Chapter 4: Comprehension, Memory, and Cognitive Learning
TRUE/FALSE
1. Consumers can realize value even without an ability to assign meaning to the things consumed.
2. Research suggests that traditional cigarette warning labels have a significant impact on consumer
behavior.
3. Internal factors within the consumer powerfully influence the comprehension process.
4. Comprehension applies not only to consumer learning but to consumers’ attitudes as well.
5. Consumers must comprehend marketing messages in order to learn the intended value of a product.
6. The physical characteristics of a message refer to the elements of a message that one senses directly.
7. Generally speaking, the greater the movement, the larger the picture, or the louder the sound, the less
likely a consumer is to attend and comprehend something from a message.
8. Consumers derive meaning from both the actual text of a message and the visual presentation of the
message.
9. Consumers display greater recall of an intended message when information is presented in sequence
rather than in intervals.
10. Consumers prefer objects that are consistent with the golden section.
11. Marketers should maximize incongruity in marketing messages if the primary goal is to create a
favorable attitude rather than increased comprehension.
12. Consumers tend to comprehend and remember more from an ad that is presented with congruent
material surrounding it.
13. In a message, everything besides the figure should be less important and simply represent the ground
(or background) relative to the central message.
14. Consumers display a preference for things that are consistent with their prior knowledge.
15. In terms of comprehension, familiarity can increase a consumer’s motivation to process a message.
16. Rumination is the process by which continuous exposure to a stimulus affects the comprehension of
and response to some stimulus.
17. Right-brain-dominant consumers tend to deal better with verbal processing (words), whereas left–
brain-dominant consumers tend to be visual processors.
18. Hemispheric lateralization influences metaphor comprehension.
19. Consumers who are right brain dominant may respond particularly well to metaphors.
20. Positively framed information primes losses, which consumers want to avoid, and encourages
consumers to be more willing to take a chance on a product.
21. Positively framed information generally has a greater impact on consumers.
22. Sensory memory is considered to be preattentive.
23. The strength of sensory memory is duration, but the weakness is capacity.
24. Intentional learning can be based solely on sensory memory.
25. Workbench memory has limited capacity.
26. The more involved a consumer is with a message, the lesser will be the capacity of his workbench
memory.
27. Retrieval is the process by which information is transferred back into workbench memory for
additional processing when needed.
28. Workbench memory has unlimited duration.
29. Repetition is the best form of learning.
30. A memory trace is a mental path by which some thought becomes dormant.
31. A chunk includes seven memory units.
32. When a consumer retrieves information from long-term memory, it is processed once again in sensory
memory.
33. Barring some physical incapacity, long-term memory represents permanent information storage.
34. If consumers do not tag information in a meaningful way, the encoding process results in errors.
35. With elaboration, increased information is retrieved from long-term memory and attached to the new
information and understanding.
36. Cognitive interference provides the deepest comprehension and greatest chance of accurate recall.
37. Consumers who reach the elaboration stage are least likely to meaningfully encode information so that
intentional retrieval becomes impossible at a later stage.
38. Knowledge in long-term memory is stored in an associative network.
39. Declarative knowledge is represented in an associative network when two nodes are linked by a path.
40. Prototypes present concepts in an associative network.
41. Paths show the association between nodes in an associative network.
42. Every concept within a consumer’s associative network is linked to every other concept.
43. A schema is a type of associative network that works as a cognitive representation of a phenomenon
that provides meaning to that entity.
44. A node is a concept within a schema that is the single best representative of some category.
45. A script is a schema representing an event.
46. Consumers derive expectations for service encounters from scripts.
47. Social memory refers to the memory for past events in one’s life.
48. A social schema is the cognitive representation that gives a specific type of person meaning.
49. A social stereotype captures the role expectations of a person of a specific type.
50. Attempts to demarket a product can be implemented by stigmatizing consumption with a negative
stereotype.
MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. _____ refers to the interpretation or understanding that a consumer develops about some attended
stimulus based on the way meaning is assigned.
a.
Attention
b.
Exposure
c.
Comprehension
d.
Elaboration
e.
Sensation
2. Which of the following is true of consumer comprehension?
a.
Consumer comprehension process is not influenced by internal factors within the
consumer.
b.
Consumer comprehension does not include affective components as it is based only on the
consumer’s cognitive aspects.
c.
Consumers’ comprehension of marketing messages does not always occur in the way they
are intended to.
d.
Consumer comprehension rarely goes beyond the explicit content of the marketing
message.
e.
Consumer comprehension is not essential for the realization of value in the consumption
process.
3. When consumers believe that they will get 50 percent off on the purchase of a second item of equal or
lesser value after reading an advertisement for a clothing store, _____ of the marketing message has
occurred.
a.
sensitization
b.
distinction
c.
habituation
d.
rumination
e.
comprehension
4. According to which of the following theories, communications provide information in ways beyond
the explicit or obvious content of a message?
a.
Signal theory
b.
Habituation theory
c.
Dual-coding theory
d.
Prospect theory
e.
Multiple store theory
5. Which of the following is true of the physical characteristics of a message?
a.
Consumers’ attention and comprehension become less likelier as pictures in messages get
larger or movements become more intense.
b.
Consumers’ comprehension is not influenced by the use of colors in marketing messages.
c.
Consumers derive meaning from the actual text of a message and the visual presentation
of the message.
d.
Consumers’ comprehension of a message is not influenced by the physical characteristics
of the message.
e.
Consumers display greater recall of an intended message when information is presented in
sequence rather than in intervals.
6. _____ represents the extent to which a message is internally consistent and fits surrounding
information.
a.
Message congruity
b.
Message visibility
c.
Message attractiveness
d.
Message complexity
e.
Message acceptability
7. Miss, a popular brand of women’s clothing, introduces a new line of luxury evening wear.
Management at Miss intends to market the new collection as lavish, sophisticated, and ultra feminine.
Which of the following print media advertisements is most likely to have the intended effect?
a.
An ad featuring a model in an orange dress with the brand logo in block font as the
background
b.
An ad featuring a model as a tiny figure in the periphery against a huge building
c.
An ad featuring a model in a gold dress with the brand logo in script font as the
background
d.
An ad featuring a model in a brown dress with the brand logo in script font as the
background
e.
An ad featuring a model in a brown dress against a signage with large numerals quoting
the price of the dress
8. The management at Drops & Dew, a newly established winery, uses an ad showing kids roller-skating
and sipping wine with rap music in the background. Which of the following is most likely to be the
consumers’ response toward the advertisement?
a.
Consumers will process the information presented more deeply.
b.
Consumers’ comprehension of the product will decrease due to message incongruity.
c.
Consumers will develop a favorable attitude toward the product presented.
d.
Consumers’ attitude will be more favorable as the message source is credible.
e.
Consumers’ will purchase the product because the message source is trustworthy.
9. In a marketing message, the amount of knowledge that a source is perceived to have about a subject is
referred to as _____.
a.
congruity
b.
expertise
c.
trustworthiness
d.
visibility
e.
intelligence
10. Advertisements for hygiene products like toothpaste and soap tend to feature doctors as spokespersons
endorsing the products. Consumers perceive these doctors to possess a substantial knowledge on
health and hygiene. Which of the following characteristics of the message source is represented by this
example?
a.
Expertise
b.
Congruity
c.
Visibility
d.
Attractiveness
e.
Simplicity
11. In a marketing message, _____ refers to the consumers’ perception of how honest and unbiased the
source is.
a.
visibility
b.
attractiveness
c.
expertise
d.
trustworthiness
e.
congruity
12. If a consumer develops thoughts that contradict a marketing message, then he/she is said to have
developed _____ arguments toward the message.
a.
futile
b.
practical
c.
fallible
d.
parallel
e.
counter
13. Which of the following statements is true of message receiver characteristics?
a.
Less-intelligent consumers tend to comprehend messages more accurately than intelligent
consumers as they put in more effort in the comprehension process.
b.
Highly involved consumers tend to pay less attention to messages as they are too involved
with their own things.
c.
High levels of familiarity always increases consumer comprehension as consumers are
more inclined toward the familiar.
d.
Consumers’ beliefs of what will happen in a future situation have an impact on their
comprehension of the environment.
e.
Consumers who are left-brain dominant tend to be visual processors often favoring images
for verbal communication.
14. The process by which continuous exposure to a stimulus affects the comprehension of and response to
the stimulus is known as _____.
a.
lateralization
b.
stimulation
c.
expectation
d.
sensitization
e.
habituation
15. Energizer batteries used to feature the Energizer bunny in its TV commercials, often in unexpected
ways to catch viewers off-guard. Boring commercials of fake brands and mundane products like a
hemorrhoid ointment would be interrupted by the sudden appearance of the Energizer bunny banging a
drum. Initially, viewers would sit up and watch. However, after they had been exposed to the
commercial many times, they began to expect the appearance of the bunny and tended to tune out the
commercial. The consumers’ response to this over-exposure is an example of _____.
a.
anticipation
b.
adaptation
c.
habituation
d.
sensitization
e.
lateralization
16. Henry’s 80-year-old grandfather, Tim, has a passion for technology. He can operate Henry’s new
iPhone with ease. This leaves his grandson completely astounded as Tim grew up in the country with
no exposure to technology. Moreover, he has had no formal education. Which of the following
message receiver characteristics is most likely to explain Tim’s comprehension of the new iPhone?
a.
Level of dissonance
b.
Level of familiarity
c.
Level of expectation
d.
Level of involvement
e.
Level of congruity
17. Beverage marketers have realized for decades that packaging plays a major role in how beverages are
perceived. In fact, studies indicate that consumers cannot even identify their “favorite” brand of beer
without the package/label. This sort of association is created because of consumers’ _____.
a.
low level of involvement
b.
congruity
c.
expectations
d.
low level of knowledge
e.
sensitization
18. Belief of what will happen in a future situation is known as _____.
a.
accommodation
b.
rumination
c.
sensitization
d.
expectation
e.
habituation
19. Alice, a five-year-old, used to cry and protest whenever her mother took her to the dentist for monthly
dental checkups. After a dozen visits, however, she stopped crying, even though Alice admits that she
still does not like going to the dentist. This change in Alice’s response to dental visits is an example of
_____.
a.
anticipation
b.
lateralization
c.
rumination
d.
expectation
e.
habituation
20. Brain dominance refers to the phenomenon of hemispheric _____.
a.
infarction
b.
lateralization
c.
synchronization
d.
specialization
e.
adaptation
21. Which of the following TV ads for Shine, a toothpaste brand, is likely to hold more appeal for a
consumer who is right-brain dominant than for a consumer who is left-brain dominant?
a.
An ad where a dentist clinically explains why Shine is the best toothpaste
b.
An ad where a family sings the reason why Shine is their favorite toothpaste
c.
An ad which shows the Shine toothpaste being used by a dentist to clean giant-sized
dentures
d.
An ad where an elderly couple talks about how their teeth are still very strong because of
Shine
e.
An ad which talks about the advantages of a fluoride-free toothpaste
22. Which of the following is true of negatively framed information?
a.
It has a lesser impact on consumers than positively framed information.
b.
It primes gains rather than losses.
c.
It makes consumers less willing to take risks.
d.
It increases consumers’ perceived value of a product.
e.
It facilitates consumers’ negative information bias toward the product.
23. The amount of information available for a consumer to process within a given environment is known
as information _____.
a.
assurance
b.
bias
c.
retrieval
d.
intensity
e.
hoarding
24. The phenomenon in which the meaning of something is influenced by the information environment is
called _____.
a.
framing
b.
positioning
c.
signaling
d.
prospecting
e.
distorting
25. Which of the following theories hypothesizes that the way in which information is framed
differentially affects risk assessments and any associated consumer decisions?
a.
Signal theory
b.
Habituation theory
c.
Dual coding theory
d.
Multiple store theory
e.
Prospect theory
26. The cognitive process in which active concepts frame thoughts and therefore affect both value and
meaning is known as _____.
a.
priming
b.
signaling
c.
prospecting
d.
assimilating
e.
positioning
27. Joanna bargain hunts for all her purchases. She once bought a T-shirt that was being sold for $50 and
perceived it to be a good deal as everything else was priced higher. However, on her next shopping
trip, she dismissed the same t-shirt as expensive as the other apparels were being sold at prices much
lower than $50. Joanna’s varying interpretation of the value and meaning for the same product is an
example of _____.
a.
prospecting
b.
sensitizing
c.
priming
d.
distorting
e.
contrasting
28. The psychological process by which knowledge is recorded is known as _____.
a.
attention
b.
perception
c.
memory
d.
motivation
e.
epistemology
29. Which of the following theories views the memory process as utilizing three different storage areas–
sensory memory, workbench memory, and long-term memory–within the brain?
a.
The fuzzy trace theory of memory
b.
The multicomponent model of working memory
c.
The dual coding theory of memory
d.
Baddelay’s model of working memory
e.
The multiple store theory of memory
30. Which of the following is true of sensory memory?
a.
It has limited capacity.
b.
It has unlimited duration.