Ipsos and NEUROHM Roll Out Neuroscience Update

Ipsos and Warsaw-based consumer neuroscience specialist NEUROHM have announced an upgrade of the IRT system, which probes unconscious consumer associations and perceptions, and assesses their impact. NEUROHM will also now act as Ipsos' primary partner for IRT roll out.

Warsaw-based NEUROHM was founded in 1997 by Professor Rafal Ohme (pictured), who worked on the original reaction time testing method IAT (Implicit Association Test) while he was a Fulbright Scholar in the US. IRT (Implicit Reaction Time) determines the strength of respondents' unconscious conviction for things they say - such as liking of a product, perceptions of a brand, reactions to an ad, or intent to vote for a political candidate - based on calibrated reaction time.

Over the past two years, NEUROHM has collaborated with the Ipsos Neuroscience and Emotion Centre of Excellence to co-develop advanced methodologies in this area of reaction time research. The firms' 'next generation' IRT method is based on refined algorithms that calibrate individual response speeds and eliminate biasing variables. This, the firms say, is effective as a module embedded within more traditional surveys for providing an integrated perspective on both conscious and unconscious aspects of consumer response.

According to Henri Wallard, Deputy CEO of Ipsos: 'Implicit Reaction Time is a very effective way to capture the feeling and emotional reaction of people exposed to advertising, political situations, media content or brand experience. The faster consumers express a rating, the more emphatic they feel about the rating and with this enriched information we can provide our clients with better understanding and decision making.'

Web sites: www.ipsos.com and www.neurohm.com .