CB Chapter 4: comprehension, memory, and cognitive learning

3 factors that influence consumer comprehension:

1. communication environment 2. message receiver 3. message

5 message characteristics:

1. congruity 2. figure and ground 3. source 4. physical characteristics (intensity, background, font, shape) 5. simplicity-complexity

4 environmental characteristics:

1. information intensity 2. framing 3. priming 4. timing

4 mental processes that help consumers remember things:

1. repetition 2. dual coding 3. meaningful encoding 4. chunking

zeitgeist

The way time or age influences the interpretation of things is sometimes called

schema

a *portion* of an associative network that *represents a specific entity* and thereby provides it with meaning

nostalgia

a *yearning to relive* the past that can produce lingering emotions

Framing

a phenomenon in which the meaning of something is *influenced* (perceived differently) *by* the information *environment*

information intensity

amount of info available for a consumer to process *within a given environment*

social stereotype

another word for social schema

sensory memory

area in memory where a consumer stores things exposed to one of the *five senses*

dual coding

coding that occurs when *two different sensory traces* are available to remember something

meaningful encoding

coding that occurs when info from long-term memory is placed on the workbench and *attached to* the info on the workbench in a way that the information can be *recalled and used later*

declarative knowledge

cognitive components that represent *facts*

priming

cognitive process in which context or environment *activates concepts* and frames thoughts and therefore *affects both value and meaning*

social schema

cognitive representation that gives a specific type of person meaning

exemplar

concept within a schema that is the single best representative of some category; schema for something that really exists

Nodes

concepts found in an associative network

signal theory

explains ways in which communications convey meaning *beyond* the explicit or obvious interpretation

elaboration

extent to which a consumer *continues processing a message* even after an initial understanding is achieved

Message congruity

extent to which a message is *internally consistent* and fits surrounding info

credibility

extent to which a source is considered to be both an *expert in* a given area and *trustworthy*

Trustworthiness

how honest and unbiased the source is perceived to be

metaphor

in a consumer context, an ad claim that is *not literally true* but *figuratively communicates* a message

haptic perception

interpretations created by the way some object *feels*

adaptation level

level of a stimulus to which a consumer has become *accustomed*

iconic storage

memory and the idea that things are stored with a *one-to-one representation* with reality

episodic memory

memory for *past events* in one's life

associative network

network of *mental pathways linking knowledge* within memory; sometimes referred to as a semantic network

figure-ground distinction

notion that each message can be *separated into* the *focal* point (figure) *and* the *background* (ground)

cognitive interference

notion that everything else that the consumer is *exposed to while trying to remember* something is also vying for processing capacity and thus interfering with memory and comprehension

figure

object that is intended to *capture* a person's *attention*, the *focal part* of any message

PMG

price matching guarantee

habituation

process by which *continuous exposure* to a stimulus affects the comprehension of, and response to, the stimulus

Retrieval

process by which information is *transferred back into workbench memory* for additional processing when needed

encoding

process by which information is *transferred from workbench memory to long-term memory* for *permanent* storage

personal elaboration

process by which people imagine themselves somehow associating with a stimulus that is being processed

Chunking

process of *grouping stimuli by meaning* so that multiple stimuli can become one memory unit

Memory

psychological process by which *knowledge is recorded*

brain dominance

refers to the phenomenon of *hemispheric lateralization*. Some people tend to be either right brain- or left brain-

Long-term memory

repository for *all info* that a person has encountered

paths

representations of the association *between nodes* in an associative network

script

schema representing an event

prototype

schema that is the *best representative* of some category but that is not represented by an existing entity; conglomeration of the most associated characteristics of a category

consumer perception process

sensing, organizing, reacting

Repetition

simple mechanism in which a thought is kept alive in short-term memory by mentally repeating the thought

chunk

single memory unit

tag

small piece of coded info that helps with the retrieval of knowledge

Workbench, or working, memory

storage area in the memory system where information is *stored while being processed and encoded* for later recall

Echoic storage

storage of *auditory* info in *sensory memory*

social identity

the idea that one's *individual* identity is *defined in* part by the *social groups* to which one belongs

golden section

the preferred ratio of objects, equal to 1.62 to 1.00

comprehension

the way people cognitively assign meaning to (i.e., *understand*) things they encounter

multiple store theory of memory

theory that explains memory as *utilizing three different storage areas* within the human brain: sensory, workbench, and long-term

Prospect theory

theory that suggests that a decision, or argument, can be *framed in different ways* and that the framing affects risk assessments consumers make

counterarguments

thoughts that *contradict* a message

semantic coding

type of coding wherein *stimuli* are converted to *meaning* that can be *expressed verbally*

Figurative language

use of expressions that send a *nonliteral meaning*

spreading activation

way cognitive activation spreads from one concept (or node) to another

Construal level

whether or not we are thinking about something using a *concrete or abstract mindset*

expertise

*amount of knowledge* that a source is perceived to have about a subject

ground

*background* in a message

memory trace

*mental path* by which some thought becomes active

Expectations

*preconsumption beliefs* of what will occur during an exchange and consumption of a product

response generation

*reconstruction of memory traces* into a formed representation of what they are trying to remember or process

physical characteristics

*tangible* elements or the parts of a message that can be *sensed*

Rumination

*unintentional but recurrent memories* of long-ago events that are spontaneously (not evoked by the environment) triggered

7 message receiver characteristics:

1) Intelligence/Ability 2) Prior Knowledge 3) Involvement 4) Familiarity/Habituation 5) Expectations 6) Physical Limits 7) Brain Dominance