1. Consumer Behavior MKTG 302-PSYC 335
Comprehension, Memory, and Cognitive Learning
Prof. Dr. Zeynep Gürhan-Canlı

2. Comprehension
Refers to the interpretation or understanding that a consumer develops about some attended stimulus in order to assign meaning.

3. Exhibit 4.1: The Components of Consumer Information Processing

4. Exhibit 4.2: Comprehension Depends on Multiple Factors

5. Physical Characteristics of the Message
Intensity
Color
Font
©JONATHAN LARSEN/DIADEM IMAGES/ALAMY
Numbers
Spacing

6. Simplicity/Complexity
Simple phrases such as “fat free” often communicate more clearly than detailed information.
©JAMES F. QUINN/CHICAGO TRIBUNE

7. Exhibit 4.3: Congruent or Incongruent Message Sequences?
IMAGE COURTESY OF THE ADVERTISING ARCHIVES
PR NEWSWIRE

8. Message Source Factors
Likeability
Attractiveness
Trustworthiness
Expertise

9. Message Receiver Characteristics
Intelligence/Ability
Prior Knowledge
Involvement
Familiarity/Habituation
Expectations
Physical Limits
Brain Dominance

10. Environmental Characteristics
Information Intensity
Framing
Timing

11. Prospect Theory (Kahneman and Tversky 1979)
Value (+)
Loss
Gain
Value (-)
The Value Function

12. Prospect Theory
Buyers judge a loss as more painful than they judge the gain of an equal amount as pleasurable.
Gains and losses have a diminishing effect as they grow larger.
It is advantageous to segregate gains in a mental account.
It is likewise advantageous to integrate losses.
More positive evaluations result from the bundling of prices and debundling of price discounts.

13. Framing Effects (adapted from Puto 1987)
Example: The use of budgets to frame the prospects of an industrial buyer contracting for parts. The buyer is given a budget of $100,000.
The buyer must choose between two suppliers:
Supplier A will deliver the necessary parts at a guaranteed price of $90,000.
Supplier B will deliver the necessary parts, but the price is dependent on contract provisions. There is a .5 probability that the price will be $80,000 and a .5 probability that the price will be $100,000.
Which supplier would you choose?
Another buyer must choose between the same two suppliers, but with a budget of $80,000. Which supplier would you choose?

14. Multiple Store Theory of Memory
Views the memory process as utilizing three different storage areas within the human brain.

15. Exhibit 4.6: The Multiple Store Approach to Memory
Rehearsal
Encoding

16. Mental Processes Assisting Learning
Repetition
Dual Coding
Meaningful Encoding
Chunking
These rely on making associations.

17. Associative Network
A network of mental pathways linking knowledge within memory.

18. Associative Network
Coffee
Carbonated
Caffeine
Pepsi
Generation
Brown
Coke
Pepsi
“The
Bottle”
Sweet
Taste
Cold
Beverage
Trace strength and accessibility, spreading activation, priming

19. Exhibit 4.9 The Knowledge for Snack Foods

20. Retrieval Types of retrieval Retrieval failures Recall and recognition
Decay: The weakening of nodes or links over time.
Interference occurs due to semantic networks being closely aligned.
Primacy and recency effects

21. Cognitive 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 more associated with a concept.

22. Apply the cognitive schema concept in understanding how consumers react to products, brands, and marketing agents. 26

23. Exhibit 4.10 Category Exemplars

24. Episodic Memory, Social Schemata, and Elaboration
Episodic memory may elicit fond childhood memories of playing cowboy.
Stetson is relying on the social schema or stereotype of the cowboy to provide meaning.
Elaboration allows the consumer to picture himself using the cologne resulting in better recall.
IMAGE COURTESY OF THE ADVERTISING ARCHIVES