METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR ASSESSING PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS

• US 20110020778A1
• Filed: 08/31/2010
• Published: 01/27/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Forbes Consulting Group, LLC (Dentsu Group, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: The Forbes Consulting Group, LLC (Dentsu Group, Inc.)
• Inventors: Forbes, David L.
• Granted Patent: US 9,558,499 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 434/236
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/16 Devices for psychotechnics using teaching or educational appliances G09B1/00 - G09B7/00; Testing reaction times ; Devices for evaluating the psychological state
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/165 Evaluating the state of mind, e.g. depression, anxiety
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/167 Personality evaluation
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/378 Visual stimuli
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/436 using biological or physiological data of a human being, e.g. blood pressure, facial expression, gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06398 Performance of employee with respect to a job function
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0203 Market surveys; Market polls
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0242 Determining effectiveness of advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/175 Static expression
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/00 Electrically-operated teaching apparatus or devices working with questions and answers mechanically operated G09B3/00; computing arrangements G06F
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/20 for electronic clinical trials or questionnaires
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/70 relating to mental therapies, e.g. psychological therapy or autogenous training
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/70 for mining of medical data, e.g. analysing previous cases of other patients

Abstract

A method for assessing a pre-cognitive emotional response from a test subject, using responses obtained during the first moments of brain activity after presentation of a stimulus, includes exposing the test subject to a visual stimulus for between approximately 500 milliseconds and approximately 1 second, and receiving an input from the subject while the subject is exposed to the visual stimulus or within approximately 300 milliseconds after the subject is first exposed to the stimulus. The method further includes storing, in response to receiving the input, a user response that identifies one of a plurality of emotional reactions that is associated with the visual stimulus. Each of the exposing, receiving, and storing acts is repeated for a plurality of visual stimuli. The method further includes determining, based on each of the stored user responses, one or more dominant emotional characteristics of the subject.

Claims

1. A method for assessing psychological characteristics of a subject using responses obtained during the first moments of brain activity after presentation of a stimulus, the method comprising acts of:

providing a context to the subject;

exposing the subject to a visual stimulus for a first period of time of between approximately 500 milliseconds and approximately 1 second using a computer-implemented interface, the visual stimulus being selected by a processor from a plurality of visual stimuli stored in a database;

receiving, responsive to the act of exposing, an input from the subject using the computer-implemented interface, the input to be received within one of the first period of time and a second period of time of no longer than approximately 300 milliseconds immediately following the beginning of the first period of time, the input representing a pre-cognitive emotional reaction of the subject to the visual stimulus that is obtained during the first moments of brain activity after the act of exposing the subject to the visual stimulus;

storing, responsive to the act of receiving the input, a user response that represents the pre-cognitive emotional reaction of the subject to the visual stimulus;

repeating the acts of exposing, receiving, and storing for each of the plurality of visual stimuli; and

determining, based on each of the stored user responses, one or more dominant emotional characteristics of the subject in relation to the context.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the visual stimulus is associated with one of a plurality of specific emotional reactions that the visual stimulus is known to evoke pre-cognitively.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of exposing the subject to the visual stimulus includes selecting, by the processor, the visual stimulus randomly from the plurality of visual stimuli.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the context includes a stem sentence.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of determining the one or more dominant emotional characteristics is further based on a greatest number of stored user responses associated with the same one of the plurality of specific emotional reactions.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the user response includes a response time which is a period of time elapsed between the act of exposing the subject to the visual stimulus and the act of receiving the input from the subject.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising an act of determining a motivational profile of the subject based on the one or more dominant emotional characteristics of the subject, wherein each of the one or more dominant emotional characteristics of the subject are linked to one of a plurality of motivational characteristics within a motivational model.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the plurality of motivational characteristics includes security, empowerment, belonging, identity, engagement, nurturance, mastery, achievement, and esteem.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising an act of assessing a value of at least one of a product and a service with respect to the subject based on the motivational profile of the subject.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising an act of assessing a design of at least one of a product and a service with respect to the subject based on the motivational profile of the subject.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising an act of matching the subject, based on the motivational profile of the subject, with at least one of a product, a service, a job, an individual, and a group of individuals using a website.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising identifying, based on the motivational profile of the subject, an optimal advertisement to be presented to the subject.

3. The method of claim 3, wherein the user response further identifies the one of the plurality of specific emotional reactions that is associated with the visual stimulus.

14. A system for assessing psychological characteristics of a subject using responses obtained during the first moments of brain activity after presentation of a stimulus, the system comprising:

a computer having a processor, a memory coupled to the processor, a display coupled to the processor, and a user input device coupled to the processor;

a presentation component for serially presenting, on the display, a plurality of visual stimuli to a user, each of the plurality of visual stimuli to be presented for no longer than approximately 1 second, each of the plurality of visual stimuli being associated with one of a plurality of specific emotional reactions that the respective one of the plurality of visual stimuli is known to evoke pre-cognitively during the first moments of brain activity following presentation of the visual stimulus to the subject;

a response component for receiving, on the user input device, one or more inputs from the user, each of the one or more inputs to be received no later than approximately 800 milliseconds after the respective one of the plurality of visual stimuli have been presented to the user, each of the one or more inputs representing a pre-cognitive emotional reaction of the user to the respective one of the plurality of visual stimuli; and

an emotion assessment component for assessing one or more dominant emotional characteristics of the user based on each of the received one or more inputs.

15. The system of claim 14, further comprising a motive assessment component for assessing a motivational profile of the user based on the one or more dominant emotional characteristics of the user, wherein each of the one or more dominant emotional characteristics of the user are linked to one of a plurality of motivational characteristics within a motivational model.

16. The system of claim 15, further comprising a network interface coupled to the processor, wherein the network interface is used to communicate the motivational profile to a website provider.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the website provider is an e-commerce provider.

18. A computer readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions that when executed on a processor performs the acts of:

exposing a subject to a visual stimulus for a first period of time of between approximately 500 milliseconds and approximately 1 second using a computer-implemented interface, the visual stimulus being selected by the processor from a plurality of visual stimuli stored in a database, the visual stimulus being associated with one of a plurality of specific emotional reactions;

receiving, responsive to the act of exposing, an input from the subject using the computer-implemented interface, the input to be received within one of the first period of time and a second period of time of no longer than approximately 300 milliseconds immediately following the first period of time, the input representing a pre-cognitive emotional reaction of the subject to the visual stimulus that is obtained during the first moments of brain activity after the act of exposing the subject to the visual stimulus;

storing, responsive to the act of receiving the input, a user response that includes the one of the plurality of specific emotional reactions that is associated with the visual stimulus;

repeating the acts of exposing, receiving, and storing for the plurality of visual stimuli; and

determining, based on each of the stored user responses, one or more dominant emotional characteristics of the subject in relation to a context for assessing a psychological characteristic of the subject.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 18, wherein the computer-executable instructions further comprise an act of determining a motivational profile of the subject based on the one or more dominant emotional characteristics of the subject, wherein each of the one or more dominant emotional characteristics of the subject is linked to one of a plurality of motivational characteristics within a motivational model.