Hornik, Robert C

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  • Publication
    Online Supplementary Materials: Promising Themes for Antismoking Campaigns Targeting Youth and Young Adults
    (2017-01-01) Gibson, Laura; Brennan, Emily; Liu, Jiaying; Hornik, Robert C; Momjian-Kybert, Ani
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    Identifying Promising Campaign Themes to Prevent Youth Initiation of Electronic Cigarette Use
    (2016-12-01) Sangalang, Angeline; Volinsky, Allyson; Yang, Qinghua; Liu, Jiaying; Lee, Stella; Gibson, Laura A.; Hornik, Robert
  • Publication
    Using Theory to Design Evaluations of Communication Campaigns: The Case of the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign
    (2003-05-01) Hornik, Robert C.; Yanovitzky, Itzhak
    We present a general theory about how campaigns can have effects and suggest that the evaluation of communication campaigns must be driven by a theory of effects. The National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign illustrates both the theory of campaign effects and implications that theory has for the evaluation design. Often models of effect assume that individual exposure affects cognitions that continue to affect behavior over a short term. Contrarily, effects may operate through social or institutional paths as well as through individual learning, require substantial levels of exposure achieved through multiple channels over time, take time to accumulate detectable change, and affect some members of the audience but not others. Responsive evaluations will choose appropriate units of analysis and comparison groups, data collection schedules sensitive to lagged effects, samples able to detect subgroup effects, and analytic strategies consistent with the theory of effects that guides the campaign.
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    Matching With Doses in an Observational Study of a Media Campaign Against Drug Abuse
    (2001-12-01) Zanutto, Elaine; Hornik, Robert C; Lu, Bo; Rosenbaum, Paul R
    Multivariate matching with doses of treatment differs from the treatment-control matching in three ways. First, pairs must not only balance covariates, but also must differ markedly in dose. Second, any two subjects may be paired, so that the matching is nonbipartite, and different algorithms are required. Finally, a propensity score with doses must be used in place of the conventional propensity score. We illustrate multivariate matching with doses using pilot data from a media campaign against drug abuse. The media campaign is intended to change attitudes and intentions related to illegal drugs, and the evaluation compares stated intentions among ostensibly comparable teens who reported markedly different exposures to the media campaign.
  • Publication
    Communication as a Complement in Development
    (1980-06-01) Hornik, Robert C
    This article is a revised version of a paper produced as part of a review of Agency for International Development policy in communication undertaken by Stanford University's Institute for Communication Research for which Edwin Parker and the author were co-principal investigators. Others contributed heavily to earlier drafts of this paper and the background papers on which it was based (see 7, 8, 13, 14, 18). They include (in alphabetical order) Ronny Adhikarya, Eduardo Contreras-Budge, Dennis Foote, Douglas Goldschmidt, John Mayo, Emile McAnany, Jeanne Moulton, Jeremiah O'Sullivan, Edwin Parker, Everett Rogers, and Douglas Solomon. The "we" used in the text is neither royal nor editorial, but refers to some subset of the author and this list of contributors. The work was performed under contract ta-C-1472 with the Development Support Bureau (Office of Education and Human Resources) of USAID, and benefited from advice from Clifford Block, Anthony Meyer, and David Sprague of that office.
  • Publication
    The Best Laid Plans: Disappointments of the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign
    (2009-01-26) Hornik, Robert; Jacobsohn, Lela
    As part of its war on drugs, the U.S. government spent nearly $1 billion between 1998 and 2004 for the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign. The campaign had three goals: educating children and teenagers (ages 9 to18) on how to reject illegal drugs, preventing them from starting drug use, and convincing occasional users to stop. Analyzing the effects of this campaign is important not only for future funding decisions but also for more effective targeting of future efforts. This Issue Brief summarizes a Congressionally-mandated evaluation of the campaign’s effects on youths’ cognitions and behavior around marijuana use.
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    No Effect of Commercial Cognitive Training on Brain Activity, Choice Behavior, or Cognitive Performance
    (2017-08-02) Kable, Joseph W; Caulfield, Kathleen; Falcone, Mary K; McConnell, Mairead H; Bernardo, Leah; Audrain-McGovern, Janet; Parthasarathi, Trishala; Hornik, Robert; Cooper, Nicole; Ashare, Rebecca; Lerman, Caryn; Diefenbach, Paul J; Lee, Frank J
    Increased preference for immediate over delayed rewards and for risky over certain rewards has been associated with unhealthy behavioral choices. Motivated by evidence that enhanced cognitive control can shift choice behavior away from immediate and risky rewards, we tested whether training executive cognitive function could influence choice behavior and brain responses. In this randomized controlled trial, 128 young adults (71 male, 57 female) participated in 10 weeks of training with either a commercial web-based cognitive training program or web-based video games that do not specifically target executive function or adapt the level of difficulty throughout training. Pretraining and post-training, participants completed cognitive assessments and functional magnetic resonance imaging during performance of the following validated decision-making tasks: delay discounting (choices between smaller rewards now vs larger rewards in the future) and risk sensitivity (choices between larger riskier rewards vs smaller certain rewards). Contrary to our hypothesis, we found no evidence that cognitive training influences neural activity during decision-making; nor did we find effects of cognitive training on measures of delay discounting or risk sensitivity. Participants in the commercial training condition improved with practice on the specific tasks they performed during training, but participants in both conditions showed similar improvement on standardized cognitive measures over time. Moreover, the degree of improvement was comparable to that observed in individuals who were reassessed without any training whatsoever. Commercial adaptive cognitive training appears to have no benefits in healthy young adults above those of standard video games for measures of brain activity, choice behavior, or cognitive performance. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Engagement of neural regions and circuits important in executive cognitive function can bias behavioral choices away from immediate rewards. Activity in these regions may be enhanced through adaptive cognitive training. Commercial brain training programs claim to improve a broad range of mental processes; however, evidence for transfer beyond trained tasks is mixed. We undertook the first randomized controlled trial of the effects of commercial adaptive cognitive training (Lumosity) on neural activity and decision-making in young adults (N = 128) compared with an active control (playing on-line video games). We found no evidence for relative benefits of cognitive training with respect to changes in decision-making behavior or brain response, or for cognitive task performance beyond those specifically trained.
  • Publication
    Investing in Communication for Nutrition Related to Agriculture in Ethiopia
    (2015-08-01) Hornik, Robert; Naugle, Danielle; Trevors, Tanya