Berkewitz & LeDoux:

On exposure to an external stimulus, the following three events may occur: (1) lowroad processes, centered in the limbic systems of the brain, that occur rapidly and may
give rise to low-road affective reactions; (2) high-road cognitive processes, involving
the cortical systems of the brain, systems believed to be involved in thinking, reasoning,
and consciousness, which strengthen or weaken low- road affective reactions; and (3)
high-road affective reactions, arising from the outcome of high-road cognitive
processes, that occur relatively slowly compared to low-road affective reactions.
Experiment 1
Design:
Two-factor between-subjects design.
High vs. Low available processing resources and Real vs. Symbolic presentation mode.
165 undergraduate students
2 rooms with a cart with snacks between them.
Methods:
Room 1: Instructions provided to the group, sheet of paper with instructions to the
second room and an envelop with index card containing a 2-digit or 7-digit number
where provided on exiting. One person at a time.
Cart: The snacks were only visible when standing in front of the cart. Snacks were
displayed in two transparent plastic containers both containing the same 1$ price
sticker.
Reproduction of the respective real snacks were tested (rated by respondents)
Vividness of presentation was tested (rated by respondents)
Room 2: Recall of the number. Several statements about Thoughts, Basic Decision (how
strong the choice was driven by affect instead of cognition), Intensity of Affectivity and
Cognition about consuming each snack were rated on a scale from 1 to 7. Finally
respondents were asked to indicate their gender, whether they were health-conscious
individuals, and whether they were cake and fruit-salad fanatics.
Results:
Manipulation Checks manipulations were successful
1. The cake was more affective in nature compared to the fruit salad when the
presentation mode was real and less so when it was symbolic.
2. The presentation mode manipulations influenced only respondents ratings of
the affective nature of the cake and not their cognitions about consuming the
cake.
3. Cognitions related to the cake were less favorable than those related to the fruit
salad.
Choice
1. Showing a picture instead of a real cake resulted in a reduction in the choice of
the cake.

2. When presentation mode was real, choice of cake was higher when the
availability of processing resources was low than when it was high.
3. When the presentation mode was symbolic, choice of the cake was not different
across the two processing resources conditions.

Decision Basis
1. When the level of processing was low, respondents rated their choice as having
been driven more by affect in the presentation mode real condition than in the
presentation mode symbolic condition.
2. When the presentation mode was real, respondents rated their choices as having
been driven more by affect in the low processing resources condition.
3. When the presentation mode was symbolic, the means on decision basis were not
different across the two processing resources conditions in the low and high
processing resources conditions

Discussion:
Choice of the chocolate cake was higher when processing resources were constrained
(by having respondents memorize a seven-digit number) than when the resources were
not constrained (i.e., when respondents memorized a two-digit number). However,
these results were obtained only when real alternatives were presented to respondents.
Also, in the low processing-resources conditions, changing the presentation mode from
real to symbolic by having photographs of the alternatives instead of the real
alternatives resulted in a reduction in the choice of the cake.

Respondents who were presented with the real alternatives indicated that their choices
had been influenced more by their affective reactions when processing resources were
constrained than when they were not. Further, when the presentation mode was
changed from real to symbolic by having photographs of the alternatives rather than the
real alternatives, the impact of affect on choice was reduced.
When real snacks were presented, respondents in both the low and the high processingresources conditions expressed similar affective reactions toward the chocolate cake
(which were more intense compared to the fruit salad). However, the results on
Decision Basis suggest that these affective reactions influenced respondents choices
more when the availability of processing resources was low than when it was high. In
other words, the results indicate that respondents who could allocate more processing
resources to the task also experienced affective reactions arising from the chocolate
cake but were better able to use their cognitions to avoid giving in to these affective
reactions compared to respondents who were unable to allocate sufficient processing
resources to the task.

We thought of influencing people unconsciously to make them buy more healthy foods.
We wanted to put healthy foods on tables in a supermarket to make them impulsive
buyers of healthy foods. However, healthy are not really affect-laden products, thus
there is a problem. How would you solve this pre
Familiarity is also related to the limbic system.
The articles are related to the chapters of the book.
Chapter 1: Conscious processing
Chapter 2: Unconscious processing
Concepts or concept related behavior is activated by a certain cue. This is called priming.
Processing resources: Capability of prefrontal cortex working.
Higher order processing -> Cognitive
Lower order processing -> Impulsive
Impulsive -> saving for immediate reward
Factor is the independent variable
A condition is an experimental group. 1 factor leads to 2 groups, 2 factors lead to 4
groups.