Universityof

Oklahoma

Universityof

Oklahoma

PRICECollege of Business

PRICECollege of Business

AttentionAttention

andand

ComprehensionComprehension

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The Interpretation Process

Information in the environment

Knowledge, meanings and

beliefs

InterpretationExposure,

Attention, and Comprehension

MemoryProduct

knowledge and

involvement

Activated knowledge influences how consumers attend to

information

2

INTERPRETATION

An ongoing process by which customers make

sense of or determine the meaning of important

aspects of the physical and social environment

as well as their own behaviors and internal

affective states

3

Sensory Memory(Senses)

Sensory Memory(Senses)

Working Memory (Short-

term Store)

Working Memory (Short-

term Store)

Long-term Memory(Assoc.

Network)

Long-term Memory(Assoc.

Network)

ExternalStimuliInput

EXPOSURE - A customer’s contact with information in the environment

• Intentional exposure occurs when customers purposefully search for information relevant to a goal or problem they have.

• Accidental exposure occurs when customers unexpectedly encounter marketing information in their environments.

• Selective exposure is a customer’s tendency to avoid exposure.

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EXPOSURE

Marketers can facilitate intentional exposure.

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EXPOSUREMarketers can maximize

accidental exposure

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ATTENTION is focusing on information that is relevant to important goals and values.

Sensory Memory(Senses)

Sensory Memory(Senses)

Working Memory (Short-

term Store)

Working Memory (Short-

term Store)

Long-term Memory(Assoc.

Network)

Long-term Memory(Assoc.

Network)

ExternalStimuliInput

1. Preconscious attention is the highly automatic, largely unconscious selection of certain stimuli for simple cognitive processing

2. Focal attention is a controlled, conscious level of attention that focuses cognitive processes on relevant or prominent stimuli in the environment

3. Selective attention is the process by which customers select information in the environment to interpret

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Levels of AttentionPreconscious Attention Focal Attention

No conscious awareness Conscious awareness

Automatic processes Controlled processes

Uses little or no cognitive Uses some cognitivecapacity capacity

Uses activated Sameknowledge from

long-term memory

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Levels of AttentionPreconscious Attention Focal Attention

More likely for concepts More likely for conceptsof low to moderate of high important

importance or or involvementinvolvement

More likely for familiar, More likely for novel,frequently encountered unusual, infrequently

concepts, with well-learned encountered concepts,memory representations without well-learned

memory representations

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Factors Influencing Attention

Affective State

Involvement

Environmental Prominence

• Low affective arousal reduces the amount and intensity of attention

• High affective arousal narrows consumer focus and makes attention more selective

Motivational state that guides the selection of stimuli for focal attention and comprehension

Activating relevant knowledge structures most likely through prominent marketing stimuli

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• Construct meanings

Comprehension

• Form knowledge structures that represent relevant concepts, objects, behaviors, and events

• Activate relevant knowledge structures (schemas and & scripts)

- Provides a framework that guides and directs comprehension processing

- Cognitive learning occurs

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• Construct meanings

Comprehension

• Form knowledge structures that represent relevant concepts, objects, behaviors, and events

• Activate relevant knowledge structures (schemas and & scripts)

- Provides a framework that guides and directs comprehension processing

- Cognitive learning occurs

The cognitive processes involved in interpreting and understanding concepts, events, objects,

and persons in the environment

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Inferences

Beliefs or knowledge that are not based on information

directly present in the environment.

Inferences are heavily influenced by consumers’ knowledge that is activated

during comprehension.

COMPREHENSION

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Factors Influencing Comprehension

Involvement Exposure Environment

Knowledge in Memory

COMPREHENSION

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Sensory Memory(Senses)

Sensory Memory(Senses)

Working Memory (Short-term

Store)

Working Memory (Short-term

Store)

Long-term Memory(Assoc.

Network)

Long-term Memory(Assoc.

Network)

ExternalStimuliInput

RehearsalChunking

AccretionTuning

Restructuring

ActivationRetrieval

Forgotten; lost

Forgotten; lost

Unavailable

Information Processing and Memory Stores

Exposure- Intentional- Accidental- Selective

Attention - Preconscious- Focal- Selective

Comprehension

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Aspects of the Cognitive System

1. Interpretation involves interactions between knowledge in memory and information

2. Activated knowledge influences how consumers attend to information and comprehend its meaning

3. Consumers can consciously attend to and comprehend only small amounts of information at a time

4. Much attention and comprehension processing occurs quickly and automatically with little or no conscious awareness

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