Chapter Two: Perception

Question 1

What is sensation? What is perception?

Answer 1

Sensation is the immediate response of our sensory receptors to basic stimuli
Perception is the process by which these sensations are selected, organized, and interpreted

Question 2

What are the steps in the perceptual process?

Answer 2

Exposure -> attention -> interpretation

Question 3

What is the difference between hedonic and utilitarian consumption?

Answer 3

Hedonic consumption satisfies

Question 4

Explain exposure in detail

Answer 4

Occurs when a stimulus comes within range of the individual’s sensory receptors so they have the potential to notice it
- Absolute threshold: minimum amount of stimulation that can be detected
- Differential threshold: ability to detect changes in a stimulus or differences between two stimuli

Question 5

Explain attention in detail

Answer 5

The extent to which the brain’s processing activity is devoted to a particular stimulus
- Perceptual selectivity: people only attend to a small portion of stimuli
- Perceptual vigilance: people are more aware of stimuli that relate to their current needs
- Perceptual defence: people see what they want to see, ignore what they don’t want to see
- Adaptation: occurs when consumers no longer pay attention to a stimulus (intensity, duration, discrimination, exposure, and relevance)

Question 6

Explain interpretation in detail

Answer 6

Refers to the meanings that people assign to sensory stimuli
- Stimulus organization: people tend to view stimuli in terms of relationships
- Gestalt psychology: people derive meaning from the totality of a set of stimuli (principle of closure, principle of similarity, figure-ground principle)

Question 7

What are the different sensory systems?

Answer 7

1. Sight - product colour or size/styling
2. Smell - stir emotions or create feelings
3. Hearing - affect people’s feelings and behaviours
4. Touch - endowment effect and autotelics
5. Taste - contributes to our experience