Week 1 - Cognitive Ease & Effort

Question 1

Characteristics System 1

Answer 1

• Fast
• Intuitive
• Easy questions

Question 2

Characteristics sytem 2

Answer 2

• Slow
• Effortful
• Lazy
• Hard questions

Question 3

Elaboration Likelihood Model

Answer 3

Two routes from information to attitude change:
1. Peripheral route (system 1)
2. Central route (syste 2)

Which route? Depends on the Elaboration Likelihood
1. High likelihood = Central route
2. Low Likelihood = Peripheral route

Question 4

What are the four premises of the ELM

Answer 4

1. People want to have correct attitudes
2. Elaboration likelihood depends on motivation and ability
3. Peripheral cues are most influential under low elaboration likelihood
4. Attitude via the central route is
   * More stable
   * Stronger
   * More predictive of behavior

Question 5

Factors that promote the Central Route

Answer 5

1. Motivation
   * Involvement with topic
   * Accountability/responsibility
   * Need for cognition/uncertainty reduction
2. Ability
   * Prior knowledge, expertise, intelligence (+)
   * Repetition, experience (+)
   * Distraction (-)
   * Time pressure (-)

Question 6

Peripheral cues

Answer 6

Secondary features of the information or te context:
* Repetition (logo) = mere exposure effect
* number of arguments (many vs few)
* Source credibility (attractive, famous, reliable, expert)
* Product origin (e.g. wine from France)
* Product characteristics (‘New’, ‘improved recipe’)
* Format/design (e.g. well-designed advert = positive affect)

Question 7

What is the effect of strong arguments in the central route

Answer 7

They lead to positive thoughts on the opinion expressed in the message

Question 8

What is the effect of weak arguments in the central route

Answer 8

They lead to negative thoughts on the opinion expressed in the message

Question 9

When are two-sided reviews considered more credible

Answer 9

Always!

Especially with recipients with low involvement and/or high expertise

Question 10

How can you measure cognitive effort with pupillometry?

Answer 10

When pupils dilate there is more cognitive effort happening and people are likely to follow system 1, they fall back on:
* Best-choice
* Discounts
* Reviews

Question 11

What is ego depletion

Answer 11

Self-control / willpower is a limited resource

Ego depletion as prolonged effect of cognitive exertion

Question 12

Causes of ego depletion

Answer 12

• Thought supression
• Inhibit emotional response
• Inhibit behavioral response
• Trying to impress others
• Making choices that involve conflict

All involve the executive functions such as planning, self-control, monitoring, working memory etc.

Question 13

Consequences of ego depletion

Answer 13

• Persisting less time in a handgrip task
• Reacting aggresively to provocation
• Deviating from one’s diet
• Overspending on impulsive purchases
• Performing poorly in cognitive tasks and logical decision-making

Question 14

Schema

Answer 14

Theory about how the social world works

Reason why things that do not seem to have a lot in common can belong to one and the same category

Question 15

Priming

Answer 15

A prime is a stimulus that facilitates the process of memory search by providing additional retreival cues

Causes spreading of activation in associative network

You have:
* Supraliminal (conscious) primes
* Subliminal (unconscious) primes

Question 16

When is behavioral priming most effective?

Answer 16

When associated with the target (behavior)
* e.g. finger vs number
* Also gives insight into people’s associations (chocolate = unhealthy, vs Chocolate = omnomnomnomnom)

When activating goal-congruent behavior

Question 17

Which systems does Brand Placement use?

Answer 17

1. Explicit memory = remember seeing [brand name] from the movie clip
2. Explicit attitude = how much do you like [brand name] 0-10
3. Implicit memory = higher fragment completion rates when shown in movie, regardless of level of placement
4. Choice behavior = higher choice rates when shown in movie, regardless of level of placement

Question 18

Mere exposure effect

Answer 18

Repeated presentation of neutral stimulus leads to a more positive evaluation
* repetition as peripheral cue in advertisement

‘Automatic vigilance’
* People are especially alert to negative stimuli
* Evolutionary advantage

New neutral stimuli
* Repeated presentation without negative consequences
* Classical conditioning = it is safe

Question 19

Ease of processing

Answer 19

1. Happens often and generally results in accurate evaluations
2. Normally: ease of processing signals that information is frequent/probable
   * But insctructions can change the interpretation of ease
   * The interpretation of the feeling matters more than the feeling itself

Easier to process = more convincing

Question 20

Automatic vigilance

Answer 20

‘Automatic vigilance’
* People are especially alert to negative stimuli
* Evolutionary advantage