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Election 2008: National Firm Will Measure Americans´ ´Real-Time´ Perceptions as They View Candidates´ Speeches and Debates

FLEMINGTON, N.J., Apr. 10 /PRNewswire/ --

FLEMINGTON, N.J., April 10 /PRNewswire/ -- HCD Research announced today that it will measure the emotions of Americans in real time as they view debates and speeches by presidential candidates throughout the upcoming 2008 election.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20071204/NYTU133LOGO )

The company will employ an enhanced version of its patent-pending HCD Critical Emotion Tracker(TM) tool to capture the emotions of study participants as they view a speech or candidates' responses during a debate on their laptops or home computers. Participants will register to participate by providing their party affiliation, and the emotional responses will be reported by political affiliation.

"Our Critical Emotion Tracker tool will allow the media to report responses from a cross-section of Americans in real time," explained Glenn Kessler, president and CEO, HCD Research.

As participants view a candidate's speech, they use their mouse to indicate their levels of positive or negative emotions based on a scale. Their real-time responses are displayed on the screen in the form of graphs. Extreme emotional responses can be replayed to participants at the conclusion of the speech. The system also queries participants to determine the reasons for their responses.

The prototype of the HCD Critical Emotion Tracker was used to measure the emotions of voters as they viewed Senator John Kerry's acceptance speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. The participants' emotions are also measured using the Ayer Emotion Battery, a validated research methodology used to evaluate advertising.

A leader in advanced communications research, the company began using web-based tools in 1996, to conduct studies for major companies in various market segments.

The results of the company's consumer research and political ad testing have been featured on NBC, CNN, Fox News, U.S. News & World Report, The Wall Street Journal, ESPN, Associated Press and Reuters, among other U.S. and international media outlets.

Headquartered in Flemington, NJ, HCD Research has performed communications research for clients in the financial, food and beverage, publishing, politics and entertainment industries. For additional information on the company's consumer studies go to: www.mediacurves.com or research services go to: .