From electrode to neuromarketing

1861

Speech centre in the brain discovered by Paul Broca

1875

Beginnings of electroencephalography (EEG) – Richard Caton registers direct electric signals from animals’ brains

1890

Phenomenon of desynchronization of cerebral electric activity on response to stimuli discovered by Napoleon Cybulski and Adolf Beck, Polish world-famous EEG pioneers

1904

Discovery of neuron (Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Nobel Prize winner) – modern studies of cerebral structure start

1909

First map of mental functions – Korbinian Brodmann marks 52 areas of cerebral cortex

1924

First measurement of human brain electric activity with EEG (Hans Berger)

1927

Walter Cannon, later discoverer of homeostasis, marks brain regions responsible for feeling and expression of emotions ( thalamus and hypothalamus respectively)

1929

Karl Lashley undermines the Theory of Strict Cerebral Localization

1934

Another brain map of mental functions (Karl Kleist)

1937

Neuronal road responsible for cortical control of emotions and memory discovered (Papez circuit)

1939

First successful operation of commisurotomy, i.e. chirurgical separation of cerebral hemispheres (William Van Wagenen and R. Yorke Hercen)

1946

Magnetic resonance phenomenon discovered by Felix Bloch and Edward Purcell – neuroimagining (MRI) studies start

1949

Cells that fire together, wire together – synaptic mechanism described by Donald Hebb in The Organisation of Behaviour – set up of the modern brain functioning model

1951

Wilder Penfield stimulates cerebral cortex to evoke sounds and images gathered in subjects memory – another brain map

1957

David Hubel designs electrode that enables to stimulate single neuron

1972

First Rentgen computer tomograph

1975

Richard Ernst, Nobel Prize winner, presents technology that revolutionize MRI (phase and frequency coding)

1980

Robert Zajonc publishes crucial article Feeling and Thinking: Preferences Need No Inferences which proves division between cognitive and affective systems with the priority of the later

1986

Neurobiological evidence of the affect over cognition precedence – Joseph LeDoux (NY University) finds neuronal road between thalamus and amygdale

2000

Neuromarketing term first usage (Ale Smidts, University of Rotterdam)

2003

1/ Twelve neuromarketing centers in the world

2/ Gerald Zaltman (Harvard Business School) publishes How Consumers Think – scientific basis for neuromarketing

2004

1/ Pepsi Challenge: results of fMRI research – taste activates reward system while brand activates prefrontal cortex and hippocampus both responsible for self-evaluation (Read Montague, Baylor College of Medicine)

2/ Neuromarketing research for Daimler Chrysler – attractive cars stimulate the same men’s cerebral area as faces

2007

1/ LAB – first neuromarketing institute in Central and Eastern Europe – is set up in Warsaw, Poland

2/ Exploring Consumers Mind Project – Emotion, Attention, Memory: first widespread neuromarketing research in Poland

2008

1/ „Neuromarketing & Sub-Consciousness” conference in Sopot, Poland: 160 marketers and scientists from all around Europe discuss neuromarketing perspective

2/ Martin Lindstrom gathers up crowd on the Warsaw seminar “BRANDscan: how the brain reacts to brand”

Laboratories

1875

Harvard University: first psychological atelier in the world (William James)

1879

University of Leipzig: first European laboratory of experimental psychology (Wilhelm Wundt) – this date is often considered as the set up of scientific psychology

1903

Jagiellonian University in Krakow: first laboratory of experimental psychology in Eastern Europe (Władysław Heinrich)

1907

University of L’viv: Kazimierz Twardowski’s laboratory

1910

University of Warsaw: Edward Abramowski’s studio

2007

LAB, Warsaw: first neuromarketing institute in Central and Eastern Europe (Rafał K. Ohme)

What about Poland?

1890

Napoleon Cybulski and Adolf Beck, Polish world-famous EEG pioneers, discover phenomenon of desynchronization of cerebral electric activity on response to stimuli

1903

Jagiellonian University in Krakow: first laboratory of experimental psychology in Eastern Europe (Władysław Heinrich)

1907

1/ University of L’viv: Kazimierz Twardowski’s laboratory

2/ Polish Psychological Association is formed

1910

University of Warsaw: Edward Abramowski’s psychological laboratory

1925

First Polish handbook of psychology (Władysław Witwicki)

1928

1/ Jerzy Konorski and Stefan Miller discover secondary conditional reflexes

2/ First Polish book on pedagogical psychology (Stefan Baley)

1930

First issue of Kwartalnik Psychologiczny (Psychological Quarterly)

1935

Kurt Lewin, Polish territory born German psychologist, sets up theory of personality (interaction model) – the beginnings of social psychology

1952

First issue of Przegl¹d Psychologiczny (Psychological Review)

1955

Famous experiment of Warsaw-born American psychologist Salomon Asch proves individual's strong inclination to subordinate the group

1963

Tadeusz Tomaszewski Function Theory leads the way to development of cognitive approach in world’s psychology

1968

1/ Robert Zajonc, Polish-born American psychologist, finds mere exposure effect: the more often you see something, the more you like it

2/ Experimental psychology of emotions, a book by Janusz Reykowski, opens a new chapter in Polish school of personality and emotions psychology

1980

Robert Zajonc publishes crucial article Feeling and Thinking: Preferences Need No Inferences which proves division between cognitive and affective systems with the priority of the later

1993

Affect, Cognition and Awareness: Affective Priming with Optimal and Suboptimal Stimulus Exposures – article by Sheila Murphy and Robert Zajonc – developed model of affective processes

1995

Implicit Social Cognition: Attitudes, Self-Esteem, and Stereotypes – article by Anthony Greenwald (University of Washington) and Mahzarin Banaji (Yale Univeristy) translated into Polish by Rafał K. Ohme in the same year – studies of implicit attitudes and stereotypes start in the US and Poland

1999

1/ Rafał K. Ohme is the first one to replicate Zajonc’s study

2/ Studia Psychologiczne (Psychological Studies) – prestigious Polish magazine spares whole issue for methodology of implicit affective information processing studies

2000

First Polish conference on automatisms: Automatisms in information processing

2001

1/ Janusz Reykowski, Maria Jarymowicz, Rafał.K. Ohme (red.): Automatisms in Information Processing

2/ Second Polish conference on automatisms: Nature of automatisms

3/ Studia Psychologiczne – prestigious Polish magazine spares whole issue for studies of implicit social cognition

2002

1/ Maria Jarymowicz, Rafał K. Ohme (red.): Nature of Automatisms. Interdisciplinary Discussions

2/ Third Polish conference on automatisms: Automatisms – new perspectives

2003

1/ Maria Jarymowicz, Rafał K. Ohme (red.): Automatisms in Mental Regulation: New Perspectives

2/ Rafał K. Ohme: Subliminal Mimic Information

2004

Dominika Maison: Implicit Consumer Attitudes: Analysis of IAT Method Practical Usage

2005

Dariusz Doliñski (“Polish Robert Cialdini”) publishes Techniques of Social Influence

2007

1/ LAB, Warsaw: first neuromarketing institute in Central and Eastern Europe (Rafał K. Ohme)

2/ Rafał K. Ohme (red.): Unconscious Affect

2008

1/ „Neuromarketing & Sub-Consciousness” conference in Sopot, Poland: 160 marketers and scientists from all around Europe discuss neuromarketing perspective

2/ Martin Lindstrom gathers up crowd on the Warsaw seminar “BRANDscan: how the brain reacts to brand”

Implicit mind

1899

Sigmunt Freud publishes The Interpretation of Dreams – cornerstone of studies of sub-consciousness

1904

Ivan Pavlov presents first results of his studies of conditional reflexes – organisms react automatically and unintentionally to some stimuli

1913

Idea of behaviorism (John Watson) – critic of introspection as a method of mind studies (behaviorism suggests to limit the researches to observation of behavior)

1968

Robert Zajonc, Polish-born American psychologist, finds mere exposure effect: the more often you see something, the more you like it

1977

1/ Fundamental attribution error notion introduced by Lee Ross – people tend to see another person's behavior rather as revealing a particular attitude (inner and constant categories) than as a response to situational demands

2/ Richard Nisbett and Timothy Wilson prove that people don’t know the basis of their decisions (Telling more than we can know: Verbal Reports on Mental Processes)

1980

Robert Zajonc publishes crucial article Feeling and Thinking: Preferences Need No Inferences which proves division between cognitive and affective systems with the priority of the later

1985

Distinction between implicit and explicit memory made by Daniel Schacter (University of Arizona) and Peter Graf (University of British Columbia)

1993

1/ Arthur Reber (City University of NY) conducts the most important of his experiments that prove the ability of implicit learning and knowledge usage

2/ Affect, Cognition and Awareness: Affective Priming with Optimal and Suboptimal Stimulus Exposures – article by Sheila Murphy and Robert Zajonc – developed model of affective processes

1994

Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain – first book of Antonio Damasio’s trilogy that shows illusion of Descartes’ psychosomatic dualism idea: mind, brain and body function together

1995

Implicit Social Cognition: Attitudes, Self-Esteem, and Stereotypes – article by Anthony Greenwald (University of Washington) and Mahzarin Banaji (Yale Univeristy) translated into Polish by Rafał K. Ohme in the same year – studies of implicit attitudes and stereotypes start in the US and Poland

1997

Theory of automatisms by John Bargh (New York University): people’s behavior – not only simple reactions – is often unwitting, impulsive, and instant

1998

Implicit Association Test invented by Anthony Greenwald (University of Washington) and Mahzarin Banaji (Yale Univeristy) – still a leading method of implicit attitudes studies

1999

Rafał K. Ohme is the first one to replicate Zajonc’s study

2001

The Hidden Power of Advertising by Robert Heath undermines the traditional view on how people process brand communication

2002

Nobel Prize for Daniel Kahneman (Princeton University) for psychological theory of decisive processes in uncertainty situations: even the most important decisions are biased by heuristic errors

2006

Ap Dijksterhuis (University of Amsterdam) proves that in certain situations automatic decisions lead to better results than reflexive ones

Social influence

1955

Famous experiment of Warsaw-born American psychologist Solomon Asch proves individual's strong inclination to subordinate the group

1963

Drastic experiment of Stanley Miligram proves strong susceptibility to subordinate authorities

1971

Drastic experiment of Philip Zimbardo (Stanford University) show that individual’s behaviour is strongly influenced by situation (external conditions)

1985

Influence. Science and Practice bestseller by Robert Cialdini – clear description of persuasion mechanisms

2005

Dariusz Doliñski (“Polish Robert Cialdini”) publishes Techniques of Social Influence

Memory, Perception, and Cognition

1885

Hermann von Ebbinghaus starts the experiments on memory that will lead him to devise the forgetting curve that illustrates the decline of memory retention in time: we forget most information just after the contact with material

1917

Revolution in theory of cognition – animals solve problems not only through learn-and-error method but also through insights (results of Wolfgang Köhler’s four-year studies of chimps)

1938

Alan Turing devises abstract machine capable of performing any conceivable mathematical problem – Turing point in Artificial Intelligence Theory

1943

Colossus – first computer constructed by Max Newman and T.H. Flowers

1949

1/ Cells that fire together, wire together – synaptic mechanism described by Donald Hebb in The Organisation of Behaviour – set up of the modern brain functioning model

2/ Idea of perception revised – Jerome Bruner and Leo Postman’s researches prove that perception is rather an act of reconstruction than reproducing

1956

1/ The magical numer seven found by George Miller – working memory is limited to 7±2 elements

2/ Theory of Cognitive Dissonance presented by Leon Festinger

1958

Cognition Filter Model – so called single canal hypothesis (Daniel Broadbent, Perception and Communication)

1968

Robert Zajonc, Polish-born American psychologist, finds mere exposure effect: the more often you see something, the more you like it

1976

Manifesto of cognitive science (Allen Newell, Herbert Simon)

1977

Fundamental attribution error notion introduced by Lee Ross – people tend to see another person's behavior rather as revealing a particular attitude (inner and constant categories) than as a response to situational demands

1980

Robert Zajonc publishes crucial article Feeling and Thinking: Preferences Need No Inferences which proves division between cognitive and affective systems with the priority of the later

1985

Distinction between implicit and explicit memory made by Daniel Schacter, University of Arizona, and Peter Graf, University of British Columbia

1993

Arthur Reber (City University of NY) conducts the most important of his experiments that prove the ability of implicit learning and knowledge usage

1994

Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain – first book of Antonio Damasio’s trilogy that shows illusion of Descartes’ psychosomatic dualism idea: mind, brain and body function together

2002

Nobel Prize for Daniel Kahneman (Princeton University) for psychological theory of decisive processes in uncertainty situations: even the most important decisions are biased by heuristic errors

2006

Ap Dijksterhuis (University of Amsterdam) proves that in certain situations automatic decisions lead to better results than reflexive ones

Other important events

1870

Jean Martin Charcot uses hypnosis to induce a state of hysteria in patients of Salpetriere hospital – set up of modern psychiatry

1878

The Principles of Psychology by William James: key notions of psychology, for instance, stream of consciousness, self-consciousness, will, emotions

1894

L'année psychologique – first psychological bulletin

1905

First IQ test (Binet-Simon’s intelligence scale)

1912

1/ Gestalt Theory invented – Max Wertheimer publishes article on phi effect (illusion caused by two blinking points)

2/ Intelligence quotient (IQ) notion introduced by William Stern

1920

1/ Alfred Adler founds the school of individual psychology

2/ Floyd Henry Allport’s studies of conformism

1921

1/ Carl Gustav Jung, founder of analytical psychology, introduces the notion of archetype (Psychologische Typen)

2/ Hermann Rorschach develops famous projective test still used to diagnose mental disorders

1934

Lew Wygotsky presents paper The Problem of Development and Disintegration of High Mental Functions

1937

Karen Horney states that neurosis is caused by frustration of the safety need (The Neurotic Personality of our Time)

1938

Holistic behavioral theory presented by Burrhus Skinner

1939

Modern intelligence scale invented by David Wechsler

1941

Erich Fromm publishes Fear of Freedom that soon becomes world’s bestseller

1947

1/ Prosopagnosis, a disorder of face recognition, discovered by Joachim Bodamer

2/ Intro- and extraversion dichotomy developed by Hans Jurgen Eysenck in Dimensions of Personality

1954

Hierarchy of Human Needs Theory – the so called Maslow’s pyramid – elaborated (Abraham Maslow, Motivation and Personalisty)

1956

Heinz Kohut presents revolutionary paper on empathy

1957

1/ Naom Chomsky in Syntactic Structures postulates grammar is an innate human ability and syntax is not a fundamental language structure – revolution in linguistics

1958

Lawrence Kohlberg presents important paper on the concept of ethic human development

1963

Theory of social development by Erik Erikson

1971

So called Jigsaw Classroom experiment conducted by Elliot Aronson: traditional learning model reinforces stereotypes and race prejudices