Chapter 4:

Memory and Cognitive

Learning

Consumer Behavior: A Framework

John C. Mowen
Michael S. Minor
Memory . . .

. . . affects the exposure,

attention, and comprehension
stages

. . . allows consumers to
anticipate the stimuli they might
encounter
Multiple-Store Model of
Memory

 Three different types of memory

storage:
 Sensory Memory

 Short-Term Memory

 Long-Term Memory
 Sensory memory happens in the
preattention stage where a stimulus is
briefly analyzed to determine if it will
receive additional processing.
 Short-term memory is where information is
temporarily stored while people are actively
processing it. Is like RAM in a computer.
 Long-term memory is connected to short-
term memory through encoding and
retrieval processes. Is like the disk drive in
a computer.
 Memory works like parallel processors.
 Encoding is the transfer of
information from short-term memory
to long-term memory for permanent
storage.
Retrieval is the process of accessing
information stored in long-term
memory so that it can be utilized in
short-term memory.
 Retrieval is a constructive process.

Information in ads received after

product experience can change the
perception of the experience.
Sensory Memory . . .

. . . consists of
firing of nerve
cells, short-term
in duration,
usually less than
a second.
Short-Term Memory. . .

. . . is the site where information is

temporarily stored while being
processed. Is also called working
memory.

 Rehearsal is silently repeating information to

encode it into long-term memory.
 If information in short-term memory is not
rehearsed it is lost within 30 seconds.
The Limited Capacity of
Short-Term Memory
 Miller’s Law is the recognition that people can
handle 7 (+/- 2) bits of information at a time.
 In consumer contexts, however, STM is closer to 5
+/- 2 bits of information.
 Information Overload describes the situation
in which more information is received than
can be processed in short-term memory.
 Well illustrated in XEROX 8200 case. Is a
major issue with engineers who know system
thoroughly and know little about customers.
Involvement & Short-Term
Capacity
 High involvement makes the consumer more
aroused and attentive, expanding the short-
term memory capacity to full 7 +/-2 bits.
(Caffeine has the same effect.)
 Low involvement tends to keep a consumer’s
arousal levels low so the consumer focuses
relatively little memory capacity on the
stimulus. Under low involvement, which is
common in CB contexts, capacity is at 5 +/1
bits.
Time Required to Transfer
Information Is Influenced
by . . .
. . . the consumer's
goal to either
recognize or recall a
task. It requires more
time to encode
information sufficiently
for a recall task.
Recognition and Recall
 Recognition tasks are when information is
placed before the consumer. The goal is to
determine if the information has been seen
before.
 Recall tasks are when the consumer must
retrieve the information from long-term
memory without any prompting. Requires
greater depth of encoding. Recall impacts the
size of the consideration set, which is the set
of product choices retrieved from memory that
are deemed satisfactory options.
Clutter is
when there
are too
many
stimuli
making
recall more
difficult.
Long-Term Memory

. . . has essentially unlimited capacity to

store information permanently.
 Stored information is either semantic or visual.
Semantic memory deals with the encoding
and storage of words and meanings. Visual
deals with the storage of images.
 Long term memory is essentially permanent.
 Relative Superiority of
Picture Versus Word

Memory
Visual images or pictures tend to be more
memorable than their verbal counterparts,
especially when there is low-involvement on
the part of the consumer.
 Words that have high-imagery content are
easier to encode and retrieve than words low
in imagery and concreteness.
 Words and pictures should be used to
complement each other in ads.
 Verbal material is better recalled in high
involvement conditions.
Memory-Control Processes
...
. . . are the methods
of handling
information which
may operate
consciously or
unconsciously to
influence the
encoding, placement,
and retrieval of
information.
 Retrieval and Response
Generation
 Response generation is when a person
develops a response by actively
reconstructing the stimulus.
Information received after exposure to a
stimulus (e.g., ads) can impact response
generation of the original stimulus.

 Retrieval cues create a response by

providing a means of assisting the
active reconstruction of the stimulus.
Consumer Knowledge . . .

. . . is the amount of experience with and

information a person has about particular
products or services.
 As knowledge increases, a consumer can
think about a product across a greater
number of dimensions and make finer
distinctions between brands.
 Three Types of
Knowledge:
 Objective knowledge is the correct
information about a product class that a
consumer has stored in long-term memory
 Subjective knowledge is the consumer’s
perception of what or how much he or she
knows about a product class.
 Knowledge of others is what information a
consumer knows about another.
How Do Consumers Gain
Knowledge?
 Cognitive Learning: process of
forming associations, solving
problems, and gaining insights.
 Learning Through Education.
Obtaining info from firms who are
trying to teach the consumer.
 Learning Through Experience.
Actual contact/use of products.
 Gestalt Theory of Cognitive
Knowledge

1+1= 3
Gestalt psychologists believe that biological
and psychological events do not influence
behavior
in isolation of each other.
 People perceive the inputs from the
environment as part of the total context.
 Focused on the active, creative nature of
learning and action.
 Key idea: whole is greater than sum of parts.
 Associationist
Approaches to
Cognitive Knowledge
 Serial learning concerns how people put into
memory and recall information that is received in
a sequential manner.
 Serial-position effect occurs when the order of
presentation of information in a list influences
recall of the information in the list.
 The S-P effect is the basis for the higher price
paid for book-end ads—I.e., ads at the beginning
and end of a commercial TV break.
 Serial Position Effect

Many

Trials
to
Learn

Few
early Late
Position
in series
Law of Contiguity

 Stimuli that are experienced together become

associated in memory—e.g., Nike-Tiger Woods.
Called paired associate learning.
 Some findings:
 Make pairs (I.e. stimulus-response words) easily
pronounceable, familiar, meaningful.
 Use visual images to link stimulus-response words
together.
 Remember: negative associations can occur
between product and another stimulus—attack
style political ads seek to create such
associations for opposing candidates.
Semantic Memory
Networks . . .
. . . refer to how people store the
meanings of verbal material in
long-term memory.
 Semantic memory is organized into
networks each of which is a series of
memory nodes that represent the
stored semantic concepts.
 Information is recalled via spreading
activation.
5 Types of Information Stored in
Nodes
 Types of information
 Brand names
 Brand’s characteristics/attributes
 Ads about brand
 Product category
 Evaluative (affective) reactions to the brand and
the ad.
 This information represents a consumer’s
brand knowledge—I.e., a brand node and
the associations in memory connected to it.
Measuring Semantic
Memory Networks
 Guided Associations
 Think of OSU (or your
university/college)
 What are the first three words or
images that come to mind. (e.g.,
cowboys, MBA program, sports)
 Select one of words (e.g., MBA), now
think of three words or images that you
associate with MBA program, etc.
 Semantic Memory
Network:
important for semiosis analysis.
OSU

Cowboys MBA Program Sports

Walt Garrison Football Jobs Academics B’ball Golf

Dallas Berry Sanders New job Best value Sutton Holder

Drugs Crime class money my daughter winning

Schemas . . .
. . . are organized sets of
expectations and associations about
an objects.
 When new information is inconsistent
with a schema, consumers engage in
more diligent processing and,
consequently, have improved memory
about the stimulus.
 Can derive from network analysis.
 Try to influence with communications.
Forgetting

People forget because

even though
information has been
placed in long-term
memory, it may be
extremely difficult to
retrieve. This is called
a “retrieval failure.”
Interference Processes
 Retroactive interference occurs
when later learned material
interferes with the recall of
information learned earlier.

 Proactive interference occurs when

earlier learned material interferes
with learning and recall of
information learned later.
The von Restorff Effect . . .
 . . . occurs when a highly unique item in a
series is recalled more easily.
 Illustrated by absurdism in advertisements,
e.g., the Bud frogs.
 Also illustrates information salience, which
is the idea that unique, novel, moving,
contrasting, colorful, etc. stimuli are more
easily encoded and retrieved.
The Zeigarnik Effect . . .

. . . occurs if a task is
interrupted, material
relevant to the task tends to
be remembered. E.g.,
stories that are cut in the
middle--taster’s choice.
Bud--frogs Here, build a story
and Tasters’ Choice. About a person doing
Something difficult,
and
Then stop just before
Climax. Will increase
Interest in and recall
Time and Forgetting
 The recall of verbal
information decreases
over time.
 Rapid forgetting that
occurs immediately
after learning has been
shown to occur in
advertising as well.
Affect and Memory

 People are better able to recall

information that has the same affective
quality as their mood state.
 Affect refers to the feelings, emotions, and
moods that consumers may experience.
 Mood is a transient feeling state that occurs
in a specified situation or time.
 Memory and PERMS

 Positioning. The semantic network & schema

associated with a brand provides its position.
 Environ. Analysis. Usually not relevant, but can
apply in the sense of examining what competitors
are doing and the clutter of the environment.
 Research. Measure semantic network, schema
and expectations, aided/unaided recall.
 Marketing mix.
 Use promotion to influence semantic network and schema,
consider recall & recognition issues in advertising. Consider
paired associate learning in developing communications, etc.
Consider von Restorff and Zeigarnik effects in advertising.
 Develop product name with consideration of paired-associate
learning. Consider information overload issues in product
development.
 Segmentation. Segment marketplace based upon
knowledge of product category.