Lecture 4: how do consumers acquire and process information? Flashcards
what is attention according to Wiliam James
focusing on some things and not on others. withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others
why do we have attention?
to navigate complex envirnoments, focus on important information and surpress distracting information.
- because we have limited cognitive resources
limited cognitive resources
- limited brain signalling
- limited actions
- we can’t focus on everything at once and only act in so many ways at once.
top down versus bottom up
selective attention exists out of this.
- voluntary versus involuntary
- endogenous versus exogenous
- goal-directed versus salience
- controlled versus automatic
- directed versus captured
For example, you go to the store to buy milk (top-down), but decide to walk to the candy aisle, because your attention was grabbed by the smell (bottom-up).
what impacts bottom-up versus top-down attention?
bottom-up is usually influenced by our core needs like movement or contrast and top down is our motivation (and how strong it is) to do something.
stroop task
early versus late selection
depends on the perceptual load
earlier with more distractors because you would have to filter faster
there is some evidence for filtering at a perceptual level. but still debate about what we do and don’t process
4 stages of acquiring information
- pre-attentive analysis
- focal attention
- comprehension
- elaborative reasoning
pre-attentive analysis
scanning envirnoment, awareness
general, non-goal directed surveillance of the envirnoment. at the fringe of consciousness
- feature analysis = perceptual (exact repeat)
- semantic = conceptual (similar idea)
- matching activation hypothesis
- hedonic fluency
first stage
matching activation hypothesis
hemispheric specialization.
does exist to some extent.
for people with an intact brain the information is almost always immediately available for both halves.
hedonic fluency
easier processing is pleasant and leads to higher evaluation.
because of this we can missatribute pleasentness of ease to stimulus.
- goal fluency: sequences activating simular goals -> asking about intentions before behavior increases likelihood of behavior.
focal attention
focus on some information and filter out other, categorization
focus on bottom-up components
- awareness, identification, categorization
- short-term (working) memory
second stage
features that attract attention
in focal attention
- salience
- vividness
- novelty
salience
contrast to envirnoment. botom-up cues matter more if top-down goals are weaker. so this is stronger for lower processing motivation/involvement.
cuts through advertisement clutter
vividness
attention grabbing properties. can compete with meaning because of undermining it’s effect if it distracts from persuasive message.
novelty
unfamiliar, unexpected, surprising
- expectancy disconfirmation model
expectancy disconformation model
manage expectations in consumers, when you over promise and under deliver you will have more customers, but not for the long term. and the other way around.
categorization
a brand or product means something to a consumer.
categorization enables inferences.
we classify a product based on many aspects like attributes, brands and product usage.
what does the acceptance of a product rely on?
it is highly defined by
- the congruence or the “fit” with the brand
- associations
- prior knowledge
- involvement
involvement in accepting a new product
low involvement means relying perhaps only on similarity, whereas high involvement might include gathering other attribute information.
(dis)advantages of prototypical products?
are more liked, but less salient. which reduces attention to the product
pioneering advantage?
when a product is the first in it’s category it has novelty leading to deeper processing and more extreme evaluations.
this new product becomes prototypical eventually
assimilation in a category?
overestimating the similarity within category.
thinking of a domain in life you are succeeding leads to higher life satisfaction evaluation.
contrast in category?
overestimating differences between categories
an academic winning a nobel prize reflects good on the entire department, but leads to contrast compared to peers.
