Studying human behavior can be a difficult task. Humans are unpredictable creatures and the world we inhabit has never been more complex. Trying to understand how and why we act in certain ways in such multifaceted environments is a challenge for psychologists and neuroscientists alike.
Fortunately, the tools and methods for studying human behavior have also never been more varied and incisive. While making conclusions about human behavior can be a complex analytical and interpretive task, the range of tools available means that researchers can at least choose the technology that best fits their needs, abilities, and budget level.
This is particularly important within the field of neuromarketing (or consumer neuroscience), as these factors can vary to a particularly large degree. Understanding what someone is looking at is a task that requires very different tools than the prediction of purchase behavior from brain activity, yet both are questions that are important for neuromarketing researchers.
Check out: The Top 5 Neuromarketing Research Studies
To help you choose the right kind of tools for the questions you want to ask, we’ve put together this cheat sheet to help you understand human behavior research methods at a glance.
The chart covers essential information that you need when deciding which neuromarketing method or technique is right for you.
The Chart
To get a full-size version of the chart, click here.
The chart above serves as a quick overview of some of the basic elements of these methods, but there is of course much more to each that isn’t covered here (such as the ability to measure approach or avoidance with EEG, for example). Further to this, specific needs can be much more critical to method choice than the overall sum of parts. If you need to look at the inner structure of the brain, then fMRI / MRI will have to be the choice for you, even if the other factors aren’t ideal.
The fact that each method offers something different to the user means that getting the greatest yield from these methods is achieved through combining them. Being able to know where someone is looking is made much more powerful if you can understand how physiologically aroused they are at the same time. The level of detail can increase with the right combination of sensors.
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If you’d like to read more about the methods that are commonly used in neuromarketing research, then download our free and comprehensive human behavior guide below, or reach out to learn more about our neuromarketing software solutions.
Free 52-page Human Behavior Guide
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