On this page, you will find additional e-book and journal title recommendations related specifically to the media neuroscience certificate. You will also find a walkthrough of a sample search related to a media neuroscience topic. The walkthrough will explain choosing terms, building a search, narrowing your results, and advanced search strategies.
The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Neuroscience by
This volume examines the current state-of-the art in cognitive neuroscience. It is comprised of four sections. The first section explores perception and covers topics ranging from the use of top-down cognitive processes in visual perception to the representation and recognition of objects and spatial relations. The second section deals with attention and its relationship to action as well as visual motor control. The third section focuses on memory and addresses topics such as working memory, semantic memory, and episodic memory. Finally, the fourth section examines language and related core abilities including semantics, speech perception and production, the distinction between linguistic competence and performance, and the capacity for written language.
Neuromarketing in Action by
The authors showcase the latest thinking on brain function and intelligence, and the subconscious influences on consumer behavior, referencing global brands such as Chanel, Lacoste, Amazon and Nike. In addition, they examine the ways in which marketing efficiency can be improved through the satisfaction of the customer's senses, emotions, memory and conscience - both in terms of current marketing activity (selling methods, sensory marketing, product modification) and potential future developments (value innovation, sensory brands, increased interaction with social networks and permission marketing).
Brainfluence by
Brainfluence explains how to practically apply neuroscience and behavior research to better market to consumers by understanding their decision patterns. This application, called neuromarketing, studies the way the brain responds to various cognitive and sensory marketing stimuli. Analysts use this to measure a consumer's preference, what a customer reacts to, and why consumers make certain decisions. With quick and easy takeaways offered in 60 short chapters, this book contains key strategies for targeting consumers through in-person sales, online and print ads, and other marketing mediums.
Critical Neuroscience by
Critical Neuroscience: A Handbook of the Social and Cultural Contexts of Neuroscience" brings together leading scholars in a collective effort to understand the impact of the intellectual, economic and political conditions on current views of the brain, and how these models may in turn impact society. The editors create an interdisciplinary forum, within which contributors engage in fruitful debate about the potential of tools, the complexities of data interpretation and the social, political and cultural context of neuroscience research.
Journal: Behavioral Neuroscience
Database: PsycARTICLES
Full-Text Access: From 1983 - Present
Journal: Journal of Neuroscience Research
Database: Wiley
Full-Text Access: From 1996 - Present
Journal: Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
Database: PubMed Central
Full-Text Access: From 2006 - 1 year ago
Use the tabs in this box to walk through a sample search query. This is meant to give you some ideas of how you can use our databases to search for materials, refine your results, and access items of interest.
Step 1: Choose where to search
You saw some great resource suggestions on the previous pages of this guide. You can either choose to search in a subject-specific database related to media psychology, or you can begin in FASTsearch. Remember, FASTsearch searches through most of our database content at once, so it will usually take some refining to narrow in on the items you want.
For this sample search we will use PsycINFO, a database from ProQuest. To connect, first follow the 'databases' link on the main library website:
Then choose 'PsycINFO' (or whichever resource you prefer) from the alphabetical list.
Before plugging in search terms, it can be a good idea to brainstorm some synonyms for the terms you plan to use. For example, imagine you are researching neuromarketing and social media. Try jotting down a few alternative ways to describe each of your terms:
Social Media Neuromarketing
online social networks advertising
Twitter public relations
Facebook marketing
Thinking of synonyms before-hand will let you find more results which are still relevant to your topic. You can always discover additional search language by looking at the keywords and subject headings used to describe the articles you find most useful.
You will usually want to use the 'Advanced Search' page (databases and FASTsearch have advanced search features). The advanced page will give you more control over your search, increasing your chances of finding relevant results.
You can either use the pre-built structure in the database to enter your terms, or you can enter them all in one line. We'll show an example of each.
Pre-Built Structure
This strategy is particularly useful if you want to specify different search fields (i.e. author, title, abstract, etc.) for your terms:
Single Line
You can use this strategy if you're looking for all of your terms in the same field. When you start to use more advanced techniques, searching in a single line becomes a bit like building a math equation. Some researchers enjoy this strategy while others will prefer using set structures.
Sample Results
This search returned 346 results total of various formats. Here's a screenshot of some of the scholarly articles returned:
Most databases, including FASTsearch, will provide options to narrow your results on the left side of the screen. Some of the most common ways to filter results are to limit to a certain content type (such as scholarly journals) or to limit to a certain date range if necessary:
There are also more advanced filtering options. You may want to spend a little time getting familiar with these other filters and seeing how they can improve your results. Of particular note are the 'Subject' and 'Classification' filters. If you click on the link to 'more options' you can select multiple items from these lists to include or exclude in your search, which is a quick way to target those items most relevant to your research:
You may have noticed that we enclosed the term "social media" in quotation marks in our sample search. This is one of many quick search tips, called 'phrase searching', which can dramatically alter the results you find. This is a brief run-down of a few other tips, but we would recommend checking out either our Quick Tip Videos blog page or our Library Research Methods guide for full details.
Phrase Searching
Enclose multi-word search terms in quotation marks to find exact phrases. Example: "social media". If you do not enclose phrases in quotes, the database simply assumes you are looking for both terms, but it does not know you wish to find them together in a certain order.
Truncation
Use an asterisk at the end of a root word to find multiple endings. You will place the asterisk at the point at which you may start seeing variation. For example: advertis*. This search would return results such as: advertising, advertisements, advertisement, etc.
Proximity Search
Find terms physically near each other in a record without specifying their order. Different databases use different syntax so check their help features. In ProQuest, you build a proximity search by connecting your terms with a capital 'N', a forward slash, and then a number representing how close together you want to find the terms.
For example: Facebook N/3 advertis*
This search specifies that I would like to find the term 'Facebook' within three words of a version of the term 'advertis*'. Some sample results from this search include things like:
***It's important to remember that this search function only specifies how close you find the words, but not the context. It will be highly useful for some searches and may not be helpful for others, so you will only want to use it in some cases.
Nesting
Remember those synonyms we brainstormed earlier? Nesting is a strategy that will allow you to search for multiple synonyms in one go so you don't have to run as many searches. To nest terms, you will enclose them in parentheses and separate them using the operator 'OR'.
For example: ("social media" OR "online social networks" OR Twitter OR Facebook")
The database knows that it can find any one of those terms to bring back a match.
**Note, you will almost always nest terms and add in additional keywords. You can see this in the image below:
