Cameo: Cognitive Scientist

It's all about a smarter way to sell, well, you name it: underwear, ketchup, detergent. Or, in Lisa Haverty's case, diet cranberry juice. Haverty is a cognitive scientist who works for Arnold, the ad agency based in Boston, where she is watching an ad for Ocean Spray, trying to decide if the crowd in the cranberry bog should be having a party or exercising - the better to get across the message that if you're dieting, add Ocean Spray diet cranberry juice to your menu. Haverty is a recent addition to the ad agency, working under the umbrella of its newly minted Department of Human Nature that draws upon neuroscience, sociology, psychology, and computer science to help figure out what makes people hit the "buy button." Except that there is no "buy button," Haverty said.

Even with neuroscience and MRI machines, it's not about finding the sweet spot but understanding and predicting the complex process the brain goes through when making the decision to purchase beer, brownies, or bras.

"You need to give the consumer more credit than think they'll buy something because we're correctly hitting a pattern of neurons," she said. Instead, Haverty offers fundamental insights about human behavior and thinking, looking at how people remember and pay attention to advertisements.

For Ocean Spray, Haverty helped revise a commercial to include a group of women who are exercising instead of a group of women having a party - to visually drive home the message of "diet drink." She works on other accounts as well. Haverty, who has a PhD in cognitive science from Carnegie Mellon University, has an academic background, working with artificial intelligence, educational software, and public policy. Her move to advertising came out of a desire to extend the applications of cognitive science beyond the borders of academia. Haverty's ability to translate "theory processing" and "knowledge representation" into plain English for copywriters, ad directors, and brand planners is what makes her so integral to ad campaigns.

Currently she is nursing a broken leg, which she snapped line dancing in Nashville while attending the Cognitive Science Society's annual meeting. Her desk has been cleared to make room for her leg, although it's still piled with scientific journals and books. The walls of her office are plastered with detailed medical charts of the brain and models of cognitive principles. A trendsetter in her field, Haverty said that she counsels others who are trying to carve out a similar niche.

"I tell them to look at their skill set. A lot of scientists don't realize they have skills relevant to the corporate world," she said. "They are self-motivated, independent workers, geniuses at data analysis, with good writing skills. These are all critical skills not easily found." A self-confessed "brainiac," Haverty has devoted herself to domination of the office ping-pong table, site of fierce games among employees needing a break.

At home, she has a "perfectly trained" border collie. But what about her co-workers?

"They're not as trainable as my dogs," she sighed.