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Chapter 4
Comprehension, Memory, and Cognitive
Learning
Learning Objectives
After studying this chapter, the student should be able to accomplish the following objectives.
4-1 Identify the factors that influence consumer comprehension.
4-3 Understand how the mental associations developed by consumers are a key to learning.
4-5 Apply the cognitive schema concept in understanding how consumers react to products,
brands, and marketing agents.
Lecture Example
Putting the real Harley rider in the spotlight, the latest evolution of Harley-Davidson’s “No
Cages” campaign poses a veritable challenge to stereotypes. The focal point of the new
campaign, titled “E Pluribus Unum,” or “out of many, one,” is a series of digital videos of real
Harley-Davidson riders and a corresponding stereotype. The advertisements are engineered to
initiate conversations through social platforms and Harley-Davidson’s website.
The “E Pluribus Unum” campaign cashes in on the element of surprise to inspire people to think
about riding Harleys.
Lecture Outline with PowerPoint® Slides
Cognitive learning focuses on mental processes occurring as consumers comprehend, elaborate,
and act upon information. The cognitive perspective views learning as an active mental process
in which a consumer processes information, forms associations between concepts, and gains
knowledge. Exhibit 4.1 shows the basic components of information processing.
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• Intensity—Generally speaking, the greater the movement, the larger the picture, or
the louder the sound, the more likely a consumer is to attend and comprehend
something from a message.
• Numbers—Many brand managers rely on alphanumeric names, combining letters
and numbers, when creating names for new products, brands, or models.
Technologically meaningful brands often employ such names. Alphanumeric names
also tend to convey subtly meanings through an association with incremental
improvement and advanced technology.
• Spacing—All types of communicators, from salespeople to advertisers to teachers,
repeat messages as a way of increasing comprehension. Actually, consumers display
greater recall of an intended message when information is presented in intervals
rather than in sequence.
Simplicity versus Complexity
Generally speaking, the simpler the message, the more likely a consumer develops
meaningful comprehension, which, of course, relies on a consumer’s ability to process
information.
Message Congruity
Message congruity represents the extent to which a message is internally consistent and
fits surrounding information. The conventional wisdom is that congruent content would
lead to improved comprehension. However, this may not always be the case. Moderate
levels of incongruity motivate deeper processing than when everything in a string of
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lower the chances that consumers will develop counterarguments toward a message.
Counterarguments are thoughts that contradict a message. Support arguments are
thoughts that further support a message.
C. Message Receiver Characteristics [Instructor PPT Slide 8]
Intelligence/Ability
As a general statement, intelligent, well-educated consumers are more likely to accurately
comprehend a message than are less intelligent or less educated consumers. With this
being said, two caveats are offered.
Prior Knowledge
The human brain matches incoming information with preexisting knowledge. This
preexisting or prior knowledge provides resources or a way through which other stimuli
Involvement
Consumers are not equally involved with every message sent their way. Highly involved
consumers tend to pay more attention to messages. They also exert more effort in
Familiarity/Habituation
Consumers tend to like the familiar. However, in terms of comprehension, familiarity can
lower a consumer’s motivation to process a message. While some degree of familiarity
may improve consumer attitude, high levels of familiarity may actually change or reduce
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available in a comfortable setting. This hardly compares with many parts of the developing
world, where shopping hardly exists. A decade after the breakup of the Soviet Union,
Expectations
Expectations are beliefs about what will happen in a future situation. They play an
important role in many consumer behavior settings and can impact comprehension. In fact,
Physical Limits
A consumer’s physical limitations can also influence comprehension. For example, all
consumers have limits in their abilities to hear, see, smell, taste, and think.
Brain Dominance
Brain dominance refers to the phenomenon of hemispheric lateralization. Some people
tend to be either right brain or left brain dominant. Right brain-dominant consumers tend to
be visual processors (tend to favor images for communication), whereas left brain-
dominant consumers tend to deal better with verbal processing (words).
D. Environmental Characteristics [Instructor PPT Slides 9 and 10]
Information Intensity
Information intensity refers to the amount of information available for a consumer to
process within a given environment. When consumers are overloaded, the overload not
only affects their attention but also their comprehension and eventual reaction.
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Framing
Framing is a phenomenon in which the meaning of something is influenced (perceived
differently) by the information environment. Thus, the same event can produce multiple
meanings depending on how the information is presented. Framing and the consumer
adaptation level (habituation) often work together to affect comprehension.
Message Media
These days, marketers can’t always control the type of media by which consumers
encounter a message. In terms of intentional learning, some studies suggest that people
comprehend more and better when reading from a message printed on paper than from a
Construal Level Theory
Construal level refers to whether individuals are thinking about something using a
concrete or an abstract mindset.
Timing
LO 4-2: Explain how knowledge, meaning, and value are inseparable, using the multiple
stores memory theory.
II. Multiple Store Theory of Acquiring, Storing, and Using Knowledge
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Memory is the psychological process through which people record and store knowledge.
A. Multiple Store Theory of Memory [Instructor PPT Slides 11 and 12]
The multiple store theory of memory views the memory process as utilizing three different
storage areas within the human brain. The three areas are sensory memory, workbench (or
short-term) memory, and long-term memory. Exhibit 4.6 illustrates this approach.
Sensory Memory [Instructor PPT Slide 13]
Sensory memory is the area in memory where individuals store what they encounter with
their five human senses. This portion of memory is considered to be preattentive. Sensory
memory is truly remarkable. For one thing, it has unlimited capacity. Sensory memory uses
Another remarkable aspect of sensory memory concerns duration. Sensory memory is very
perishable and lasts only a very short time. Sensory memory effects are essential for
cognitive learning. However, sensory memory alone creates little opportunity for
intentional learning because of the short duration. The last images held in sensory memory
Workbench Memory [Instructor PPT Slide 14]
Workbench, or working, memory is the storage area in the memory system where
information is stored and encoded for placement in long-term memory and eventually
retrieved for future use. Workbench memory works very closely with long-term memory.
Encoding is the process by which information is transferred from workbench memory to
long-term memory for permanent storage. Retrieval is the process by which information is
transferred back into workbench memory for additional processing when needed.
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©2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
because this memory storage area, like sensory memory, has limited duration.
• Capacity—Unlike sensory memory, workbench memory has limited capacity.
Generally, the capacity limit for workbench memory is between three and seven units
of information.
• Involvement—The capacity of workbench memory expands and contracts based on
the level of a consumer’s involvement.
Q: Ask students to devise an experiment to test how the level of consumer
involvement affects the capacity of workbench memory. Ask them to explain the
method they chose and why they think this will test the concept.
LO 4-3: Understand how the mental associations consumers develop are a key to learning.
III. Making Associations with Meaning as a Key Way to Learn [Instructor PPT Slide 15]
Four mental processes help consumers remember things:
• Repetition is a process in which a thought is held in short-term memory by mentally
repeating the thought.
• Dual Coding is a process in which two different sensory “traces” are available to
remember something. A trace is a mental path by which some thought becomes active.
Meaningful encoding and chunking rely heavily on making associations between new
information and meaning that is stored in long-term memory.
Repetition
Repetition is a commonly employed way of trying to remember something. This process
is known as rehearsal. However, one major problem with this approach is cognitive
interference. Cognitive interference simply means that other things are vying for
processing capacity when a consumer rehearses information.
Dual Coding
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Dual coding occurs when two different sensory traces are available to remember
something. Marketing messages often combine an image with a description in attempt
to promote dual coding.
Meaningful Encoding
Meaningful encoding involves the association of active information in short-term
memory with other information recalled from long-term memory. By this process, new
information is coded with meaning.
Chunking
Retrieval and Working Memory [Instructor PPT Slide 16]
When a consumer retrieves information from long-term memory, the retrieved
information once again ends up on the workbench memory. Through a process of
response generation, consumers reconstruct memory traces into a formed
representation of the thing they are trying to remember or process.
Q: Conduct the following activity in class. Divide students into two groups. Show
a bank account number to one group of students, and ask them to recall it
without looking at it again. Show the same account number, and ask the other
group to memorize it by thinking of it repeatedly. Which of the two groups would
recall it more accurately? Explain this with reference to the functions of memory.
Long-Term Memory [Instructor PPT Slides 17 and 18]
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Long-term memory is a repository for all information that a person has encountered. This
portion of memory has unlimited capacity and unlimited duration. Information stored in
long-term memory is coded with semantic coding, which means the stimuli are converted
to meaning that can be expressed verbally.
A memory trace is the mental path by which some thought becomes active.
Psychologically, a memory trace shows how cognitive activation spreads from one concept
to another. This process is known as spreading activation. Marketers want their brand
names to cause cognitive activation to spread to favorable, rather than unfavorable,
thoughts.
Mental Tagging
In psychological terms, a tag is a small piece of coded data that helps individuals get
that particular piece of knowledge onto the workbench. If consumers do not tag
information in a meaningful way, the encoding process results in errors. Stimuli that
consumers pay attention to but do not really comprehend or elaborate upon tend to be
poorly tagged.
Rumination
Elaboration [Instructor PPT Slide 19]
Elaboration refers to the extent to which a person continues processing a message even
after she develops an initial understanding in the comprehension stage. With elaboration,
increased information is retrieved from long-term memory and attached to the new
information and understanding. This means more and richer tags and a better chance of
recall. In particular, personal elaboration, in which people imagine themselves
associating with a stimulus being processed, provides the deepest comprehension and
greatest chance of accurate recall. In a marketing context, therefore, appeals to a consumer
©2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
LO 4-4: Use the concept of associative networks to map relevant consumer knowledge.
IV. Associative Networks and Consumer Knowledge [Instructor PPT Slide 20]
A. Associative Networks
B. Declarative Knowledge
Declarative knowledge is a term used in psychology to refer to cognitive components that
represent facts. Declarative knowledge is represented in an associative network by two nodes
LO 4-5: Apply the cognitive schema concept in understanding how consumers react to
products, brands, and marketing agents.
V. Product and Brand Schemas [Instructor PPT Slides 21–24]
Consumers’ knowledge for a brand or product is contained in a schema. A schema is a portion of
an associative network that represents a specific entity and thereby provides it with meaning.
Exhibit 4.9 illustrates a product schema for snack food.
A. Exemplars
Q: Students could be asked to mention their exemplars for the following: toothpaste, an
airline, a smartphone, and ice cream. Why, in their opinion, are these brands
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exemplars for the category?
B. Prototypes
Some categories are not well represented by an exemplar. For instance, a “pharmaceutical
sales rep” category likely does not evoke a specific person who best represents that category.
However, an image is associated in one’s mind with the category. That image contains the
C. Reaction to New Products/Brands
When consumers encounter new products or brands, they react to them by comparing them to
the existing schema. Sometimes new products fail because they are too different or just way
ahead of their time.
Q: Explain how consumers compare new products or brands with existing schema.
How will these be affected when a consumer is in a foreign country? Use examples to
explain your answer.
D. Script
A script is a schema representing an event. Consumers derive expectations for service
encounters from these scripts. For example, salespeople employ scripts in performing their
jobs.
E. Episodic Memory
Closely related to the concept of a script is episodic memory. Episodic memory refers to the
memory for past events, or episodes, in one’s life. Brands associated with positive events