CHAPTER3
LEARNING AND MEMORY
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
When students finish this chapter they should understand why:

It’s important for marketers to understand how consumers learn about products and
services.

Conditioning results in learning.

Learned associations can generalize to other things, and why this is important to
marketers.

There is a difference between classical and instrrumental conditioning.

Observation of others’ behavior can result in learning.

Memory systems work.

Our knowledge of individual products is influenced by other products we associate with
them.

Products help us to retrieve memories from our past.

Marketers measure our memories about products and ads.
CHAPTER SUMMARY
Learning refers to a relatively permanent change in behavior that is caused by experience.
Learning can occur through simple associations between a stimulus and a response or via a
complex series of cognitive activities. Learning is an ongoing process.
It is useful in any study of consumer behavior to explore behavioral learning theories in order to
gain insight into how consumers learn. Behavioral learning theories assume that learning occurs
as a result of responses to external events. Classical conditioning occurs when a stimulus that
naturally elicits a response (an unconditioned stimulus) is paired with another stimulus that does
not initially elicit this response. Over time, the second stimulus (the conditioned stimulus) comes
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Chapter 3: Learning and Memory
to elicit the response as well. Several experiments that demonstrate this conditioning are
discussed in this chapter. Through this discussion it is found that a conditioned response can also
extend to other, similar stimuli in a process known as stimulus generalization. This process is the
basis for such marketing strategies as licensing and family branding, where a consumer’s
positive associations with a product are transferred to other contexts. The opposite effect is
achieved by masked branding (where the manufacturer wishes to disguise the product’s true
origin).
Another view of behavioral learning is that of instrumental or operant conditioning. This form of
conditioning occurs as the person learns to perform behaviors that produce positive outcomes
and avoid those that result in negative outcomes. Although classical conditioning involves the
pairing of two stimuli, instrumental learning conditioning occurs when reinforcement is
delivered following a response to a stimulus. It is important to understand how conditioning
occurs. Reinforcement is part of the process. Reinforcement is positive if reward is delivered
following a response. It is negative if a negative outcome is avoided by not performing a
response. Punishment occurs when a response is followed by unpleasant events. Extinction of the
behavior will occur if reinforcement is no longer needed.
A third theory is called cognitive learning. This form occurs as the result of mental processes.
For example, observational learning takes place when the consumer performs a behavior as a
result of seeing someone else performing it and being rewarded for it.
The role of memory in the learning process is a major emphasis in this chapter. Memory refers to
the storage of learned information. The way information is encoded when it is perceived
determines how it will be stored in memory. Consumers have different forms or levels of
memory. The memory systems are known as sensory memory, short-term memory, and longterm memory. Each plays a role in retaining and processing information from the outside world.
Information is not stored in isolation; it is incorporated into knowledge structures, where it is
associated with other data. The location of product information in associative networks, and the
level of abstraction at which it is coded, helps to determine when and how this information will
be activated at a later time. Some factors that influence the likelihood of retrieval include the
level of familiarity with an item, its salience (or prominence) in memory, and whether the
information was presented in pictorial or written form. The chapter concludes with a brief
discussion of how memory can be measured with respect to marketing stimuli.
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