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
Here, build a story
remembered. E.g.,
About a person doing
stories that are cut Something difficult, and
in the middle-- Then stop just before
taster’s choice. Climax. Will increase
Bud--frogs Interest in and recall
and Tasters’ Choice. Of story.
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.