NeuroIS Studies Research Articles

The interplay between emotion, cognition and information recall from websites with relevant and irrelevant images: A Neuro-IS study

Websites are increasingly used for information dissemination and web sites can include cues such as images that stimulate emotional responses in users and aid recall of information that can be utilized in decision making. However, these images may be more or less relevant in the context of the information provided. In such cases there is likely to be a complex interplay between users' emotional and cognitive responses and the degree of information recall. This study used event-related electroencephalography (EEG) to shed light on these inter-relationships. Images providing emotional cues influenced emotions and EEG responses and these responses were in turn related to the degree of information recall. Importantly, the study shows that the neural correlates of emotion vary depending on whether the emotion-inducing image is relevant to the information provided or not and that these correlates are significantly related to recall.

Research Commentary—NeuroIS: The Potential of Cognitive Neuroscience for Information Systems Research

This paper introduces the idea of drawing upon the cognitive neuroscience literature to inform IS research (herein termed “NeuroIS”). Recent advances in cognitive neuroscience are uncovering the neural bases of cognitive, emotional, and social processes, and they offer new insights into the complex interplay between IT and information processing, decision making, and behavior among people, organizations, and markets. The paper reviews the emerging cognitive neuroscience literature to propose a set of seven opportunities that IS researchers can use to inform IS phenomena, namely (1) localizing the neural correlates of IS constructs, (2) capturing hidden mental processes, (3) complementing existing sources of IS data with brain data, (4) identifying antecedents of IS constructs, (5) testing consequences of IS constructs, (6) inferring the temporal ordering among IS constructs, and (7) challenging assumptions and enhancing IS theories. The paper proposes a framework for exploring the potential of cognitive neuroscience for IS research and offers examples of potentially fertile intersections of cognitive neuroscience and IS research in the domains of design science and human-computer interaction. This is followed by an example NeuroIS study in the context of e-commerce adoption using fMRI, which spawns interesting new insights. The challenges of using functional neuroimaging tools are also discussed. The paper concludes that there is considerable potential for using cognitive neuroscience theories and functional brain imaging tools in IS research to enhance IS theories.