Psychological Processes and Advertising Effects

In the 1980s our understanding of how advertising affects consumer behavior was undergoing a dramatic transformation. Recent theoretical and methodological advances in cognitive psychology, social cognition, and artificial intelligence were largely responsible for this transformation. These advances provided a better understanding of the information acquisition process and how information is stored in memory. Consequently, we have been able to incorporate memory, the processing of visual information and affect into our models of advertising effects. However, there were still many unanswered questions. Among these are: (1) Exactly what is the relationship between the different mediators of persuasion? (2) How is memory for advertising related to persuasion? (3) What are the theoretical underpinnings of attitude toward the advertisement? (4) What determines the effect of persuasion over time? (5) What factors affect attention to advertising? (6) What psychological processes occur during the watching of a television commercial? and (7) What factors affect individual differences in the processing of advertising messages? Originally published in 1985, the chapters in this volume provide insights into these questions. They are organized in terms of four psychological processes which contribute to our understanding of how advertising works. These are affective reactions to advertisements, persuasion, psychological processes during television viewing, and involvement.

Linda F. Alwitt, Andrew A. Mitchell

Preface. Introduction Linda F. Alwitt and Andrew A. Mitchell Part 1: Affective Reactions to Advertising 1. How Advertising Works at Contact Rajeev Batra and Michael L. Ray 2. Affective and Cognitive Antecedents of Attitude Toward the Ad: A Conceptual Framework Richard J. Lutz 3. The Influence of Affective Reactions to Advertising: Direct and Indirect Mechanisms of Change Danny L. Moore and J. Wesley Hutchinson Part 2: Persuasion 4. Central and Peripheral Routes to Persuasion: The Role of Message Repetition John T. Cacioppo and Richard E. Petty 5. Conceptual and Methodological Issues in Examining the Relationship Between Consumer Memory and Judgment Meryl Lichtenstein and Thomas K. Srull 6. The Relationship Between Advertising Recall and Persuasion: An Experimental Investigation Ann E. Beattie and Andrew A. Mitchell 7. A Reliable Sleeper Effect in Persuasion: Implications for Opinion Change Theory and Research Anthony R. Pratkanis and Anthony G. Greenwald Part 3: Psychological Processes During Television Viewing 8. Online Cognitive Processing of Television Daniel R. Anderson 9. EEG Activity Reflects the Content of Commercials Linda F. Alwitt Part 4: Involvement 10. Cognitive Theory and Audience Involvement Anthony G. Greenwald and Clark Leavitt 11. The Effect of People/Product Relationships on Advertising Processing Peter Cushing and Melody Douglas-Tate 12. Understanding Consumers' Cognitive Structures: The Relationship of Levels of Abstraction to Judgements of Psychological Distance and Preference Thomas J. Reynolds, Jonathan Gutman and John A. Fiedler 13. Concluding Remarks Linda F. Alwitt and Andrew A. Mitchell. Author Index. Subject Index.