Consumer Psychology: Lesson 1 & 2 PDF

LESSON 1 AND 2 30/09/2021 Consumer Psychology and NeuroMarketing What is it and how it emerged? (Chapter 1 from Consumer psychology) Consumer Psychology is about understanding why and how individuals and groups engage in consume...

LESSON 1 AND 2 30/09/2021 Consumer Psychology and NeuroMarketing What is it and how it emerged? (Chapter 1 from Consumer psychology) Consumer Psychology is about understanding why and how individuals and groups engage in consumer activities, as well as how they are affected by them It is a scientific discipline It is firstly and foremost a scientific discipline. It tries to provide specific answers to research questions and adopts research methodologies (both quantitative and qualitative) But it is also an interdisciplinary area It combines theories and research methods from different areas (psychology economics, marketing, advertising, anthropology, sociology) As of today there are many area of specialization of this subject such as Decision-Making, Consumer Judgement, Perception and attention… Consumer activities can impact upon people’s identities and how individuals convey their social status through the use of certain products and services à almost all behaviors that humans engage in are directly and indirectly linked to consumption à Media lay a very important role in shaping our ideas, beliefs etc.. Media exposure (adverting, news, movies) can influence our behavioral outcomes “People tend to include or exclude from their cognitions what the media include or exclude from their content” (Donald L. Shaw) CONSUMER PSYCHOLOGY AND CONSUMER SOCIETY According to historians the culture of consumption developed before the industrial revolution. In the mid 17-18th century an increase in consumption was registered even though it was not necessarily applicable to all individuals throughout Europe But the beginning of the Industrial Revolution (18 century) brought a change in people à the consequence is an increase in consumption from people of all walks of life in different countries. In parallel with the growth of consumption, scientists realized that it is important to understand how the consumer society affects individuals, in order to truly understand human beings (hence the beginning of what we know call Consumer Psychology) Consequences of Industrial Revolution 1) Birth of consumer society 2) Birth of professional advertising history Why did advertising develop in parallel with the development of consumer society? More products, more services, which consumers need to be aware of (through adv) THORSTEIN VEBLEN à First sociologist that called attention to the process of conspicuous of consumption and the development of the leisure class Conspicuous consumption is consumption specially directed to the purchasing of luxury goods, not functional to the satisfaction of primary need, but to the display of a certain social status, to the expression of individual’s identity 1840-1920 Development of technological, economics and social spheres as well as disciplines of consumer psychology through publications VOLVEY PALMER à opened the first advertising agency in the world, in the 1840s 1852 à First department store ever opened, Le Bon Marche in Paris WILHELM WUNDT à Initiated the studies on attention. He made a the first psychology laboratory in Germany, Leipzig and conducted research, which contributed to the field of consumer psychology, in 1879 He was one of the founders of structuralism, mainly focused on the investigation of the mind’s structure through the analysis of conscious experience, on which psychologists should focus firstly Attention for Wundt: the part of perception that reflects what humans are consciously aware of HARLOW GALE à founder of Psychology of advertising, by trying to understand how adv can influence consumer choices and how effective it can be for a specific outcome on attention and memory (through surveys and experiments) Theory: consumers are non-rational beings that are easily influenced; sentiments, emotions and sympathy all made consumers more open to suggestions made by advertisers WALTER DILL SCOTT à published a book (The Theories of Advertising) in which he states that the aim of advertising should be capturing people’s attention HENRY FORD à in 1913 he sets up the assembly line, a revolutionary mode of mass production. It impacted on all the other means of production and helped establish the consumer society in which we are today DANIEL STARCH à in 1914 he published the book Advertising: its Principles, Practice and Technique, in which the relation between attention and response is discussed in depth According to him advertising techniques are not only used to sell commodities, but can be employed by politicians in order to sell ideas à propaganda CASE STUDY HARRY HOLLINGSWORTH AND THE COCA-COLA CASE TAKEN TO COURT In 1909, Coca-Cola Company was taken to court by the US Government with the accusation of selling drinks containing a harmful ingredient, caffeine. As the company prepared to face trial in 1911 they realized that the research evidence they intended to present in court mainly consisted of physiological responses to caffeine but very little on how it affected behavior. Hence they contacted a psychologist by the name of Harry Hollingsworth to conduct studies on how caffeine influenced human behavior. à he conducted studies on the effects of caffeine on sensory, cognitive and motor functioning, which led to the conclusion that caffeine had NO detrimental impact on cognitive or behavioral performance COCA-COLA WON THE ORIGINAL TRIAL (then lost when it was taken to the Supreme Court) 1920-1938 In this period new products and new service were invented which contributed significantly to the development of the consumer society in which we live today First American radio station The automobile became extremely common Drive in restaurants Mail order catalogues à market flooded with new products, washing machines, toasters, irons… JOHN B. WATSON à founder of behaviorism and leading academic psychologist, joins America’s largest advertising agency, J Walter Thompson Classical conditioning: he was a firm believer of this technique to influence individual’s behavior à a learning process that occurs when two stimuli are repeatedly paired: a response which is at first elicited by the second stimulus is eventually elicited by the first stimulus alone The development of testimonial advertising à one of Watson’s greatest contributions is the idea that a prospective customer may be favorably influenced to try a product when it has been praised by someone else (e.g., a celebrity) ALBERT T. POFFENBERGER à in 1925 publishes Psychology in Advertising and in 1927 publishes a second book ‘Applied Psychology: Its principles and methods’ H.K. NIXON à in 1924 proceeded to study eye-tracking elements (which is the link between attention and advertising). He concluded that pictures used in print advertisements can guide consumer’s attention to the text 1939-1970 Even though times were hard during the war, the consumer society continued to grow (even if this did not affect all corners of the world), as well as consumption in the broader sense 1 OF JULY 1941 à The American TV station called WNBT ST started broadcasting programs incorporating TV commercials, even though commercial broadcasting was severely reduced in 1942 After World War II, consumption started picking up again à we can see a renewed interest in advertising GEORGE KATONA à in the 50’s pioneered the use of how to apply survey research to consumer buying, and he also found out that when consumers felt confident, they are more willing to enter new credit agreements ERNEST DICHTER à he was the founder of the Institute for Motivational Research in New York City which focused on understanding consumers’ unconscious minds, as he thought that consumer spending was reflected by unconscious desires à he introduced Freudian concepts to advertising Dichter’s ideas were made famous by a best-selling book by Vance Packard, published in 1957 1950-1960 à a lot of the research conducted in this period related to attention and persuasion + rapid growth in commercial channels around the world Governments promote consumer societies With World War II now part of history, governments around the world were looking at ways to strengthen their economies. One obvious way of doing so was to increase consumer spending, so in the 1950s politicians were busy promoting the benefits of living in a consumer society —> it led to an increase in advertising, which is then why a lot of research in 1950/60 was conducted In 1960 Division 23 of the American Psychological Association as founded, which is now known as The Society of Consumer Psychology KEY TERMS ADVERTISING: A form of communication designed to generate awareness of products, services and organizations. Its purpose is to persuade potential ‘customers’ to purchase or to consume a particular brand, products or service AIDA MODEL: Stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. It is an acronym that describes the 4 steps that an ad has to elicit, each one being a necessary condition for the next step to happen NEUROSCIENCE: The term covers a very broad approach to the brain: it covers the study of single receptors of cells, single cells, sea slugs, leeches, reptiles, mammals, primates in addition to humans. There are also other related disciplines that are more narrow in their scope, e.g., “cognitive neuroscience”, “affective neuroscience”, “decision neuroscience”, etc. NEUROMARKETING: RAMSOY: A part within marketing that studies the effect of marketing stimuli on consumers’ sensimotor, cognitive and affective (emotional) responses SAM USHER: An emerging field of market research that uses neuroscience technology and principles to create better advertisements and advertising campaigns LESSON 3 4/10/2021 Perception and Attention (Chapter 3 from Consumer Psychology) Perception and attention are two areas that are integral to understanding consumer processing and choice ➔ The two are very closely linked since perception guides consumers’ attention so that they mainly focus on information that they have some sort of interest in The fact that we only notice some of the stimuli that we are exposed to, is one of the most obvious parts of attention, as it demonstrates that it generally involves selective processing of certain elements while we ignore others. SENSATION: immediate response of our senses to a stimulus, which are yet to be interpreted the reception and transmission of sensory information to the brain PERCEPTION: the process by which these sensations are selected, organized and interpreted à it involves meaning that is attached to the sensations experienced ➔ Such meaning is derived from existing beliefs, attitudes, and general disposition, meaning that the way in which objects are perceived is subjective. Important: Individuals are not mere receptors of stimuli but subjects capable of elaborating, interpreting as well as integrating the information they receive Needs, motivations, emotional states, attitudes and personal interests impact on the perceptual organization of the external world --> Knowing the frames of reference and the factors that influence perceptual processes becomes essential to promote a specific image, a logo or a particular product A SENSORY SYSTEM — A COMPLEX MATTER Sensation is carried out by dedicated sense organs equipped with unique neurons – called receptors – that absorb physical energy (such as: light energy, mechanical energy, chemical energy*) from the environment and convert it to electrical pulse, a process called Transduction Transduction is defined as what takes place when many sensors in the body convert physical signals from the environment into encoded neural signals sent to the Central Nervous System) Each sense organ (= gateways to our environment) detects a particular kind of energy. The electrical signal is then transmitted to the brain, where it is processed and interpreted, creating a Perception It is the elaboration of sensory input. It takes place at the stimulation of the sense It is also the result of the integration of elements (such as emotional sates, attitudes, existing knowledge) that are part of our social-knowledge background. It goes beyond the activation of the senses, as it is integrated with the information that already exists in us (such as attitudes,  emotions, personal beliefs…) This means that perception is subjective and culturally specific THE GESTALT THEORIES The ‘Gestalt’ School of Psychology (Germany, late 1800s and early 1900s) provided the foundation for the study of human perception — how to understand the brain works in terms of perceptual processes (on the way in which human perception is affected by visual input) ➔ They researched how features are organized into whole figures. The Gestalt Theory emphasizes that the whole of anything is greater than its parts - > the attributes of the whole are not deducible from analysis of the parts ‘in isolation’ A major impact on our understanding of perceptual processes Critique Part of the critique of the Gestalt laws is that they are difficult to apply to how humans perceive 3D objects (Eysenck, 1993). However, they are applicable to two-dimensional objects such as drawings which also make them highly suitable to integrate into marketing stimuli such as advertising and point-of-purchase displays. The Laws of Pragnanz: Law of Proximity, Law of Closure, Law of Similarity, the Figure-Ground Principle Principles, or rules that explain how stimuli (even stimuli that are perceived for the first time) are organized into recognizable shapes and patterns These principles give order to how stimuli are perceived LAW OF PROXIMITY: Stimuli that are near each other, tend to be grouped together —> we do it daily, but we do it without thinking. It how is how brain functions, through recognition of patterns, of association among elements, in order to categorize them easily Retailers often make use of this principle in that they try to place products close together that they think complement one another in some way so that consumers are more likely  to purchase them together à Ex: Pasta sauce + Pasta or Italian wines (like in a supermarket) LAW OF CLOSURE: In briefly observing figures that show irregularities, people tend to see them as entire shapes —> it identifies our brains’s tendency to complete incomplete figures (or even concepts) LAW OF SIMILARITY: We tend to group together objects that are, in some way, physically similar Color and Shape are salient product features often involved in this process -> ‘Own brand products’ are often made to look similar to national/super brand products (Coca-Cola, Mulino Bianco, Ferrero, etc.) WHY? The final goal is to make the association that these products are similar in quality to the same super brand Remember: We do not perceive stimuli ‘in isolation’ but rather through existing patterns that provide meaning to what is perceived Of all the senses used, vision is the one that is most commonly researched and discussed ( à it accounts for about 80% of human perception!) FIGURE-GROUND PRINCIPLE: One part of a stimulus stands out as a well-defined object (the figure) whereas the rest of the stimulus is seen as less prominent (the ground) Familiarity is not necessary for people to perceive form à both familiar and unfamiliar shapes can be perceived as figures Which is the figure and which is the ground? The figure is typically the information that they wish to stand out and the ground is the information that supports the figure. Figure-ground Reversal à when it is unclear which part of a stimulus is the figure and which is the ground, making it possible to perceive a figure in two different ways, The figure–ground reversal demonstrates how the limited information processing capacity forces people to focus on one stimulus at the time ➔ Because our brain only focuses on a stimulus at the time, so marketers and advertisers study which o the stimulus will have to be perceived as the figure and which as the ground THE SENSES HEARING Sounds have the capacity to influence many different aspects of consumer perception. (For instance, music in a store...) Hearing has the capacity of Creating a favorable mood (Tom, 1990) Increasing the likability of products (Gorn, 1982) Affecting the perception of time (Hui, Dube’ & Chebat, 1997) The majority of marketing research involves music, We enjoy listening to music that we like + music is linked to social connections The pitch of the voice used in TV commercials: it can also influence product perception ➔ a low-pitched voice that spoke at a faster pace produced an overall more favorable perception of the ad and the brand than other type of voices Important study on music and consumer behavior When music, that is clearly perceived to be from a particular country, is played within a retail environment, it has the capacity to increase sales figures of products that are manufactured in the country that the music is from (North, Hargreaves, & McKendrick, 1999) SMELL Is the sense organ that is physically closest to the brain à it’s directly linked to the brain’s limbic system, which gives it strong connections to memory and emotions. There are two types of scents (or odours): 1. Non-ambient scent (à the origin is from a particular product): further divided into ➔ Congruent: a product that smells the way it ought to (e.g. a jar of coffee that smells like coffee) ➔ Non-congruent: product smells inconsistently with expectations (e.g. coffee smells like strawberries) 2. Ambient-scent (à environment/ it’s a general presence such as in a retail environment): ambient-scents can enhance attention as well as cognitive elaboration. They trigger emotions In general, ‘pleasant’ smells have been found to increase the likelihood of the shop and its merchandise being perceived in a positive way Important: Researchers have found an inverted U- relationship between strength and positive reactions to smell (Bone & Ellen, 1999) Moderate levels of odor/scent will have the most positive influence upon people’s perception This is even applicable to odours that are positively perceived when presented in low concentrations as they can have a negative impact when used in highly concentrated measures. U-shaped relationship between ambient scent and density of shoppers: a favorable perception of the mall in the presence of a pleasant scent was only found when the density level was moderate. Marketers use the power of smell to induce strong association between the brand and the product TOUCH Tactile sensations can affect consumer perception of products deeply, since it contributes to a feeling of ownership of the handheld product Hornik (1992) suggested that simply touching a product can make consumers evaluate it in a favorable manner Indeed, researchers have found that touching products generates the ‘endowment effect’ (Shu& Peck, 2011) à A sense of (psychological) ownership produces an increase in the perceived value of the product Touch alters the perception of value When in store, if consumers are not allowed to touch the products, they can experience feelings of frustration TASTE This sense is closely linked to the sense of smell and, thus, a lot of research has investigated the two senses together (Prescott, 2015) should be understood as being an amalgam of the five senses This means that a pleasurable taste experience is reliant on smell as well (e.g., Yeomans, Mobini, Elliman, Walker, & Stevenson, 2006) Because taste can affect the way in which products are perceived, it is important for food and drink manufacturers to understand how different flavors will be evaluated. ➔ This is why many manufacturers employ taste test panels to find out whether or not their products are perceived in the way they want them to be. MULTISENSORY INPUT Consumers do not experience different sensory input ‘in isolation’! As consumers walk into a store, they see the products, they may also go up and touch them, they will smell them, and they will hear sounds When presenting consumers with multi-modal information, it is crucial that the different sensory input, when ‘combined’, is generating the final perception intended by marketers / advertisers / product designers AESTHETICS A large part of generating a favorable perception is the physical characteristics that will make the consumer think of a product, display or retail environment as more or less attractive. ➔ The way in which products and displays are designed will definitively affect how they are perceived Berlyne à suggested that different cultures may be homogenous in their responses to stimuli, which suggests that there are some underlying general concepts that determine consumers’ preferences of design in general. Kaplan and Herzog à tested that when an environment is perceived as mysterious, complex, coherent, and legible generated a more favorable aesthetic response ATTENTION Attention is the cognitive process that decides what is being processed We need to withdraw from some things in order to deal effectively with others What captures consumers’ attention is determined by many factors, such as the relevance of the message and the consumer’s motivation Other factors that also play a part in whether or not consumers pay attention to a stimulus include how salient and how vivid the message is TWO TYPES OF ATTENTION Top-Down: it is the type we normally think of when we use the term à conscious focus on them mind on a specific object It refers to all the things that we choose to focus on and shift our attention to Top-Down Attention is when you actively choose to focus on certain aspects of the world à It is when you rule over your senses It identifies the intentional allocation of attention resources to a predetermined object or space It is driven by the individual and her/his interest, or needs Characteristics: 1) Controlled: it occurs consciously and according to specific expectations 2) Slow: it requires energy 3) Voluntary: it requires a certain degree of focus Top-down attention refers to the processes of attention as a result of prior experiences, knowledge and goals. In this regard, the specific goals and passions of the person can affect top-down attention Top-down attention is responsible for the ‘attentional blindness’ phenomenon à We see the things that we expect to see it is the spotlight that lives inside our head (Wachtel, Bottom-Up: 1967) and is highlighting the world without our conscious determination à It is when we are ruled by our senses, it originates and manifests at an unconscious level Bottom-Up Attention is usually activated by the following elements (or ‘attention-grabbing’ factors): 1) Emotionally relevant objects Primary emotional stimuli are those that represent a basic or primary need to promote survival, such as food, sex, or threats we need to avoid 2) Moving objects Brains show preference for moving objects. It has been shown that advertising on a moving object is more effective in terms of recall and noticeability 3) Unexpected events These contain more information than an expected one and, for this reason, they deserve to be evaluated more carefully The salient characteristics of a visual stimulus are: Color (easily detected by the pre-attentive system) Shape Movement Brightness Contrast Characteristics: 1) Automatic: it occurs without awareness 2) Fast: it is a rapid response 3) Involuntary: it does not require focus and rationality MARKETERS AND FOCAL ATTENTION What most marketers are aiming for is to ensure that consumers focus their entire attention on a particular stimulus, so that it can be perceived as clearly as possible; this is known as focal attention (Schachtel, 1959). Due to the fact that the information consumers pick up from the external environment is temporarily stored in the short-term memory, which can only handle a limited amount of information at any one time (approximately seven units of information), consumers will automatically attend to focal information and neglect non-focal information. Consequently, consumers would be expected to more readily recall the elements that had captured their attention. Focal attention: when consumers focus their entire attention on one stimulus ATTENTION AND AROUSAL AROUSAL: it identifies the intensity of the psycho-physiological activation of an organism Arousal can be measured as a continuum, whereby low levels of arousal are when people are drowsy and very tired or nearly asleep, while high levels are generated by exciting events or physiological stimulants (e.g. caffeine). There is an inverted U-relationship between arousal and attention The attention levels tend to increase up to the point where by we feel moderately aroused BUT! ‘Over-arousal’ generates similar effects to what humans experience when they are hardly aroused at all The dynamic of this relationship demonstrates that it is fundamental for marketers to present information to consumers at a time when they are likely to experience moderate levels of arousal Different factors can increase arousal: e.g., Noise, Smells, Flashing lights, Unexpected events, Temperature SUPER BOWL This (previous idea) is supported by a study whereby viewers of the Super Bowl (the championship of the National Football League in the US) who supported one of the teams playing failed to remember the television commercials shown during the game compared to those who were just watching it for general entertainment purposes. The findings were explained by suggesting that supporters of the two teams playing were highly aroused while watching the game and hence failed to pay attention the commercials (Pavelchak, Antil, & Munch, 1988) VISUAL SELECTIVE. ATTENTION Visual selective attention can be defined as the way in which humans select a specific element to focus on and simultaneously manage to ignore all other stimuli that may have the capacity to control an individual’s actions The element that a person chooses to focus upon is influenced by their perception in that it aids the selection process and continues to direct cognitive processes once the stimulus has been focused upon. Researchers have found that the first thing humans tend to do in any environment is to conduct a visual search, which is driven by a desire to find specific targets. ➔ How consumers conduct visual searches can give retailers and marketers a good insight ➔ However, since much of the visual search is driven by cognitive factors, it is possible that there are no exact consistent patterns of how humans conduct visual searches (Wickens, 1992) What attracts consumers? All the senses have the ability to capture consumers’ attention, but, just as with perception, most of the attention-based research has investigated vision Consequently marketers try to find ways in which they products publicity can stand out, such as 1) Buying large blocks of advertising or shelf blocks in retail environments 2) Putting ads in more unusual places where consumers would.not expect to see them traditionally AREAS THAT CAN IMPACT UPON CONSUMERS ATTENTION Colour — Is easily detected by our pre-attentive system — It is believed to produce favorable product attitudes Novelty — Specific areas of our brain respond to such stimuli (novel elements) without awareness — They can easily capture consumers’ attention since they are distinctively different from other products o However marketers can rely shortly on this (as soon as the ‘novelty’ wears off, so does attention) — The type of marketing can also be considered ‘novel’ à an  advert that looks outstandingly different Personal relevance and preferences — Specific beliefs about products are likely to guide attention towards belief that is consistent information rather than information that is inconsistent with those values or beliefs Brand Identity — Since our selective perception filters out information that is incompatible with our interests, creating a clear visual brand identity can be helpful when it comes to making consumers notice products — Ensuring that different types of products that are manufactured by the same brand have visual similarities means that they will be easier to spot and recognize o Highly recognizable brands easily attract our pre- attentive system, so consumers use little capacity to processes the information LESSON 4 7/10/2021 NeuroMarketing What and Why? (Chapter 2 from Introduction to Neuromarketing but no page 22-23) “Neuromarketing is the application of neuroscientific methods to analyze and understand human behavior in relation to markets and marketing exchanges.” (Lee, Broderick & Chamberlain) Why studying Neuro? 1) Consistency between predictions and selling out is sometimes missing Because emotions intervene, because they are working together with rationality to arrive to decision making. there’s a problem with consumer psychology because we always need to have consistency between prediction of sale and real selling out. Examples: Red Bull, Baileys and Porsche were predicted not to be successful ➙ there were some doubts about these products. Same thing happened with the Volkswagen advertisement ➙ it has a big success but also it was said that it would not have been successful. This doesn’t mean that research institutes are not able to work, this means that something possibly intervened ➙ it is hard to predict these things. Alixir was a line put in the market by Barilla, research institutes said that it would have been successful, but it was not “The trouble with the market research is that consumers don’t think what they feel, they don’t say what they think, they don’t do what they say.” (David Ogilvy, advertiser) 2) Recent studies emphasize that emotions have a big role in consumer decision making Emotions are not easy to be reported because sometimes there is not awareness of them Scholars realized also that the reasons why there was not this consistency is that emotions intervened, emotions acted. At the beginning they thought emotions were disturbing the decision- making process, in reality we understood that emotions work together with rationality and act together to arrive to decision- making. The Realm of Emotion (example of how emotions play a role in decision making) The launch of iPad by Apple à Marketers foresaw a giant flop, but instead thousands of people camped out of stores in order to get one because they ‘simply had to have it’ ➙ this is the kind of answer that let us understand that there’s nothing rational about this. Emotional connections to the products and to the brand have a real important role to the affection to the products. Here neuromarketing can help us because it allows us to investigate our brain and we know that some parts of the brain are activated by emotions and studying the brain and understand the parts activated by emotions we can understand how to propose our products and brands. 3) Emotions are not easy to be reported because often there is not awareness of them The Pepsi-Coke experiment Study by McClure —> 2 groups of people were told to taste some products. One group was in the knowledge that the products were Pepsi and Coke, the other one not. In the analysis of the brain of the groups they found out that 1) The one not in knowledge activated a part of the brain that is associated with pleasure 2) The one in the knowledge activated the one where emotions and memory are Getting to know the consumer brain “The human brain is the organ that houses cells that are activated during conscious and unconscious mental processes.” The Human Brain It has a unique structure with a complex three-dimensional architecture It weighs 1.5 kg and is about the size of a cantaloupe It is not completely developed till the age of 25 GALL At the beginning the only way of understanding the brain were traumatology and autopsy à the first studies were in the 18/19 century by Gall He gave birth to Phrenology a pseudoscientific approach in which psychic single functions depend from particular areas of the brain (frontal à language, occipital à feelings, medial à hope and spirituality) The mysterious case of Phineas Gage Phineas Gage was a well-respected and much appreciated railroad worker. In 1848 he was working at a new rail line to Cavendish. He oversaw a group of men that should work with explosives that should be put in a hole and covered with sand, Phineas should pack the sand with a tamping iron. Something happened and instead of tamping the sand, Phineas tamped the explosive. The bar hit him and passed his left cheek, destroyed his left frontal lobe and went out. Phineas did not die, he did not even faint, but his personality completely changed, he was no longer the man he was before. He became untrusting, offensive, he lost his jobs and friends. They began to understand that some areas of the brain have specific functions and if those areas are not there, people’s way of behaving change completely. The Headquarter Nowadays we know that the human brain is a sort of headquarter in which there are three main functions: Senso-perceptive ➙ reception of the stimuli from all sensorial organs Neuro-motor ➙ it can emit impulses that control the voluntary and involuntary movements Integrative ➙ generates mental activities like knowledge, memory, emotions and language The Brain Regions 1) Cortical Region It is divided into 2 hemispheres that are nearly symmetrical the structures are double ➙ one part that is in one hemisphere has a double in the other one. Most brain structures are bilateral, meaning that we have two samples of each due to the way in which our nervous system is organized) and each one is divided into four major lobes It directs the brain’s higher cognitive and emotional functions 2) Subcortical Region Thalamus Hypothalamus Cerebellum Brain stem This part is more related to emotions The brain has a top part called the dorsal part, bottom part called the ventral part, front part called anterior, back part called posterior. The different orientations we use to orient ourselves in the brain come along three orthogonal planes: Anterior – posterior ➙ what is forward (anterior) and back  (posterior) in the brain Dorsal – ventral ➙ regions that are either upwards (dorsal) or downwards (ventral) in the brain Medial – lateral ➙ towards the middle (medial) or sides (lateral) of the brain The Brain Lobes Each hemisphere has four lobes: Frontal lobes in the front Occipital lobes in the back Temporal lobes Parietal lobes The medial area is between the temporal lobes 1) The Occipital Lobe It is placed at the back of the human brain It is responsible for processing and interpreting visual information and for recognition of written text ➙ it is a “simple” structure It is related to: o Color recognition o Contour o Movement o Distance, depth and size assessment o Visual world mapping o Bottom-up attention (attention provoked by something  external, not something that we have decided to pick) o Visual stimuli identification (faces, objects) Vision Decoding The information the eyes get pass through the optical nerve in the deep brain structures (the thalamus) and then get back to the primary visual cortex (PVC) in the Occipital lobes. After processing the visual information in the different modules of PVC, it passes its conclusions to the temporal and parietal lobes to be further elaborated and give us a clear idea of what we saw. The optical nerve passes through an area that is connected to emotions management and this allows to react very rapidly to visual signals of danger. Not just occipital for sight Riddoch (….) The studies on Occipital area basing upon traumatology of English soldiers who has an helmet that did not protect that area Colonel T has a stroke on the right Occipital lobe: o He could recognize things o He was not able to describe them à Riddoch’s conclusion was that vision involves different parts of the brain Damage to this region can lead to: Full or partial cortical blindness ➙ an inability to see consciously but with paradoxical residual visual capacity (blindsight) Inability to see colors ➙ not the same as color blindness Inability to see movements ➙ the world looks like still images for seconds that change every few seconds About consumer behavior It activates when: Bottom-up attention is caught We identify and recognize with our eyes products and brands 2) The Parietal Lobe It is located above (dorsal) to the occipital lobe, stretching towards the top of the brain. It covers the sides (lateral) of the brain as well as the middle (medial) sides of the brain on each hemisphere It receives input from certain parts of the occipital cortex, in particular information related to position and movements. It also receives information from the other senses It houses the somato-sensory (somatic = relating to the body, sensory = of the senses) cortex and plays an important role in touch and spatial navigation It has strong relation with the body It assists/is responsible for: Integrating sensory information (tactile perception as touch, temperature perception, goal-oriented voluntary movements, manipulation of objects) Body sense and body representation Object action ➙ processing of objects in space and how to deal with them Perceiving and interpreting spatial orientation Navigation The allocation of visual attention: top-down and consciousness Self-awareness Social reasoning ➙ empathy and mentalizing Language comprehension Damage to this region can lead to: Loss of specific body senses Navigation problems Apraxia ➙ inability to know how objects are used Unilateral neglect ➙ inattention towards one side of the body and world Anosognosia ➙ inability to recognize own problems and limitations (often accompanies unilateral neglect) Attentional dysfunction, including lack of attention control About consumer behavior It activates when: There is top-down attention Product handling ➙ our ability to operate products Product navigation (virtual or real) 3) The Temporal Lobe It is located at the bottom part of the cortex The medial side of the temporal lobe is highly intertwined with del structures of the brain such as the basal ganglia and the diencephalon It is one of the brain’s convergence zones where information from different senses are combined together and processed jointly (when I look at a muffin I can smell it, the information of the vision and of the smell are united together in the temporal lobe) It is a major processing center for: Auditory perception (in the dorsal part) Visual recognition (faces, brands, products) ➙ it plays a central role in visual processing where vision goes from crude processing (in the occipital cortex) to more sophisticated object processing and cataloging Information that was processed before by auditory/visual/tactile/olfactory senses gets aggregated into a meaningful concept Memory (declarative and conscious memory, such as ability to remember events, factual knowledge) Language comprehension (Wernicke area) and expression/speech (Broca area) Social reasoning and behavior Damage to this area can lead to: Agnosia ➙ inability to recognize objects, places and/or faces Hearing disabilities  Language disability ➙ especially understanding of spoken and written language Amnesia ➙ loss of episodic and semantic memory (but preserved procedural and other memory types) Deficient social cognition About consumer behavior It activates when: Processing, learning and conscious memory of products and brands Understanding of products and brand communications Advertising comprehension Face recognition Social framing effects 4) The Frontal Lobe It is the brain region that is typical of humans It is the largest portion of the brain (it is 1/3 of the whole brain) It is a convergence area for emotions and thoughts It is the seat of the executive functions, it assists: Planning and organizing Reasoning Decision-making Integration of sensory information The planning and execution of the movement Short-term memory such as working memory Top-down attention and consciousness Problem-solving and creativity Behavioral control Social cognition, social behaviors such as empathy, social reasoning and social choice Hedonic experience This is the site where our identity and high-level processing get established Additionally, complex processing such as judgement and imagination are all centered in the frontal lobe Damage to this region can lead to: Paralysis Impulse control problems Lack of initiative Loss of working memory About consumer behavior It activates when: Long-term planning and impulse control (if these are activated, you will try not to buy the product that you like so much and try to govern your impulses to buy things) Consumer choice execution – they call it the “buying button” (connected to decision-making) and it places in the prefrontal cortex: if this area activates the customer intends to possess and buy a product Manual handling of objects Hedonic experience Neutrality with rationality ➙ emotions always intervene in our decisions. At the beginning we thought that the individual was rational and that emotions were just disturbing factors. Nowadays we understood that emotions are important parts of our decision process ➙ there is not just rationality, we are not rationality beings, we have both rationality and emotions. The deep structures of the brain For a long time, the relationship between the brain and the mind was highly focused on the cortical surface of the brain. Anything beyond and especially below the brain’s brim was neglected. The view about the relationship between the brain and the mind was “cortiocentric” – the cortex was the most important parts of the human brain. It was a part that was neglected in the past because they thought that the cortical part was the noble part were reasoning and decision-making was. They thought that this part was related to emotions and they thought emotions were disturbing factors. While now we know emotions are an important part of the decision-making process. The subcortical part is sit were there are the deep structures of the brain. In here we have many structures related to our life. The brain stem is the part related to our main and basic functions. Neuroimaging advent The autonomous nervous system o The sympathetic o The parasympathetic o The enteric nervous system The sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous system work in opposition in activating and relaxing the body, sometimes making it ready to respond and act, and other times allowing the body to relax and recoup. The brainstem If they are damaged one cannot survive Pons and midbrain Functions o It controls the flow of messages between the brain and the rest of the body ➙ it is central for the production of certain neurotransmitters (= signal substances that brain cells use in communication) o It controls basic functions like breathing, swallowing, heart rate, blood pressure, awareness o Synthetization and processing of dopamine o Engaged in what it is usually considered complex psychological mechanism, such as social behavior and other kinds of decision making The Limbic System It is made of many little regions, but for neuromarketing studies we are just considering 6 regions: 1) Basal Ganglia In which there are many other areas. The Nucleus Accumbens (NAcc) is the part related to motivation and decision- making. The NAcc is a structure that is not only related to emotional responses, or to prediction of outcomes, but also to a very specific kind of motivation – a wanting motivation. There was a study in 2007 who talks about the newer predictors of purchase ➙ to one specific sample of people, he presented a product for four seconds and he saw that for some people, not all of them, the Nucleus Accumbens activated, this means that they were interested in that product and that motivation was activated. He realized that whenever the Nucleus Accumbens was activated there was a positive relation with the possibility of purchase. The basal ganglia plays also an important role in reward and anticipation as well as certain motivated behaviors 2) Thalamus It is a collection of multiple nuclei that are still arranged in a systematic way to provide a global outreach. The visual information pass through the thalamus, but other sensory information pass through the thalamus. It distributes information across the brain ➙ it is a hub that allows “globalization” of information of the brain. Several models of consciousness claim a central role of the thalamus, including disorders/distortions of consciousness 3) Hippocampus The hippocampus is part of the medial temporal lobe (MTL). The MTL cannot be defined as cortical (or subcortical) region per se ➙ it is rather to be considered something of a mix between the cortical and subcortical regions. It is strongly related to memory. It activates with memory, memory of brands, of past emotions with some products. The hippocampus is connected with the amygdala. It is one of the most important convergence zones of the brain, where many kinds of sensory information are brought together to compose coherent episodes of ourselves and the world around us, and join many different kinds of associations together 4) Amygdala It is a conglomerate of many substructures. It receives input from all senses, both directly from the thalamus but also through cortical processing. It is an important part related to emotions, both negative and positive. When emotions are felt, amygdala activates. It is important also for novelty processing and object processing 5) Insula It is seen as an hidden part of the cortex, as it leis “insulated” within the folds of each side of the brain. Highly involved in emotion processing, decision-making and it activates when you see an excessive price. In the research before, the same group was proposed a big price for the product and they saw that insula activated with excessive price and this fact is negatively related with purchase, this means that when insula activates, it is improbable that people will buy the product. In the study they also propose the decision to buy or not buy the products and in this moment the pre-frontal cortex activated ➙ different areas activate 6) Cinguate Cortex It is divided into two parts: anterior and posterior and it is related to decision-making especially when there is conflict in the choice, when you are indecisive ➙ choice conflict. Also related to social and moral reasoning, error detection, conflict monitoring, stimulus-response mapping and orienting Structures and functions The relationship between structures and functions is complex: we don’t have one area for one function, one function is dealt with in different areas and in one area often many functions are dealt with. There is no neat one-to-one mapping between a brain structure and a function. There are two ways in which we need to understand the brain: One-to-many mapping ➙ when we study brain activation while a person performs a simple task we observe a flurry of activation in many brain regions, not just a single brain region ➙ we need to engage many structures. We do not have a “brain center”, but rather a network of brain regions that together lift the task. Also called pluripotentiality Many-to-one mapping ➙ when observing a single brain region, we realize that it can be engaged by many different functions. Often referred to as: o Degeneracy ➙ a function is performed by two or more dissimilar regions o Redundancy ➙ a function is performed by two or more identical regions The brain functioning In the brain there are approximately 100 billion neurons (electrically excitable cells) of different kinds. Neurons: Have about 100 trillion connections between them Generate thoughts, feelings and choices Connect through long, spidery arms (dendrites) and communicate with each other through electrochemical signals (= neurons work through electrical and chemical processes) Have a main body ➙ soma, dendrites and axon A group of connected neurons is called a neural circuit. The neuron functioning The cell body contains the nucleons and the cellular organelle The receiving part of the cell ➙ the dendrites (from dendron = “tree”) ➙ short and branched extensions that receive nerve impulses and send them to the cell body The transmitting part of the cell ➙ the axon also called nerve fiber, a vast extension wrapped in a lipid coating called the myelin sheath, through it the cell body triggers a response, that propagates from the axon into the dendrites of a different neuron the soma also receives signals The Nodes of Ranvier are traits without myelin sheath in the axon The flow of information is not unidirectional. Some signals to the neuron tend to excite the cell while others can inhibit the cell. When a neuron reaches a critical level of excitement, it makes a binary switch from inactive to active. At the start of the axon (the "axon hillock") started an electrical wave that travels all the way to the axon terminals. Upon reaching the terminals, vesicles within the terminal are released out of the neuron and into a small gap between this cell and another reining cell (called the "gap junction"). The vesicles, that can contain a particular substance that can affect the receiving cell, a substance we call neurotransmitters, simply because they transmit signals between neurons. There are multiple neurotransmitters in the brain, but some of the best known are dopamine, serotonin and acetylcholine. They are often thought of as playing different roles in our brains, and are unevenly distributed in our brains. Another neurotransmitter of note is the opioid system ➙ related to out experienced pleasure. Another different class of substances in the brain are ligands that can operate both as hormones and neurotransmitters. Several studies have recently demonstrated a role for the ligand oxytocin in social behavior, where increases in oxytocin levels can lead to changes as diverse as increased interpersonal trust, pair bonding, caregiving and hypnotizability. LESSON 5 11/10/2021 Consumer Learning and Memory (Chapter 2 ‘Consumer memory and learning’ from Consumer Psychology) Learning variables and aspects affecting and related to it: Humans and higher animals have learnt during centuries to make 2 fundamental types of forecasts in the environment they are in:  1) Succession à Each event follows other events (also the cause and effect) 2) Control à Some events are under our control and therefore modifiable, others are not THROUGH THESE TWO TYPES OF FORECASTS MEN CAN ADAPT TO THE ENVIRONMENT AND ITS CHANGES! Adaptive function, in the struggle the most suitable living beings survive, that is, those who take advantage of the resources of the environment and generate more numerous offspring (Charles Darwin) WHAT IS LEARNING? Etymology à Old English leornian "to get knowledge, be cultivated; study, read, think about," Learning is the common denominator of psychology and has very high relevance in the individual’s life (Lindsey, Thompson & Spring, 1988) Learning is based on experience mainly. Learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior cause by experience. “Learning is a continuous process in which our knowledge of the world constantly updates.” (Anolli & Legrenzi, 2001) To sum up It usually bases upon experience Phase of information collection Phase of action to produce a response that modifies the environment It is a relatively permanent and stable CHANGE It is a continuous process Types of learning  1) Direct Learning o Intentional learning - the learning with intention to learn the material and to commit it to one’s memory. o Incidental learning - the learning of one stimulus feature while concentrating on another stimulus feature too. It happens randomly and it is much more frequent in our daily life 2) Indirect learning (vicarious learning) o We see it in advertising This is really important for us because you can see it in advertising all day long ➙ when you look at people acting in some way in advertising, you learn from them, from what to see and by seeing what happens in the advertising and you learn the consequences The five elements of learning in consumer psychology 1) Internal drive ➙ encourages the individual to take action to learn. Inspiration to learn triggered emotions 2) Cue stimulus ➙ external stimulus that encourages learning (ex. advertising). Not as influential as internal drives 3) Response ➙ to the internal drive and the external stimulus. If they are combined the likelihood of purchase increases. However, the future purchases will be determined on the experiences they have after having tested the product and not on the combined drive and cue response 4) Reinforcement ➙ positive experience as a result of consumption 5) Retention ➙ learned material reaches long-term memory and becomes part of the existing knowledge network Approaches to learning 1. Behavioral Approach Behavioral approach ➙ the idea of the black box ➙ they consider that the minds of individuals are a black box ➙ it is something you cannot go into and cannot investigate, you just can see the stimuli that come to the mind (the inputs) and the responses the individual gives (the outputs). These theories focus on behavior and you can see what happens when certain stimuli act on the individuals and what is the behavior of these individuals. This theory can be applied to all living beings. This approach emphasizes observable behavior and tends to ignore the existence of mental processes involved in learning. We can infer the effect of the learning process by observing the individual’s behavior. Simple stimulus-response connections Focus on behavior All living beings (animals as well) 2. Classical Conditioning Elaborated by Ivan Pavlov (Nobel Prize 1904) - Russian physiologist, research on the digestion of animals. Classical conditioning is when a stimulus that elicits a response is learned to be associated with another stimulus that does not originally elicit a response. Dog experiment He made an experiment related to digestion that lead to other aspects in particular on conditioning. He proposed to the dog some food and he could see that when the dog saw the food he began to salivate ➙ this is an innate, not learned reflex ➙ when he sees food he begins to salivate. He tried the same thing with another stimulus ➙ a bell ➙ he rang the bell and he wanted to see if salivation happened ➙ this was a neutral stimulus and the dog did not salivate. He began to associate the two things, the unconditioned stimulus (food) and the neutral stimulus (bell), after some associations with repetitions he could see that something happened ➙ salivation that happened right after the presentation of food would happen after the bell was rang. The dog somehow recognized the bell ringing as a sign of the food coming and began to salivate ➙ he could condition the dog and the dog gave a condition to response. The bell was a condition to stimulus, it was no longer a neutral stimulus and the dog gave a conditioned response. You can see the importance of repetition in this situation. There should be more repetitions. If this repetition stops, if these associations stops after some time the dog stops salivating if he hears the bell ringing. This happened in many situations with auditory stimuli like a bell, with visual stimuli like a lamp lightning and with emotional stimuli. Unconditioned stimulus food ➙ unconditioned response salivation (reflex of the autonomous nervous system) Neutral stimulus bell ➙ no salivation Conditioned stimulus bell ➙ conditioned response salivation Speaking about psychic secretions Difference between innate reflex and learned reflex The importance of repetition It is important to pair the conditions stimulus with the unconditioned response, otherwise conditioning may gradually disappear ➙ extinction and spontaneous recovery Little Albert’s experiment This emotional stimulus was the base on an obnoxious experiment in 1920 ➙ they used a 18-month child. In the experiment the scholars associated the fury animals to a big fearful sound, after some repetition, the child began to cry whenever he saw the rabbit. Here we can see that emotions can be conditioned, and this was the base of studying all the emotional responses in human condition. This is useful also for consumer psychology. An obnoxious experiment made by Watson & Rayner (1920) with a 18-month child named Albert The child did not show any fear with furred animals The experiment was made by combining a very loud noise  whenever the furry animal approached After some repetitions little Albert cried whenever the animals arrived It can relate to learning about emotional responses in humans (ex.: fear or developing phobias). Fear as unconditional emotional response caused by dangerous, unpleasant or painful stimuli. Classical Conditioning and Consumption Classical conditioning can be useful for consumption. We have two kinds of classical conditioning: 1) Association Association of a brand with a positive stimulus, if the brain is associated with a positive stimulus they somehow condition the brand Music ➙ IPod commercial with music Humor Fragrances Emotions ➙ Coca-Cola works a lot with emotions and what it is interesting about this advertisement you can see the climax 2) Generalization of the stimulus Done by a researcher that asked himself “if the bell is not a bell, but another sound, and if the light is not yellow but it is white, if the stimulus is slightly different, things are working all the same?” They made this experiment and they saw that stimulus does not have to be identical, they are never identical because they cannot be. They understood that if the stimuli are similar, they can have the same effects ➙ this is due to the fact that human beings actually tend to categorize things and also to the fact that there are not identical sounds and elements in nature, so this kind of generalization can be applied to consumer psychology. Family branding ➙ you can use one brand for more products Product line extension Licensing Look-alike packaging Any help to conditioning? Repetition ➙ repeated exposures to the stimulus increase the strength of the stimulus-response association especially with consumers with low levels of involvement (ex.: children’s TV commercials). Krugman 1986 – at least 3 exposures to a product: Create awareness of the existence of the product Help to underline its relevance Have a recall function in the consumers’ memory The contrary of generalization is stimulus discrimination which is the ability with which an individual responds differently to similar stimuli ➙ this happens when an individual is particularly attentive ➙ this prevents generalization. Some limits of classical conditioning Lack of intentionality Passivity of the subject Simplicity of associations Higher-order Conditioning When a conditioned stimulus is not directly linked with the unconditioned response, but instead is paired with an already established conditioned stimulus Example: a new song by Justin Timberlake that is continuously played in clubs and on the radio will be paired with positive unconditioned stimulus, such as having fun, dancing and nice drinks. After having been repeatedly exposed to the music while enjoying yourself, you will form positive attitudes towards Justin Timberlake's song. His tune is then paired with a new conditioned stimulus such as shampoo in an advertisement. By repeatedly showing the advertisement, positive attitudes will subsequently be formed towards the shampoo Operant conditioning by Skinner Each of our behavior can have positive or negative outcomes and we tend to repeat the behaviors that produce positive outcomes and avoid those that yield negative outcomes. The experiment Skinner’s laboratory experiment: The Skinner box o By lowering the lever, it received food o By lowering the lever, it received an electric shock Operant conditioning ➙ the behavioral response is instrumental to the advantage of the rewards or to the extinction of the punishment. Subject no longer passive Complex situations Work on the consequences of learning A desired behavior can be learned over a period of time, as the modeling process rewards our intermediate actions ➙ you can lead people to learn something, it is not mechanical like classical conditioning Types of operant conditioning He saw different reactions with these consequences:  1) Positive reinforcement It is a sort of reward or compliment that you have and pushes you to repeat one action and behavior with positive output. It happens quiet often during our daily life: it happens when you wear a new dress and your friends make a compliment ➙ you tend to repeat that behavior. This the most used in consumer psychology In here we have an adv that is a sort of positive reinforcement ➙ if you wear that perfume you will feel like that mysterious, beautiful woman. Lottery can be considered as a positive reinforcement in which reinforcement does not happen always, it is delivered with an incident of causality, but the idea of receiving the reward lead us to get lottery tickets 2) Negative reinforcement It reinforces a behavior that allowed one to avoid something unpleasant (annoying light, noise, alarm clock). You have a lower motivational drive. We have some examples ➙ promise of negative reinforcement ➙ “a true friend takes punches in your place” ➙ in order to avoid an unpleasant situation you need to use the cask. “If you drink and drive yo can die, or maybe not. You can choose, don’t drink” 3) Punishment It occurs when unpleasant events follow a response. Result of temporarily decreasing the intensity or frequency of a behavior. Example: fidelity card ➙ if you don’t buy products for a period, this will give you the loss of all points ➙ this is a punishment that leads you to modify this behavior 4) Extinction It is the contrary of reinforcement. You do not have an outcome to your behavior. Reactions of frustration and anger. Continuity/discontinuity of extinction (shelf products) When you do not receive outcome when you say something or propose an idea, you don’t propose that thing again Generally, reinforcement techniques work better than punishment and learning can happen quicker when a reward is given every time a consumer engages in a desired behavior ➙ continuous reinforcement. However, partial reinforcement, which is when a reward is given infrequently, has been found to make the learning last longer once the reinforcement has been stopped. For a given operant behavior, reinforcement increases the likelihood of future recurrence, whereas punishment decreases the probability that it will be repeated Differences between operant and classical conditioning The order in which the response appears ➙ in classical conditioning the response occurs after the stimulus has been presented, while in operant conditioning the response takes places prior to the stimulus being presented Responses ➙ involuntary in classical conditioning, deliberate (the person is trying to obtain a goal) in operant conditioning The cognitivist approach It is a reaction to behaviorism ➙ theories related to a sort of behaviorism ➙ they were born around the 1960s and they focus on the human beings and on the mental processes that human beings have. Individuals’ language, thought, decision- making. In this theory they are actually trying to open the black box ➙ the human mind can be investigated and it is possible to understand how human beings learn. This perspective views people as problem-solvers who actively use information they receive from the world around them to master their environments. Cognitive Learning Process When new information arrives to the individual it needs to be processed First of all there must be attention and involvement in the individual, after that there is comprehension of the message (think for example of advertising) This comprehension leads to learning when there is elaboration and connected with prior knowledge, recall and reconstruction  1. Attention 2. Comprehension ➙ new information is entered into short- term memory which is rapidly analyzed and the consumer will determine whether or not it interests them. The new information entered into short-term memory is simultaneously influenced by previous information rapidly stored in long-term memory. Provided the new information somehow links up with prior knowledge, the individual is likely to think further about the stimulus they have encountered 3. Learning 4. Recall and reconstruction ➙ people usually recall the gist of the message rather than the exact wording. However, if the message is ambiguous, they may reconstruct what they have seen or heard so that it fits into already existing cognitive scripts. This means that sometimes when consumers recall a message, it can be very different from the actual message itself 5. Feedback ➙ consumers will receive it at various stages of the learning process and it is important in whether or not they will elaborate upon a message Social Learning Theory by Albert Bandura He was the initiator of social cognitivism and detachment from behaviorism. The individual is a social being and we know that living in a society has consequences also in learning. It is actually really useful because we can have direct learning ➙ we can live experiences and learn from the experiences we live and we can also watch and observe other people living experiences and gets knowledge from this ➙ vicarious learning ➙ this type of learning is important for individuals ➙ individuals can’t have the energy and time to make all the experiences on their own it can be really difficult ➙ this is the reason why observing others and having experiences is really useful and a much more easy way to learn. Useful not only for advertising campaigns using celebrities, but also for product placement in popular TV shows. The process is observational learning: Attention on the model’s behavior Retention of the behavior Production processes ➙ having the ability to produce behavior Motivation ➙ it arises when a situation happens in which the behavior could be useful Observational learning ➙ the consumer acquires and performs the behavior earlier demonstrated by a model The Bobo Doll Experiment (by Bandura, 1961) The experiment with an adult and a group of children The children repeat the adult’s behavior A pretty powerful way of learning The assumption is that habits tend to become relatively stable or recurrent when reinforced in some way. Memory and retention “Keeping a trace of the transformations that were induced by external stimulations.” (Quadrio & Puggelli, 2000) “The process by which information is acquired and stored over time so that it is then accessible when needed.” (Solomon, 2018) “Memories constitute our personal identity and contain our experiences of the outside world.” (Longoni, 2000) Our internal computer Memory storage process: 1. Encoding ➙ initial registration of the information transformed into a format that can be stored in the memory 2. Storage ➙ putting and keeping the acquired input in memory 3. Retrieval ➙ the information introduced is found from the archive to be used Memory is our computer that stores all the information we get from the world around us. It is a sort of warehouse where we encode the information, we store them according by a format accepted by our memory and then we try to retrieve them from our archive. Three memory systems (by Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1968) Studies about memory are many but there is an important conceptualization by Atkinson & Shiffrin (1968), sometimes this is criticized, but it is considered still one of the most effective ways of describing our memory. We have sensory memory in which memory arrives first ➙ it arrives from our senses when we perceive things. Many information can come to the sensory memory, but they stay there for a few seconds (visual information stays there less than one second, while acoustic information stays there for a few seconds). When we pay attention to specific information it passes the short-term memory which has a limited capacity and here information stay for less than 20 seconds ➙ it is also called the working memory. It is a sort of RAM and there is a working system divided by tasks. The few information that are considered important pass to long- term memory ➙ the duration is long enough. When we receive information there are these steps that leave many information from sensory information to short term memory and long-term memory. Long-term memory EXPLICIT OR DECLARATIVE o Semantic memory ➙ is a mental dictionary of basic knowledge (linguistic, mathematical, geometric, etc.) o Episodic memory ➙ places information at the space, time level IMPLICIT OR NON-DECLARATIVE o Procedural ➙ for skills and habits (how to do something) o Associative Memory in consumption Consumer memories and habits play a very important role in shaping purchase decisions, especially when viewed over time About 45% of people’s purchases and consumption is repeated almost daily usually in the same context Consumers tend to buy: The same brands of products Purchase the same amounts Eat similar types of food KEY-TERMS Cognitive scripts Existing knowledge structures that are organized into concepts Continuous reinforcement When a reward is given on each occasion a consumer engages in a desired behavior Extinction When a conditioning effect gradually disappeared due to lack of pairing of the conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus Partial reinforcement When a reward is given infrequently LESSON 6 14/10/2021 Learning and Memory (Chapter 2, pp 15-25 of Consumer Psychology — Chapter 7, pp 131-135 of Introduction to Neuromarketing) Memory is an active mental system that receives, stores, organizes, alters and recovers information (Baddeley, 1990) Memories are personal records of past experiences which can help us to: Learn new information Impact on the way we perceive stimuli Guide our behavior Important: The human memory functions in a similar fashion to a computer in that it follows a particular pattern whereby information needs to be transformed into something comprehensible before it can be stored and then, retrieved Memory Systems (Sensory Stores, STM, LTM) There are 2 main regions of the brain involved in the formation of short and long term memory (areas supporting memory) 1. The Hippocampus The hippocampus (h.) lays hidden deep inside the brain. It is located in the inner medial region of the temporal lobe, and forms part of the limbic system The name derives from the Greek (hippos, “horse”, and kampos, “sea monster”), since the structure’s shape resembles that of a seahorse The h. is important for encoding new declarative memories but not for procedural memories (like motor memory) The h. organizes information mainly on the basis of “where” something happened: the place where you created the memory works as a cue for the hippocampus to retrieve the content of the memory Encoding Specificity à This is a peculiarity of the functioning of the hippocampus People remember events much better if they are in the same environment as the one in which the information was first learned Effective in-store advertising: if the context of an ad can be (re)created at the point of sale, it can aid recognition and recall of product information  2. The Neocortex The neocortex is the outer layer of the brain, which increased in size the most over mammalian evolution The networks supporting representations are widely distributed over the neocortex The brain areas involved in memory overlap with the areas involved in perception and action (Martin 2007) In the neocortex, the organization of information is content-structured and stored in so-called associative memory networks -When a memory representation is activated, this results in the activation spreading along the nodes of the memory networks to related items à Increased chance of retrieval Sensory Stores The Sensory Stores allow us to store information received mainly through the senses (i.e., vision, touch, smell, taste and hearing) for very brief periods of time Imagine yourself walking through a busy shopping district… Provided the information exposed to is of interest, and consequently retained for further processin g, it is then transferred to short-term memory Short-Term Memory Short-term Memory (STM) is a system for storing information for brief periods of time as it has a limited capacity STM hardly lasts more than 30 seconds! It is the so- called ‘seven plus or minus two’ pieces capacity of informati on TASK: What is ‘chunking’ wiht regards to STM? Find out at page 17 of CP and provide an answer 1. Working Memory The part of short-term memory which is concerned with immediate conscious perceptual and linguistic processing (it maintains information for as long as it is useful for the execution of a specific goal) For WM, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) is crucial. Studies have demonstrated that regions of the dlPFC are engaged when people perform a working memory task, or similar tasks that tax out short-term memory abilities 2. The Order Effect The ‘Order Effect’ -> When people are presented with more information than the STM can deal with, they tend to better recall information that was eithe r presented at the beginning (primacy effect) or at the end (r ecency effect) of the message Long-Term Memory Long-term memory does not have a limited capacity (unlimited) and once our memories get her, they remain for a very long period of time, even forever! LTM is like a massive, integrated spider’s web Information is transferred from STM to LTM provided that a person thinks about (elaborates’) the meaning of the stimulus and relates it to ot her existing pieces of information The more integrated the information is in the LTM, the e asier it will be to remember How information is organized has an impact upon how easily infor mation can be stored in and retrieved from LTM Different Subsystems of Memory: Episodic M., Semantic M., Non-Declarative Memories, etc. Commercials often try to trigger episodic memories by foc using on experiences that are shared by a large number of people Remember! Associations can be formed between anything, and they may happen consciously or unconsciously Priming Effect à Already existing information is used to guide our judgement about novel pieces of information The hippocampus is not the end stage for memory content. With time, a transfer of information takes place from the hippocampus to the neocortex (Marr 1971) à Memories are eventually stored in associative memory networks in the neocortex In the neocortex, the organization of information is content- structured and stored in so-called associative memory networks The networks supporting memory representations are widely distributed over the neocortex (Martin, 2007) These areas of the neocortex involved in memory representations are strongly interconnected with the hippocampus IN SHORT Memories are initially stored in the hippocampus; over time, information gets integrated and stored in the neocortical representational areas The hippocampus is densely interconnected with the neocortex through cortical areas surrounding the hippocampus in the medial temporal lobe The ‘Squire-Zola’ Model Of Memory Main Distinctions Conscious (‘Declarative’) vs. Unconscious (‘Non- Declarative) Memories Declarative Memories -> Memories for ‘facts’ (‘Episodic’) vs. Memories for ‘knowledge’ (‘Semantic’) A more fruitful model of memory? Katharina Henke (2010) has suggested the following alternative: ”A new model [of memory] is therefore required in which memory systems are distinguished based on the processing operations involved rather than by consciousness” Repetition lf you see the same thing over and over again, the chance that it will be integrated increases Things that repeatedly happen have a higher chance to be consolidated 1. Repetition signals importance (things that repeat allude to regularity in the environment) It is fundamental for brands to be consistent Things that are consistently paired to a brand can become iconic brand assets These brand assets can subsequently be used in marketing communications as very effective branding cues Also, more abstract things such as colors, fonts or package shapes can become associated to brands with consistent use “REPETITA IUVANT” Things (e.g., objects, concepts) that are presented together, or happen at the same time, become connected in the memory networks of the brain Emotions “All memories are equal, but some memories are more equal than others” Memories that are paired with emotions are much more likely to stick Emotions work as a label in the brain, signaling importance, like a little tag saying “keep” This holds true for both positive and negative emotions  (Hamann et al. 1999) Holding on to emotional memories is a smart survival strategy You need to remember a situation that has put you in danger to be able to avoid getting into a similar dangerous situation again Automatic retrieval cues of an event -> Smell, taste, location Existing Memories Memories that fit well with the information we already know are better encoded and less vulnerable to decay* (Alba and Hasher 1983) For marketers, this means that tying new information to existing memories can be very effective When a celebrity is used in an ad, it builds onto the positive associations that are already tied to the celebrity, and people subsequently like and remember the product better (Klucharev, Smidts, and Fernandez 2008) *During the encoding process, the new information works as a retrieval cue for related existing knowledge in the brain The associated existing knowledge automatically becomes reactivated The new memory trace will contain both the new information and some of the existing knowledge that came to mind when receiving that information KEY TERMS EPISODIC MEMORY: A type of long-term memory that involves conscious recollection of previous experiences together with their context in terms of time, place, associated emotions, and so on SEMANTIC MEMORY: A type of long-term memory involving the capacity to recall words, concepts, or numbers, which is essential for the use and understanding of language ‘PRIMING’ EFFECT: A technique in which the introduction of one stimulus influences how people respond to a subsequent stimulus EXPLICIT MEMORY: The conscious, intentional recollection of factual information, previous experiences, and concepts Examples: Remembering what you learned in your psychology class, recalling your phone number, identifying who the current president is, writing a research paper, remembering what time you're meeting a friend to go to a movie, etc. IMPLICIT MEMORY: A type of long-term memory related to the impact that activities and experiences can have on your behavior. You might also hear it referred to as non-declarative memory. You access your implicit memory unconsciously without even thinking about it Implicit memories are of sensory and automatized behaviors, and explicit memories are of information, episodes or events KEY TAKE AWAYS Our memory is generally thought to consist of three types: Sensory stores, STM (Short Term Memory), LTM (Long Term Memory) Consumers will recall previously learned information better if the environment in which they are trying to remember it resembles the one in which they learned it Repetition can aid memory, as can the use of good visual stimuli Interference can take place when stimuli are similar in nature - this can be combated by repeatedly exposing consumers to a marketing message LESSON 7 18/10/2021 Senses and Perception (Chapter 4 from Introduction to Neuromarketing and consumer neuroscience excluding the p 64 Thalamus and Vision, 68 Further convergence of visual information and 80 Dwindling brain specialization with increase age) Remember: Sensation is NOT perception à Sensation is when stimulus hit our senses. It goes to the brain and produces electrochemical and physical responses. When the information gets to the senses. It arrives to the brain and gets elaborated and processed thrugh sensory cortices à Here we have perception, which is when these stimuli are interpreted In neuromarketing: A product is what the consumer perceive it is ➙ the product is not what the product is, but it is what we perceive it is, it’s our representation of the product A product is a mental construction Perception is an individual activity that depends on the context and from our previous experiences THE SENSORY MARKETING EXPERIMENT It was an experiment with fruit tea by Rosenlacher & Tichy, 2020. It is a study in which they analyzed the sensorial perception of a fruit tea ➙ through this analysis they could deduce that the first sense through which we get 80/90% of the information that we have is through sight. Smell as well was important to form opinion and analyze things because it is one of the most sensitive senses and it activates an area really closed to the limbic system closed to emotions and so it triggers our emotions. From the analysis they deduce that: The first sense through which we get 89-90% of the information we have, is SIGHT The second sense is SMELL , since it’s the most sensitive sensory organ and olfactory receptors travel directly into the emotional experience of a person SEEING The most dominant sense The by far most dominant sense we have vision, both in terms of how we orient ourselves and in the sheer real estate that the brain devotes to vision. We are visual creatures this means that through sight we do many things like perceive and judge many aspects of our life. Moreover, even tasting happens at first with sight ➙ you start tasting food with your sight. Our visual field is very wide ➙ 200 degrees. This doesn’t mean that we see all around because we actually see where our eyes point (visual focus) where we have a strong visual acuity ➙ about 2 degrees. But if there is movement in the 200 degrees, bottom- up attention is hit and so we move our head and see. These two properties of the eyes allow us to both detect things in the periphery (low acuity, but high sensitivity to contrast and movement) and focus on a few selected items with strong acuity (high acuity and color sensitivity, but low sensitivity to contrast and movement). The eye functioning Our eyes are collections of millions of photo sensors. The eye is like a photographic machine in which light is perceived on the retina. In the retina there are: Rods – high sensitivity to light, contrasts, movements, night vision Cones – sensible to wavelengths, colors and details, but lower sensitivity to contrast Rods and cones capture the light that hits the back of the eye. Their distribution is uneven (more rods) Errors and the blind spot à here there are no light receptors, so our brain helps us to complete the image, it interprets the world around it VISION PROCESSING When all cones and rods gather their information, they project this information backwards towards the brain. ➔ They do so through a bundle called through the Optical Nerve. Here there are no light receptors (blind spot) ➔ It then reaches the Thalamic Nuclei (as a filter for intense information); here the optic nerves from each eye, cross each other, in an X-shaped-feature called the Optic Chiasm. ➔ From the Thalamus, the crossed visual signals are projected to the Primary Visual Cortex (information from the two eyes is united) The optic chiasm The optic nerve from each eye cross each other, an X-shaped feature. Beneath this chiasma there are areas (the suprachiasmatic nucleus) that pick up fluctuations in lighting related to the day-night cycle. The cross is not complete, but functional: only light that is processed on the left side of the visual field, which hits the right side of the retina, is projected to the left side of the thalamus and vice versa ➙ things to your left is processed on the right side of the brain In the PVC (primary visual cortex) there are processors that are responsible for what draws our bottom-up attention: General pattern of recognition Depth and distance (stereotopic vision) Contrast Color Brightness Complex movement Determination of absolute position of the object Our brain is an interpreter and a forecaster When our eyes are hit by stimuli, information goes through the optical nerve ➙ the part that we see with the left eye goes to the right part of the brain and vice versa. In the left part of the brain information pass through the thalamus and goes to the occipital lobe. Here we have the primary visual cortex in which information from the two eyes is put together and here there are processors that work on a general recognition. It is important to remember that our brain works in the meanwhile because it needs to help us to solve the problem of the blind spot (the part we do not see). Sometimes the brain corrects things: our brain is an interpreter and it is a forecaster and here we have an example of it. Our brain let us see a wide triangle here, in reality in here we have three parts of circles and segments, but they are put in a position that they make us think it is a triangle. The Gestalt theories work on this. In advertising, people are working with this. The representation of the outer world on the inner “brain-scape” is very specific ➙ the visual system is retinotopic ➙ there is a topographical mapping between the “real world” and the way the brain processes this information. VISION DECODING 1) Primary visual cortex 2) Secondary visual areas (memory) 3) It passes its conclusions to the temporal and parietal lobes à from visual sensation to visual cognition à the information that have been processed independently until this point, are now sending their specialized information to the same region of the brain The Two-Streams Hypothesis (Milner, 2008 & 2006; Goodale, 1992) This passage is done according to Milner and Goodale through two streams: The ventral stream ➙ the what pathway, it is devoted to  processing object identity and representation, brand and product identity ➙ we recognized things and products. It is connected to memory. Connected to the inferior temporal lobe The dorsal stream ➙ the where/how pathway, it is devoted to orienting ourselves in the world, objects location, product position. Connected to the parietal lobe This is important especially with brands and products ➙ what we perceive it to be, how we use it and where it is. Bridging this gap from knowing what to knowing how, can often prove crucial to whether consumers find the product interesting and are interested into buying it. VISUAL COGNITION It is what the Gestaltian psychologists call ‘the whole’. Visual cognition is a key function for human beings and consumers To give meaning to what we see To recognize objects, products, brands Missing visual cognition ➙ visual agnosia ➙ if everything works till the occipital lobe, but we can’t have visual cognition we can’t understand what products are SENSORIAL CONVERGENCE IN THE TEMPORAL CORTEX The temporal cortex is mainly related to gathering sensorial information and putting them together. The brain interprets