BABIN / HARRIS
CB
PART 2
CHAPTER 4
Comprehension, Memory,
and Cognitive Learning
©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Learning Outcomes
1. Identify factors that influence consumer comprehension.
2. Explain how knowledge, meaning, and value are inseparable
using the multiple store theory of memory.
3. Understand how the mental associations consumers develop
are key to learning.
4. Use the concept of associative networks to map relevant
consumer knowledge.
5. Apply the cognitive schema concept in understanding how
consumers react to products, brands, and marketing agents.
4-2
©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Components of Consumer
Information Processing
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Exposure
Attention
Comprehension
Elaboration
LO1
4-3
©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Comprehension
• Refers to the interpretation or
understanding that a consumer develops
about some attended stimulus in order to
assign meaning.
LO1
4-4
©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Comprehension
• Process is largely influenced by other
internal factors within the consumer.
• Includes both cognitive (thought) and
affective (feeling) elements.
• Consumer comprehension is not always
“correct.”
LO1
4-5
©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Factors Affecting Consumer
Comprehension
• Message characteristics
• Receiver characteristics
• Environmental characteristics
LO1
4-6
©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Characteristics of the Message
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LO1
Physical characteristics
• Intensity
• Color
• Font
• Numbers
• Spacing
Simplicity-Complexity
Message Congruity
Figure and Ground
Message Source
• Likeability
• Attractiveness
• Expertise
• Trustworthiness
4-7
©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Message Receiver Characteristics
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Intelligence/Ability
Prior knowledge
Involvement
Familiarity/Habituation
Expectations
Physical limits
Brain dominance
LO1
4-8
©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Environmental Characteristics
• Information intensity
• Framing
• Prospect theory
• Priming
• Timing
LO1
4-9
©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Multiple Store Theory of
Memory
• Views the memory process as utilizing
three different storage areas within the
human brain.
• Sensory memory
• Workbench (or “short-term”) memory
• Long-term memory
LO2
4-10
©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Sensory Memory
• The area in memory where the things that we
encounter with any of the five human senses
are stored.
• Preattentive—consumer has not yet allocated
attention to sensations.
• Unlimited capacity
• Storage methods:
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Iconic storage—visual information
Echoic storage—auditory information
• Short duration and perishable
LO2
4-11
©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Workbench Memory
• The storage area where information is stored and
encoded for placement in long-term memory, and
eventually, retrieved for future use.
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Encoding—process by which information is
transferred from workbench memory to long-term
memory for permanent storage.
Retrieval—process by which information is
transferred back into workbench memory.
• Limited capacity and duration
• Capacity depends on consumer’s involvement.
LO2
4-12
©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Mental Processes Help
Consumers “Remember” Things
• Repetition—rehearsal
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Problem: Cognitive interference
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Chunk = single memory unit
• Dual coding—two different sensory “traces”
are available to remember something.
• Meaningful encoding—pre-existing
knowledge is used to assist in storing new
information.
• Chunking—grouping stimuli by meaning so
that multiple stimuli can become a single
memory unit.
LO3
4-13
©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Long-Term Memory
•
A repository for all information that a person has
encountered
Unlimited capacity and duration
Semantic encoding—stimuli are converted to meaning
which can be expressed verbally.
Memory trace—the mental path by which some
thought becomes active.
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Spreading activation—cognitive activation spreads from
one concept to another.
Tag—a small piece of coded information that helps
that particular piece of knowledge get retrieved.
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LO3
Rumination
Nostalgia
4-14
©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Associative Network
• A network of mental pathways linking
knowledge within memory.
• Declarative knowledge—cognitive
components that represent facts.
• Nodes—represent concepts.
• Path—shows association between nodes.
LO4
4-15
©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Product & Brand Schemas
• Schema—a type of associative network
that works as a cognitive representation of
a phenomenon that provides meaning to
that entity.
• Exemplar—a concept within a schema that
is the single best representative of some
category.
• Prototype—characteristics most
associated with a concept.
LO5
4-16
©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Reaction to New
Products/Brands
• When consumers encounter new products
or brands, they react to them by
comparing them to the existing schema.
LO5
4-17
©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
More Terminology
• Script—a schema representing an event.
• Episodic memory—memory for past events in
one’s life.
• Social schemata—the cognitive representation
that gives a specific type of person meaning.
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Also known as social stereotype.
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Personal elaboration—person imagines himself
associating with a stimulus being processed.
• Elaboration—the extent to which one continues
processing a message even after an initial
understanding is achieved in the comprehension
stage.
LO5
4-18
©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.