Chapter 3 Introduction to Affect and Cognition McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2005 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Components of the Wheel of Consumer Analysis 3-3 Components of the Wheel of Consumer Analysis • Environmental factors • Behavioral influences • Marketing strategies and stimuli 3-4 Affect and Cognition as Psychological Responses • Two types of mental responses to stimuli and events in the consumer environment – Affect • Feeling responses – Cognition • Mental responses • Types or levels of affective responses – The types of affect differ in the level of bodily arousal or intensity with which they are experienced 3-5 Affect and Cognition as Psychological Responses cont. 3-6 Affect and Cognition as Psychological Responses cont. • The affective system – Five basic characteristics of the affective system • • • • The system is reactive Lack of direct control over affective responses Affective responses are felt physically in the body The system can respond to virtually any type of stimulus • Most affective responses are learned 3-7 Affect and Cognition as Psychological Responses cont. • What is cognition? – Understanding – Evaluating – Planning – Deciding – Thinking 3-8 Affect and Cognition as Psychological Responses cont. – Major function of people’s cognitive system is to interpret, make sense of, and understand significant aspects of their personal experiences – Second function of cognitive system is to process interpretations or meanings in carrying out cognitive tasks 3-9 Affect and Cognition as Psychological Responses cont. • Relationship between affect and cognition – Differing views among researchers • • • • Affective and cognitive systems are independent Affect is largely influenced by the cognitive system Affect is the dominant system Affective and cognitive systems are highly interdependent 3-10 Affect and Cognition as Psychological Responses cont. 3-11 Affect and Cognition as Psychological Responses cont. – Each system can respond independently to aspects of the environment – Each system can respond to the output of the other system 3-12 Affect and Cognition as Psychological Responses cont. • Marketing implications – Both affect and cognition are important for understanding consumer behavior – Affective responses are especially important for so-called feeling products 3-13 Affect and Cognition as Psychological Responses cont. • Using metaphors to communicate affective and cognitive meaning – Metaphors can communicate both cognitive and affective meanings about a brand or company 3-14 Cognitive Processes in Consumer Decision Making • Information-processing models – Used to identify sequence of cognitive processes – Consumer decision making involves three important cognitive processes • Interpretation • Integration • Retrieval of product knowledge from memory 3-15 Cognitive Processes in Consumer Decision Making cont. • Consumer decision making model 3-16 Cognitive Processes in Consumer Decision Making cont. – Interpretation processes • Attention • Comprehension • Knowledge, meanings, and beliefs – Integration processes • How consumers combine different types of knowledge to form overall evaluations of products, other objects, and behaviors • Choose among alternative behaviors 3-17 Cognitive Processes in Consumer Decision Making cont. – Product knowledge and involvement • Stored knowledge, meanings, and beliefs • Product involvement • Additional characteristics of the cognitive system – Activation of memory – Unconscious thinking – Spreading activation 3-18 Cognitive Processes in Consumer Decision Making cont. – Limited capacity – Automatic processing • Marketing implications – Need to understand how consumers interpret marketing strategies – Consumer integration processes critical – Activation of product knowledge 3-19 Knowledge Stored in Memory • Types of knowledge – General knowledge of environment and behaviors • Propositions • Episodic knowledge • Symantic knowledge – Procedural knowledge about how to do things • “If…then…” proposition 3-20 Knowledge Stored in Memory cont. • Structures of knowledge – Associative networks 3-21 Knowledge Stored in Memory cont. – Types of knowledge structures • Schemas • Scripts – Marketing implications • Cognitive learning – Direct personal use experience – Vicarious product experiences – Interpret product-related information 3-22 Knowledge Stored in Memory cont. – Results of information interpretation • • • • Accretion Tuning Restructuring Marketing implications 3-23 Summary • Important internal factors of affect and cognition and the affective and cognitive systems were introduced • Identified four types of affective responses ranging from emotions to specific feelings to moods to evaluations 3-24 Summary cont. • Described the cognitive system and the various types of meanings it constructs • Emphasized that the two systems are highly interrelated and the respective outputs of each can elicit responses from the other • Presented a model of the cognitive process involved in consumer decision making 3-25 Summary cont. • Discussed the content and organization of knowledge as associate networks or knowledge structures • Described how meaning concepts are linked together to form propositions and productions that represent general knowledge and procedural knowledge • Two types of knowledge structures were described 3-26