at 4.5 years). Verbal abilities were impaired for all 4 AED groups compared to nonverbal skills. CONCLUSIONS: Adverse cognitive effects of fetal valproate exposure persist to 4.5 years and are related to performances at earlier ages. Verbal abilities may be impaired by commonly used AEDs. Additional research is needed