Consumer Behaviour

Lecture XXIII                 -                      Sub culture Influence                               9.11.11

Campus chronology expressed in t-shirt designs

Myths, ritual, values/ norms, cover, overt

Cultural shift – narrow horizon

Society shapes/ reshapes trends

Ram – social stigma- role model? Sacrifice own life for parents

Krishna – live life king-seize – emerging more popular epic hero with current generation in India

having standardized culture not possible → natural seize of a group has to be small community

(around 100 groups)

diversity needed for large groups' equilibrium

Sub cultures

• homogeneous clusters within cultural group
• age, income, social class, ethnicity, religion, language, any other characteristics that assets identity

A consumer's age exerts a significant influence on his/ her identity

• we have things in common and speak in a common language with others of our own age

Age cohort (“my generation”)

• marketers target special age cohorts
• feeling of nostalgia
• our possessions let us identify with others of a certain age/ life stage
• teens/ old generation

Teen values, conflicts, and desires

• basic conflicts common among teens
• autonomy vs. belonging: break from family but attached to peers
• rebellion vs. conformity: rebel against social standards but want to be accepted by society
• idealism vs. pragmatism: view adults as hypocrites and see themselves as sincere

The Family (smallest sub-group)

...

Lecture XXII                -                   Values and Lifestyle                                           8.11.11

subgroups essential part of groups, therefore subcultures essential for cultures

A subculture has different

• values – most important life priorities
• world view – what is reality, what is it all about?
• Lifestyle – reflects lifestyles differences across many values – related product categories
  patterns of consumption reflecting a person's choices of how one spends time and money
  Lifestyle marketing perspective → (remember Affinity group Marketing, Schertler)

Examples of studies

• VALS can be done online
• AIO – Activity, Interest, Opinion
• LOHAS
• Global Lifestyle trends http://www.yankelovich.com/

Lecture XXI                -                 Culture                                                                        04.11.11

culture as personality of a group

many cultural products, as a marketer need to understand the role culture plays

Understanding culture

norms: rules dictating what is right or wrong

• enacted norms – explicitly decided on
• crescive norms – embedded in a culture and include customs (norms handed down from the past that control basic behaviour)
• mores – customs with a strong moral overtone
• conventions – norms regarding the conduct of everyday life

→ all three norms combine to define a culturally appropriate behaviour, one might not be aware of them

Myths and Rituals

Myths – a story containing symbolic elements that represent the shared emotions/ ideas of a culture

• conflict between opposing forces
• outcome as moral guide for people
• reduces anxiety
• urban legends
• marketers create own myths, e.g. MacDonald's golden arches mean sanctuary
• start up myths for nike and apple computer

→ mystery captures our imagination

Rituals – sets of multiple, symbolic behaviours that occur in a fixed sequence and that tend to be repeated periodically

• many consumer activities are ritualistic, e.g. smoking, grooming, college campus
• ritual artifacts are used, e.g. candles, wall clocks, gift market, chocolate (I love you)
• e.g. going jogging with an entire equipment from cloths to high tech, a network of business opportunities → creating markets for products

Grooming Ritual

• inspires confidence
• cleanses body of dirt
• before and after phenomenon

Gift giving ritual

• economic exchange
• symbolic exchange
• social expression

Holiday Rituals, Rites of Passage Rituals

Sacred (treated with respect and awe) and Profane (ordinary) consumption

sacred people and sacred events

Lecture XX                  -                                   Socionomics                                       01.11.11

Standard view                                         vs.                                           Socionomic view

Happy music makes people smile                                          people who want to smile choose happy music

Nuclear bomb testing makes people nervous                         Nervous people test nuclear bombs

war makes people fearful and angry                                      fearful and angry people make war

scandals make people outraged                                            outraged people seek out scandals

?

What is the direction of causality? Cause and effect?

Mood inflections spread throughout people → mood spread

“anticipate events with CB methodology”

crowd → letting go, lose sense of identity → Hysteria “not in control of your elements”

“spectacular effect of crowds” → get as many people as possible

amplified emotions e.g. faith healing

“transition in mental state” → Adrenaline rush/ feel good/ harmonic change

- method to produce strong bonding-

How do we get affected by others?

• “ Social Facilitation effect” e.g. running
• social Loafing
• de- individuation
• group polarization and risky shift
  → Social arousal

We have a dominant response, which are learnt, on top of the mind → groups enhance performance

whereas complex task → groups inhibit performance

“When part of the group one behaves differently” Mechanism of a crowd

Managers view :”How to attract people who must be there to make others buy”

Reference group influence

• an actual or imaginary individual/ group conceive of having significant relevance upon an individual's evaluations, aspiration or behaviour
• influences consumers in three ways 1. information 2. utilitarian 3. value expressive

Who are the ones propagating information

internal networking – inside the organisation, e.g. policy

external networking – creating business and representation

Lecture XIX               -                         Reference Groups                                   31.10.11

Consumer Sentiment

• “marketing is a mind game”
• fluctuating sentiment: if you feel good your behaviour changes

Socionomics – economic behaviour is a crowd behaviour

• exploring the socionomics perspective
• social mood influences/ producs social events
• during bear markets most horror movies are popular
• e.g. in India right now, the Anna case made people concerned about corruption

Socionomics

• is a new theory of social causality that offers fresh insights into collective human behaviour
• over 20 years of empirical research demonstrates that social actions are not caused to changes in social mood, but rather changes in social mood motivate changes in social action
• humans unconscious impulse to herd lead to the emergence of social mood trends, which in turn shape the tone and character of social action

e.g. effect of current recession can be felt on campus –> after the summer the campus turned gloomy

→ amplifying effect of mood fluctuation

This perspective applies across all realms of social activity, e.g. politics, cultural, financial

“mood swing in an environment”  

Lecture XVIII                     –                                  Consistency Principle                          29.10.11

stable mental models, thought patterns – collectively sharing a belief

attitude as predictor of behaviour

Cognitive dissonance and harmony

Theory of cognitive dissonance: when a consumer is confronted with inconsistence among attitudes or behaviours he will take action to resolve “dissonance”

Self-perception theory – we use observation of our own behaviour to determine what our attitudes are

One example is to provide incentives for the consumer to visit a place more often (e.g. coupons) so that while at the place s/he uses self-perception theory to realize the fortune of the place.

→ “need an argument to support behaviour”

“habit of creating ego-defensive”

1. foot in the door technique
2. low ball technique
3. door in the face technique

Social judgement theory

We assimilate new information about attitudes objects in light of what we already know/ feel

• Initial attitude = frame of reference/ latitudes of acceptance & rejections
• assimilation and contrast effort

Attributes theory

• principles of defensive attributions
• internal attribution
• external attributions

spectacular group influences (Milgram experiment)

→ public folder – Stanford Prison experiment

Lecture XVII                    -                                 Attitudes                                                     25.10.11

some attitudes are so established that they are not even questioned, e.g. the more risk the more return in business, the more expensive a product the better it is, competition is good for business

“Math is considered to be more intelligent in contrast to HR”

Social debate is going on in Kerala about the fact that “society pressures women to have many children” (half a dozen)

Why do attitudes exists?

• they help to shape a coherent view of the world (habits of the mind, mental habits)
• e.g. believes, views, structural cognitive processes

idea of attitudes – mental model -

• strong patterns of thinking lead to predictability
• cognition – affect – connotative

Four functions of attitudes

1. utilitarian
2. value expression
3. ego defence
4. knowledge function

Attitude commitment

• degree of commitment is related to level of involvement with attitude object:
• Compliance – lowest level: consumer receives rewards or avoids punishment
• Identification – mid level: uniform to another group or person
• Internalization – highest level: deep seated attitudes become part of consumer's value system
  
  

Lecture XVI            -                       Gender and Self                                                       24.10.11

Gender roles vary to culture and are changing

Many societies still expect traditional roles:

• Agentic roles: men are expected to be assertive and have certain skills
• communal role: women are taught to foster harmonious relationships

→ Sex- typing: sex-typed traits (stereotyping) e.g. in India a bike (masculine) and Gin (feminine)

Androgyny – both masculine and feminine characteristics, Androgynous people function well in social environments

Female sex roles

• emerging of new groups with psychological differences of men/ women roles

feminine vs female characteristics

characteristics of emotions, e.g. crying, using temper to express emotions, sadness

Male Sex roles

Masculism: three traditional models of masculinity: breadwinner, rebel, man of action hero

“biological as male and behaviour traditional feminine”

We do not questions certain roles because of tradition

“Indian male are spoiled due to gender opinion”

Metrosexual: straight, urban male who exhibits strong interests and knowledge regarding fashion, home designs, gourmet cooking, and personal care that run counter to traditional male sex roles.

• Prosumers/ urban influentials
• GLBT consumers 4% to 8% in U.S.

Body Image

• a consumer's subjective evaluation of his/ her physical self
• Body Cathesis: Person's feelings about his or her own body
• preeming/ strong body cathexis – frequent purchases of preeming products

Ideals of Beauty

• e.g. dreamness of girls related to current trends “plump”
• 17 gymps in Kunamangalam → kids say “I am going to play” and mean work out in a gym
  buying powder to enhance growth of muscles
• “traditional hero men in Kerala used to be like teddy bear”

• exemplar of appearance
• “beauty” is stereotyped

The western ideal

Skin colour and eye shape → status, sophistication, and social desirability, e.g. “in Kerala women used to have long hanging earlops”

• less powerful cultures adopt standards of beauty to dominant cultures

Ideals over time

• early 1800s women tend to appear delicate/ looking ill appearance, keen to faint

One theory suggests:

• bad economy favours mature features
• good economy favours babyish features
• Media communicates these values

Lecture XV            -                        Dove Case: Establishing a master brand                          21.10.11

Three principle marketing strategies (What is better?)

1. telling people you are good so to use my brand
2. telling people you are not so good so to use my brand to become better – anxiety approach
   strategy to make people insecure
3. sound intelligent and seek empathy with target group so to empathize with them, e.g. brand sounds like me, intelligent

Create a blog/ viral campaign to connect people to Dove (capture the fascination)

something deeper: former women who had used cosmetics – gave up due to disappointment – then new hope from dove → reassure them “You are beautiful”

Symbolic interactionism - is a major sociological perspective that places emphasis on micro-scale social interaction, which is particularly important in subfields such as urban sociology and social psychology.

Herbert Blumer (1969), who coined the term "symbolic interactionism," set out three basic premises of the perspective:

• "Humans act toward things on the basis of the meanings they ascribe to those things."
• "The meaning of such things is derived from, or arises out of, the social interaction that one has with others and the society."
• "These meanings are handled in, and modified through, an interpretative process used by the person in dealing with the things he/she encounters."

Lecture XIV            -                         Multiple Selves                                 18.10.11

Recap: self-concept/ also a concept of body (all dependent on own perceptions)

Real Self - actual self, that is more realistic appraisal of the qualities we have

Ideal Self – can be separated into public and private dimensions

• a person might have contradicting selves (multiple selves), someone being shy and a good presenter
• “personal trip” - a feeling of not to want to do anything today, not shave, “let me feel depressed today”... but the opposite can also happen “I am tired of being, let's go party”
• If one does not know how to play a role, e.g. the role of a father, one is likely to look at others and imitate them
• one professor identified one major problems of families, i.e. the father-son relation (two opposing factors)
• How do online selves affect consumer behaviour? (ongoing discussion) What affects the online role?

Role Theory and Symbolic interactionism

Symbolic interactionism relationships with others play a large part in forming the self.

• Who am I in this situation? / who do other people think I am?

→ in unfamiliar situation one does not know what to do, observe and feel what is expected of me

Self-fulfilling prophecy – pattern our behaviour according to other

Looking- Glass Self

Self-consciousness (awareness of self)

• public self-consciousness; are more interested in clothing and cosmetics
• self-monitoring are attuned to how they present themselves in social environment

→ You are what you consume

Symbolic self completion theory

• an incomplete self-definition completes the identity by acquiring and displaying symbols

Self/ Product Convergence

• products are extended selves – external objects as a part of oneself

Service Guarantees – features

• unconditional
• easy to understand and communicate
• easy to evoke   

Lecture XIII                   -                           The Self and Idea of Identity                              14.10.11

Campaign Philips “whom do you want to be today?

Who are you? (asking yourself) might answer with the following attributes

• shy? Handsome? Spiritual? Assertive (bestimmend, durchsetzungsfähig)? Rugged (wild)?
• Temperamental? → “emotions are powerful weapon”

Whom do you want to be? (in front of yourself, and in front of others)

• “I would like to be the manifestation of the one true self”
• multiple selves (role playing) in public and private, sophisticated consultant or creative marketer
  → similar to positioning

Self fulfilling prophecy

• “playing multiple roles by using appropriate props”
• at initial stage it may be a conscious adaptation then one gets used to it (unconscious)

identity crisis in open world → everyone has the desire to be someone

utilitarian consumption vs. self expression behaviour when it comes to using products and services

in alignment with lifestyle choices, and consumption patterns → brands

Brand is a person/ Brand personality - “make brands into personalities”

Identity, Self and Self-Image

• consumer have variety of enduring images of themselves
• these images are self perceptions
• self perception influences consumption

Perspective on the self-Image

• we buy products to highlight/ hide aspects of the self, e.g. cosmetics, sun glasses at night
• Eastern cultures focus on
  • the collective self (person's identity comes from the community) Which group do you belong to? (one of the initial questions)
  • the interdependent self (person's identity defined from relationships with others)
  • communal goals
    → “traditional view”
• Western cultures focus on
  • individuality
  • individual appearance

Self-Concept

• own belief about one's attributes and evaluation (changing concern)
• attribute dimensions: content, positivity, intensity, stability over time, accuracy,
• self-aware, self-monitoring
• “need skills in being who you are” = communicate that idea accordingly

Real self - our more realistic perception of ourselves 

Ideal self - the way we would like to be

Self Esteem

• the positivity of a person's self concept
• low self esteem: think they will not perform well
• high self esteem: think they will perform well
• sales strategy “Tell me you have no money and I leave you” sales person strategy → effective strategy to make someone feel insecure   

Lecture XII             -                       ZMET                                                                                 13.10.11

• Metaphor – deep metaphors (hidden in the subconscious)
• selection of images (we think in metaphors) helps to surpass biases/ cognitive though process/ constraints
• then applying projective techniques/ qualitative interview (predictive validity)
• psychological characteristics measured in interviews for recruitment
  BUT methodology not revealed, only sold

thesis: perception of Kazakhstan using imagery to figure out deep metaphors (e.g. select two out of 5 pictures that you associate with holiday and Kazakhstan) way to figure out emotions, senses

Neo Freudian Personality Theory

• we seek goals to overcome feelings of inferiority
• we continually attempt to establish relationships with others to reduce tension (feeling of anxiety)
• main contributors Karen Horney, Alfred Adler, Harry Sullivan
• experience of rejections makes anxiety level rise/ anxiety marketing
  → understood meaning: creating a need in consumers' mind

As a marketer create opportunity for people to create their own conclusion. (since people are very good at making own conclusions)

Carl Jung: analytical psychology

• collective unconscious (shared thoughts and feelings) = category building
• Archetypes in advertisement e.g. Shampoo: different kind of categories “you must have this one”
• Success of Lord of the ring, and harry potter because of the many archetypes used?

Lecture XI            -                 Freudian Theory                                        11.10.11

Term paper (course outline)

• any type of topic relevant to Consume behaviour
• identify a topic from around you
• an interesting phenomena
• justify its importance to business and marketing
  
  
  Study and Researchdeadline 
  17. November
  max. 10 pages, size 11

Recap: Motivation Process

specific needs and buying behaviour

• achievement
• affiliation
• power
• uniqueness

Are consumers aware of their motives?

• aware of goals? What do they want?
• Not necessarily of needs – Why do they need something?
• Awareness of needs; motivational process and willingness; ability to share such insights
  → mostly consumers do not know why they do something and even if they know, they will not tell you!

Example for rebellious behaviour “giving up milk and going for cola”

Freudian Theory

• libido – life force
• basically Freud suggests that an energy in the unconscious creates an urge (urges from unconscious)

Sublimation – socially accepted norm and way of doing something to fulfill unconscious needs

Homework: Inform about ZMET / Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQzYclR8ufM

Lecture X                   -                          Learning and memory                                          07.10.11

Recap: learning

1. classical conditioning

• “people have no choice other than to respond to stimuli in a designed system”
• association created through pairing: positive strengthening
• “supermarket assembly line to go through providing positive reinforcement”
  
  

2. Instrumental conditioning

• positive reinforcement (...strengthens the likely hood of a specific response)
• negative reinforcement (...serves to encourage a specific behaviour)
• punishment
• extinction
  → responsibility of a manager to design a system to provide right reinforcement

We are what we are because of Nature and/ or Nurture

commitment – function of environment and treatment

(brand) loyalty – learnt outcome by experiencing touch points

→ take customer through a route/ a designed system (shaping)

Reinforcement schedules include: (very important)

• fixed interval (e.g. seasonal demand)
• variable interval (e.g. fishing, the more one waits for a catch the more it is perceived to become probable: nature of human mind)
• fixed ration (e.g. supermarket and Bonus card to collect points for each purchase)
• variable ration (scratch card)

Connection or Cognition

• cognitive maps lead to latent learning , i.e. problem-solving behaviour
  learning always happens and changes in neurological structure occurs
• insight learning (as outcome of latent learning), i.e. spontaneous recall of solutions of a new problem
• learning by modelling, i.e. imitate, provide models to emulate

Lecture IX                 -                               Learning Continued                                        05.10.11

How do we pick up smoking? (cognitive? To irritate your parents? Being in control of fire?)

Can you explain smoking with classical conditioning? (i.e. when you do not have a choice to get conditioned or not)

How did you learn to speak? Through encouragement, intentional learning, reinforcement by parents to reproduce sounds, observation/ modelling small mouth movements?

“perceptual defence”

theory of Short term memory – one is able to hold simultaneously 7+- 2 junks of information/ unique concepts for a short period of time, i.e. the evoked set in contrast to the evoked set

Assignment: Anti-smoking campaign for two segments (deadline 20.10.11)

1. to persuade people to give up smoking
2. to persuade people not to start smoking

able to use TV-ads, viral media, etc..

http://www.warc.com database for research

Lecture VIII                       -                                 Learning and Memory                            03.10.11

“How in India is this..” Maya – illusion

habit (something learnt) – most teeth trouble because of wrong brushing habit

Importance of learning

• adult socialization – consumer socialization (how to live in this world)
• marketers must teach consumers: (consumption technology)
  • where to buy
  • how to use
  • how to maintain
  • how to dispose of products

→ most are learnt behaviours in consumption – Exposure and perception lead to learning!

Consumer learning

• overt and covert learning behaviour

Intentional learning

• learning acquire as a result of a careful search for information
• SOR approaches: cognitive, reasoning, problem solving

Incidental learning

• learning acquired by accident or much effort
• SR approach: association, paring, conditioning, connection

Behaviour learning theories:

a) classical conditioning theory

• repetition increases learning
  • more exposure leads to increased brand awareness (Three hit theory)
  • extinction occurs when less exposure BUT too much leads to advertisement wear out (adaptation vs. novelty)
• stimulus generalization
  • in the cluttered marketing space learnt stimulus is very important

b) instrumental condition

Behaviours are enforced by positive and negative outcomes

Positive Reinforcement (definition!) 

Negative Reinforcement (definition!)

Superstitious (aberglaube)

Study done by psychologist revealing that religions that are more strict make people more happy. The reason is less ambiguity giving not so much space for scepticism.

“Marketers task is to condition consumers/ develop biases”

Project Implicit to become aware of one's own biases

https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/germany/

Especially leaders and management have problems if they do not realize their biases!

Book to check: Blink (after thoughts)  

Lecture VII                   -                         Perception Conditioned Learning                            30.09.11

Halo/ horn effect → to make an assumption based on one stereotype

e.g. green hero is a good one whereas a red hero is an evil one

Video of traditional Kerala Dance: Form of communication, e.g. mudras

“When reading becomes more easy, it is less likely to be remembered”, that is because the degree of emphasise on the learning process determines the remembering

Semiotics

• symbols – communicate message without words
• correspondence between science and symbols, are very “culture specific”, e.g. someone is gifted with a white rose = truth, yellow rose = shallow friendship
• 1. sign (image), 2. object (brand), 3. meaning (Interpreter)

cryptic meaning vs. cliché

Icon – sign that resembles the product in some way

Index – sign that is connected to a product because they share some property

Symbols – sign that relates to a product by other conventional or agreed upon associations

Hyper reality (created reality)

• “The world around us is not real, everything we believe in is an interpretation of stimuli”
• through advertising for example that claims everyone to have a car, a house, polished toilet

Sapir – Whorf Hypothesis of Linguistic Relativity

“The principle of linguistic relativity holds that the structure of a language affects the ways in which its speakers are able to conceptualize their world, i.e. their world view. Popularly known as the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis, or Whorfianism, the principle is generally understood as having two different versions: (i) the strong version that language determines thought and that linguistic categories limit and determine cognitive categories and (ii) the weak version that linguistic categories and usage influence thought and certain kinds of non-linguistic behavior. “--wiki--

• our thought is “at the mercy” of our language
• it is constrained by the language we speak
• compelled to use language for thinking process???

Perceptual Positioning

aspect of thought – functional attributes and symbolic attributes

difficult to differentiate the many offers and choices

notion: 

Determining tourism markets through CB study. The perception based on a survey

Case study Kazakhstan

Lecture VI                -                                            Perception                                   29.09.11

priming “Grundierung”

three videos on priming

• humans are prone (anfällig) to power of suggestion
• money = food = basic urge to survive... tends to make people more self reliant, and gives them apparently more physical strength through power association. People primed with money feel less pain?!? holding hands under ice water twice as long
• Stimulus response model → Incidental learning through priming
• consumers can be persuaded by changing the perception of the stimulus

Attention

• competition for our attention
  → selective at perception (we tend to perceive less than 1% of all stimuli)
• perceptual vigilance (Wachsamkeit) → when we are hungry for example we observe more
• perceptual defence/ adaptation

Perceptual Organisation

• we perceive sensation to other memory (that has been learnt), e.g. grouping, closure, figure & ground

Perceptual interpretation

• stereotyping
• Halo effect and Horns effect

Semiotics

• convert symbols into meaning

Semiotic relationships

• e.g. Marlboro cigarettes with cowboy

Lecture V                –                       Perception                                                                     28.09.11

Mainstream Psychology (5 aspects with perception being on of them?)

• interpretative process of any stimulus, meaning making, convert stimulus into meaning
• Sensation to basic stimulus → perception forms “Reality through meaning”
• amount of change determines determines the degree of perception
• Sensation = Exposure, Attention, Interpretation

Sensory Thresholds

• psychophysics and absolute thresholds
• differential threshold
  • ability of a sensory system to detect changes or differences between two stimuli
  • minimal difference between two stimuli is the just noticeable difference (j.n.d.), it is proportional to initial stimulus: need enough difference for change to be noticed
  • marketers play with this fact, e.g. when reducing content of a product and designing the packaging in a way to create confusion (less product while equal price)

marketing philosophy

• if you do someone a favour, make sure she/he recognize it as such. But in reality, do not let them notice it!

Subliminal Perception

limen (limit) – subliminal (below limit)

Can subliminal embeds change one's perception?

• subliminal priming (Grundierung/ Grundmanipulation)

three video examples:

1. Lion's kind and world Disney
2. apple makes you really more creative
3. Derren Brown

Lecture IV                         –                             Involvement Theory                                   27.09.11

Involvement

1. Through Situation (rational)

• people process information and arrive at outcomes using facts and logic

2. Feel situation

• preferences based on subjected likes & dislikes
• “not thinkable”

→ Involvement was originally defined as the perceived importance of decision to the person

• when a decision is more important they think more and are relatively rational

biases/ prejudice (Voreingenommenheit) based on race, gender

“sometimes we do not realize that we have a bias”

levels of product involvement

• decision made based on emotional appeals –> low involvement
• elaborate, processing of information → high involvement

Elaboration likelihood model

• central route to persuasion: makes the consumer think (cognition)
• peripheral route to persuasion: Bias the consumer to have likes (affection)

→ theory of left/ right brain hemisphere

FCB Grid theory

involvement                            think                                          feel

high                                 think, feel, do                             feel, learn, do

low                           do, learn, feel (habitual)                do, feel, learn (e.g. pepsi)

exploration till finding something likeable, happens instantaneously

“evolution theory” humans act same as animal but on more sophisticated levels

wealth → using brands → sign for success → higher status → able to support our children

mechanism of consumption

What is Consumer behaviour basically?

A collection of 30 – 40 frameworks... choose the right ones for thesis!

supersession – Abschaffung, Ersatz, Verdrängung

Lecture III           –                A framework for consumer analysis                                        26.09.11

ABC model “What is the process the customer is to undergo? “ e.g. How do you fall in love?

Hierarchies of effect

“familiarity creates content”

Affect

• example of advertisement video of Slice-Juice
• What is the theory behind it? What is the affected outcome? What is the feeling you have?
• Different ways of perceiving it, e.g. feel mode, and thought mode
• “The analysis comes after liking the taste”

Affect can be described as a state of mind, a feeling response, an emotion to mood, e.g. fear, anger, grief. It can be positive and negative/ strong or weak/ innate or learnt

• mental biases (marketers create and exploit biases), e.g. coca cola (subjective “picking mode”) consumers tend to evaluate using the biases
• prototyping bonding, emotional theory “fight or flee”
• consumers react reactive – cannot plan and direct emotions of exposure
• little direct control over affect
• often experienced physically

… theory of multiple intelligence, e.g. social intelligence

Cognition – evolved sense of cognition

→ higher order processing (using symbols e.g. language). Example of cow following a sign signing grass

• human is capable of cognition because of fantasy/ imagination, e.g. pornography
  • sensory meaning – the way it is felt
  • semantic meaning – representing emotion
• metaphors and semiotics (study of signs) – verbal, visual
• → using ideas that are not explicit by using cognition interpretation is made
  • arguments using war symbols, money is being liquefied (water)
• brain operates using an associating network  

=It is not yet resolved if one can do both at one time, or just one at a time

Behavior - overt or covert (e.g. positive attitude)

Lecture II – Exploring the field of Consumer Behaviour 23.09.11

Take the perspective of a marketing researcher: two approaches

1. positivism and modernism → Who? What? How?
2. interpretivism and post modernizsm → Why??

micro analysis → what are the roles played by consumers

“dreamlike state, fantasy creates mental stimulation” (e.g. watching movie, playing video game)

→ “suspension of thought process, forgetfulness of who you are/ total immersion”

This can be described as hedonic experience, i.e. personal sensory stimulation (e.g. massage), or mental stimulation (e.g. movie)

Assumption of rationality for consumer behaviour, i.e. there is always a reason behind our behaviour

Top of the mind recall – conscious choices evoked by repeated incidental exposure

Pervasive consumption (durchdringend/ überall vorhanden)

• global consumer culture
• virtual consumption
• C2C Networks

Consumer “dark side”

• Desacralization due to consumer materialism (buying online prayers) → thinking becomes reduced to money terms, business terms
• consumer terrorism (sabotage, Anti-consumption groups)
• addictive consumption
• compulsive consumption
• consumed consumers (e.g. prostitution, online porno)
• illegal activities (theft)

→ Consume more than we need!

According to Gandhi: “There is enough in the world to satisfy our need, but there is not enough in this world to satisfy our greed”

NOTE:

Different people may choose same product for different reasons.

Different people may choose different products for same reasons.

Consumption may be

• utilitarian
• experience
• integration
• classification
• play

Examples:

What is a Freegan? Copied from http://freegan.info/

Freegans are people who employ alternative strategies for living based on limited participation in the conventional economy and minimal consumption of resources. Freegans embrace community, generosity, social concern, freedom, cooperation, and sharing in opposition to a society based on materialism, moral apathy, competition, conformity, and greed.

Freeganism is a total boycott of an economic system where the profit motive has eclipsed ethical considerations and where massively complex systems of productions ensure that all the products we buy will have detrimental impacts most of which we may never even consider. Thus, instead of avoiding the purchase of products from one bad company only to support another, we avoid buying anything to the greatest degree we are able. 

Consumer Behavior – Lecture 1 – Introduction to Consumer behavior 13.september.2011

Basic Psychology is described in the textbook, e.g. perception/ motivation → familiar classical material

“What is happening around us” - human watching

multiple ways of thinking/ consumer approach

What is CB?

“CB the study of the processes involved when individuals or group select, purchase, use, or dispose of products, services, ideas, or experiences to satisfy needs and desires”

Conscious choice to select → many processes involved

trance like state/ hypnotic trance – a supermarket/ shopping mall works like kaleidoscope

• Knowledge of CB is essential in formulating marketing strategy
  • marketers learn about CB through formal and informal means which would include their generalized experiences
  • marketers look at similarities in behavior as well as the differences
• learning about consumption as a pervasive, interesting, phenomenon
  • detached and objective curiosity
• a personal relevance
  • life is about consumption and you are what you consume
  • self knowledge

“nowadays networking has become indispensable to some”

“body odor → more perception than reality”

Two Approaches:

1.

Positivism or Modernism vs. Interpretivism or Post Modernism

• what? When? How? Where? - Why?
• Describe and predict - consumption as a unique consumer experience
• how useful knowledge is for management - qualitative research
• decision focus
• traditional marketing research

Who is our consumer?

• the roles people play in consumption/ decision drawers
• purchaser vs user vs influencer
• initiator/ influencer/ decider/ buyer/ use/ disposer/ Gate Keepers (people to bring information to so. Or prevent it from spreading)

2. Why do they buy?

Is there always a reason behind our behavior?

Theory of Hedonism

Different means of consumption, e.g. utilitarian/ functional

“biologically designed to get excited by violence” /enjoying violence e.g. horror movie

→ levels of complexity (letting out steam, relieving stress)

The meaning of consumption

• people often buy products not only for what they do, but for what they mean!
• Utilitarian
• Hedonistic – pure pleasure, Sex very popular, sex sells, multi sensory experience
• symbolic – e.g. style, association with brand
• impulsive – decision made on the spot, no prior intention
• habitual – smoking

Is there always a reason behind our behavior? Are we always aware of the true reasons?

“in Kerala the bathroom represents the status, most expensive room in a house”

Pervasive consumption

• global consumer culture – people united by common devotion to brands
• marketing and reality
• “blurred boundaries” between marketing efforts and “the real world”
• popular culture shaped by marketers, e.g. Valentines day, diamond in engagement ring

Consumer Behaviour – Reading Notes → Course Material compiled by Anandakuttan B Unnithan (mostly all is copied from the book)

Positioning: the essence of marketing strategy

A Positioning Statement

• is often very dull and straightforward
• widely communicated and widely accepted
• keeps everyone inside the company aligned with respect to the focal product or service
• guides the development of marketing communication to reach the target customers

Template: “ Among (target market), (x) is the brand of (frame of reference), that (point of difference) because (reason to believe)”

Example: “Amongst snackers, Snickers is the brand of candy bar that satisfies your hunger because it is packed with peanuts.”

frame of reference – reflect how you define the market in which your product competes, i.e. product category, or a customer need

point of difference – within the frame of reference, your product must be different from competitors on one or more dimensions that are meaningful to customers in your target market. Ideally, you would specify the single most compelling and persuasive reason your target customer would purchase your product over any other product.

Reasons to believe -customers have to believe that your brand can deliver the point of difference. Why should they believe you? What evidence can you offer to make your product's point of difference believable? The product's functional, economic, and/ or emotional attributes must be credible to assure customers that the brand will deliver on its promise.

Vetting the Positioning Statement using six criteria

1. Relevance – Do consumers care?
2. Clarity – Will consumers “get it”?
3. Credibility - “ill consumer believe it?
4. Uniqueness – from our consumers' viewpoint, does it set us apart from our competitors in a meaningful way?
5. Attainability – Can we deliver? Are our claims consistent with our performance?
6. Sustainability – Can the position be maintained over time?

→ A positioning statement is a statement of strategy

Using Perceptual Maps in Positioning

Perceptual maps are used to answer strategic questions such as

• How do customers or potential customer view our brand?
• How do they view our competitors?
• What brands are our closest competitors?
• What attributes are most important in distinguishing among brands?

When there are multiple competitors and multiple relevant dimensions of comparison (or the dimensions are not know), perceptual mapping provides a structured, systematic comparison of alternatives. A perceptual map is a two-dimensional graphic that shows the relative location products or brand occupy in the minds of consumers.

THESIS: USE PERCEPTUAL MAPS FOR KAZAKHSTAN AS A DESTINATION

Marketing Concept

The marketing concept suggests an organization should satisfy consumer needs and wants to make profit. To implement the marketing concept, organizations must understand their customers and stay close to them to provide products and services that consumes will purchase and use appropriately. Other firms first determine what consumers want and how much they are willing to pay for a product and then design, produce, and market the best-quality product they can for the price consumers are willing to pay (two approaches)

Reasons for the shift to focusing on consumers:

• the dramatic success of Japanese companies (historic)
• dramatic increase in the quality of consumer and marketing research
• development of the Internet as a marketing tool

What is Consumer Behaviour?

The American Marketing Association defines consumer behaviour as “the dynamic interaction of affect and cognition, behaviour, and the environment by which human beings conduct the exchange aspects of their lives.” In other words, consumer behaviour involves the thoughts and feelings people experience and the actions they perform in consumption processes. It also includes all the things in the environment that influence these thoughts, feelings, and actions. These include comments from other consumers, advertisements, price information, packaging, product appearance, blogs, and many others. It is important to recognize from this definition that consumer behaviour is dynamic, involves interaction, and involves exchanges.

...market research is to dig deeper into consumers' minds and lives using a variety of anthropological technique to better understand the deeper meaning of products and brands...

Consumer behaviour involves interactions among people's thinking, feeling, and actions, and the environment.

Consumer Behaviour involves exchanges between human beings. People give up something of value to others and receive something in return. CB is a complex phenomenon and an eclectic (umfassend, viele Quellen) field. There are three major approaches to studying CS.

1. The interpretive approach is relatively new in the field and has become quiet influential. It is based on theories and methods from cultural anthropology. Although these studies typically are not designed to help marketers develop successful strategies, implications for strategy development can be inferred from them
2. The traditional approach is based on theories and methods from cognitive, social, and behavioural psychology, as well as sociology. It seeks to develop theories and methods to explain consumer decision making and behaviour. Studies involve experiments and surveys to test theories and develop insights into such things as consumer information processing, decision processes, and social influences on consumer behaviour
3. The marketing science approach is based on theories and methods from economics and statistics

Uses of Consumer Behaviour Research

1. The first group is marketing organizations that seek exchanges with consumers, e.g. Yellowstone Park, university
2. The second group consists of various governmental and political organizations including government agencies. The major concern of these organizations is monitoring and regulating exchanges between marketing organizations and consumers. These groups exert pressure on marketing organizations and consumers to behave in certain ways

Marketing Strategy

Why German market?

It should be clear from exhibit 1.3 that understanding consumers is a critical element in developing successful marketing strategies. Marketers have to analyse and understand not only consumers of their products and brands but also consumers of competitive offerings and the reasons they purchase competitive products.

...marketing objectives depends on knowing, serving, and influencing consumers...

Consumption and happiness

Why people consume will vary depending on what type of products and services are being purchased. Consumers are purchasing products and services in the hope of expressing who they are, to gain social status, and in hope of becoming happy. The consumer culture in which we live encourage people to be materialistic as well as underpinning that material comfort will bring happiness. So far, many have chosen to focus on the downside of consumption rather than looking at testing whether or not consumer activities might positively contribute to people's well-being.

What is happiness?

Psychologists mainly work on the assumption that happiness is meant to emulate overall life satisfaction while marketers often link happiness to how satisfied customers are with the product and service they have purchased. What makes people happy and what they think makes them happy are often not the same thing.

Disadvantageous consumption

The fact is that industrialized societies are generally encouraging people to consume regardless of whether or not they already have more possessions than they really need. TV watching is also likely to fuel consumer's feelings that it is important to own certain material possessions. Watching too much television has been found to decrease overall life satisfaction.

Materialism can be defined as 'the importance a consumer attaches to worldly possessions' (Belk, 1984, p.291). Who become materialistic try to make use of products and services in the hope of compensating for something in their lives that is missing. Another possibility is that when people stumble upon difficult life situations they look for a quick fix to console (trösten) themselves and consequently try to find some comfort by purchasing something they think will make them feel better.

Consumption as part of evolution

What if consumption is simply part of the evolutionary process?

Different types of consumption

The results showed that experiential, i.e. life experiences, purchases made people happier and were viewed as a better investment than money spent on material possessions!

Why experiential purchases make people happy?

1. Experiences are more likely to be interpreted in a positive manner. Retrospectively, experiences can give people pleasure as they remember the 'good times'. This is often the case even when the actual experience was not as good as we may have originally wanted it to be. People often alter their memories of events afterwards so that they are remembered in a more favourable manner.
2. Experiences can foster good social relationships in that it can open up and prolong conversations. They can foster social relationships because most such activities are undertaken with other people
3. Experiences are less like to be disadvantageously compared to other experiences, i.e. when people compare themselves to others they might get upset. However, it is very difficult to compare experiences in the same way as you would a pay increase or a product that you bought.

Autobiographical advertising

Demonstrating that the use of autobiographical advertising can alter people's memory of certain events. Such memory changes most likely occur as the result of the advertisement being used as a cue to remember past experiences and events. Bearing in mind that memories are constructive, marketers can make use of autobiographical images.

Choice

The choice process becomes much more complex when a high number of products are involved. With the choice of two particularly good options they will then have to deal with the fact that both option have limitations that only the other option can accommodate and consequently regardless which option they go for, they will feel as if they have missed out on what the other option had to offer.

Summary – It is clear from research that those who are highly materialistic or engaged in compulsive buying patterns are not generally happy.

Chapter two – a framework for consumer analysis

To date, no one approach is fully accepted, nor is it likely that a single, grand theory of consumer behaviour can be devised that all researchers would agree on.

Consumer affect and cognition

Consumer affect and cognition refer to two types of mental responses consumers exhibit toward stimuli and events in their environment.

Affect refers to their feelings about stimuli and events, i.e. whether they like or dislike a product .

(affect – intense emotions, less strong feeling states, moods, attitudes)

Cognition refers to their thinking, such as their belief about a particular product. Cognition refers to the mental structures and processes involved in thinking, understanding, and interpreting stimuli and events.

Consumer Behaviour – In this text, behaviour refers to the physical actions of consumers that can be directly observed and measured by others. It is also called overt behaviour to distinguish it from mental activities, such as thinking, that cannot be observed directly.

Consumer Environment

The consumer environment refers to everything external to consumers that influences what they think, feel, and do. It includes social stimuli, such as the actions of others in cultures, subcultures, social classes, reference groups, and families, that influence consumers. It also includes other physical stimuli, such as stores, products, advertisements, and signs, that can change consumers' thoughts, feelings, and actions.

Relationships among Affect and Cognition, Behaviour, and the Environment

Consumer processes not only involve a dynamic and interactive system but also represent a reciprocal system. In a reciprocal system, any of the elements can be either a cause or an effect of a change at any particular time. Viewing consumer processes as a reciprocal system involving affect and cognition, behaviour, and the environment has five implications:

1. Analysis of consumers must consider all three elements and the relationship among them. Descriptions of consumers in terms of only one or two of the elements are incomplete! The development of marketing strategies should include an analysis of all three elements, their relationships, and the direction of causal change at particular times.
2. Any of the three elements may be the starting point for consumer analysis. Useful analysis could start with affect and cognition by researching what consumers think and feel about such things as the various brands of a product. Alternatively, the analysis could start with consumers' environments by examining changes in their worlds that could change their affect, cognition, and behaviour.

The Role of consumer research and analysis in marketing strategy (figure 2.2)

Use as theoretical framework for thesis for introduction into consumer behaviour ?!?

Consumer's perception within an environment to determine

Marketing Strategy (setting objective, target market, marketing mix)

placing stimuli

target market's environment/ behaviour being influenced

A possible logic for the thesis:

Consumer research includes many types of studies, … surveys.. A logical sequence is to first research and analyse what consumers think, feel, and do relative to a company's offerings and those of competitors. In addition, an analysis of consumer environments is called for to see what factors are currently influencing them and what changes are occurring.

→ The Wheel of consumer Analysis. It is a wheel because it is constantly rotating with changes in consumers and in marketing strategy

Chapter 3 – Introduction to Affect and Cognition

A supermarket as an example for complex information environments a consumer can face, e.g. involves noticeable cognition (thinking) for some products.

Components of the Wheel of Consumer analysis:

1. behaviour
2. environments
3. marketing strategies
4. internal factors of affect and cognition

Because these factors interact and influence one another in a continuous, reciprocal manner, no factor can be fully understood in isolation.

Environment

e.g. what is the super market environment like?

Behaviour

e.g. What kinds of behaviour occur in this situation?

Marketing Strategies

e.g. What are the intention and objective made by the retailer and the manufacturers?

Affect and Cognition

Consumers' affective and cognitive systems are active in every environment. Only a small proportion of this internal activity is conscious, whereas a great deal of activity may occur with little awareness. Following processes occur in an environment: ...to pay attention...to ignore...to interpret...to evaluate...to remember...to make choices...to make decisions...

Affect and Cognition as Psychological Responses

Affect and cognition are different types of psychological responses consumers can have in situations such as grocery shopping.

Affect – refers to feeling responses, affect as something people are or something people feel, e.g. emotions, specific feelings, moods, and evaluations

• the affective system is largely reactive
• it responds immediately and automatically to significant aspects of the environment
• people have little direct control over their affective responses
• people can have indirect control over their affective feelings by changing behaviour that is triggering to affect or moving to another environment
• affective responses are felt physically in the body, that can cause powerful physical reactions
• affective system can respond to virtually any type of stimulus
• consumer's affective systems can respond to thoughts produced by their cognitive systems
• most affective responses are learned. Only few basic affective responses, e.g. preferences for sweet tastes or negative reactions to loud, sudden noises, seem to be innate
• → people's affective systems are likely to respond in rather different ways to the same stimulus

The response to colour is one of the most important innate responses. The first thing people react to in evaluating an object is its colour, and their automatic affective response can account for as much as 60 percent of their acceptance of the object.

• pink is a useful colour for places where angry people must be confronted
• yellow is the fastest colour for the eye to see because the electrochemical reactions that produce vision work fastest in response to yellow stimulation → command attention
• Men inherit a preference for yellow-based reds, whereas most women like blue-based reds

Cognition – consists of mental (thinking) responses, people have cognitions, thoughts, or beliefs, as mental states cognitions are not usually felt in the body.

• Understanding – Interpreting the meanings of specific aspects of one's environment
• Evaluating – Judging whether an aspect of the environment, or one's own behaviour is good or bad, favourable or unfavourable
• Planning – determining how to solve a problem or reach a goal
• deciding – comparing alternative solutions to a problem in terms of their relevant characteristics and selecting the best alternative
• thinking – the cognitive activity that occurs during all of these processes

In this book, we use the term cognition broadly to refer to all these mental processes, as well as to the thoughts and meanings produced by the cognitive system. A major function of people's cognitive systems is to interpret, make sense of, and understand significant aspects of their personal experience. To help them do so, the cognitive system creates symbolic, subjective meanings that represent their personal interpretations of the stimuli they encounter. A second function of our cognitive system is to process (think about) these interpretations or meanings.

The relationship between the affect and cognitive systems is highly interdependent. Although the affective and cognitive systems involve different parts of the brain, they are richly connected by neural pathways. → each system continuously influences the other.

Marketing Implications – both affect and cognition are important for understanding consumer behaviour. Metaphors are critical components of effective marketing strategies.

Cognitive Processes in Consumer Decision Making

Consumers use information to make complicated/ complex decisions. (information processing models)

Reduced to its essence, consumer decision making involves three important cognitive processes.

1. consumers must INTERPRET relevant information in the environment to create personal knowledge or meaning.
2. consumers must combine or INTEGRATE this knowledge to evaluate products or possible actions and to choose among alternative behaviours.
3. consumers must retrieve product knowledge from memory to use in integration and interpretation processes

→ all three cognitive processes are involved in any decision-making situation

A model of Consumer Decision Making

• Interpretation processes require exposure to information and involve two related cognitive processes, i.e. attention and comprehension
  • Attention governs how consumers select which information to interpret and which information to ignore
  • Comprehension refers to how consumers determine the subjective meanings of information and thus create personal knowledge and beliefs
• In this book we use the terms knowledge, meanings, and beliefs interchangeably to refer to consumers' subjective understanding of information produced by interpretation processes
• Consumers combine knowledge and affective feelings about a product or a brand to form and overall evaluation

May be useful to find out about memory: Cognitive Processes in Consumer Decision Making p. 49 (Cognitive Processes in Consumer Decision Making)

Possible Research question:

What is the degree of knowledge about Kazakhstan at the moment? → to make marketing authorities understand how to use advertisement in an affective way

Product knowledge and involvement concern the various types of knowledge, meaning, and beliefs about products that are stored in consumers' memories. For examples consumers need a certain amount of knowledge about nutrition to interpret and understand the many health claims made by food companies.

Product involvement – refers to the personal relevance of product in consumers' life. People's level of involvement with health issues will influence how much effort they exert in interpreting a nutritional message. (see chapter 4)

Additional Characteristics of the cognitive system

Activation – refers to how product knowledge is retrieved from memory for use in interpreting and integrating information

• Another important characteristic of our cognitive system (and also the affective system) is that much of its operations are unconscious, i.e. below the level of conscious awareness. Some scientists suggest that as much as 90 to 95 percent of human mental activity is unconscious.
• Positive knowledge and beliefs tend to be activated when a person is in a good mood, whereas more negative meanings are activated when the same person is in an unpleasant mood.
• → Consumers have little control over this process of SPREADING ACTIVATION; which occurs unconsciously and automatically
• another important characteristic of the conscious cognitive system is its LIMITED CAPACITY. This suggests that the interpretation and integration processes during consumer decision making are fairly simple

Marketing Implications

Marketers are highly interested in the knowledge, meanings, and beliefs that consumers have for their products, brands, stores, and so on. It also is important for marketers to understand how consumers interpret their marketing strategies. The INTEGRATION processes involved in forming brand attitudes (Do I like this brand?) and purchase intentions (Should I buy this brand?) are critical to understanding consumer behaviour.

–> To understand consumers' behaviour, marketers need to know what product knowledge consumers have acquired and stored in memory.

Knowledge stored in memory

Types of knowledge

1. general knowledge about their environment and behaviours
2. procedural knowledge about how to do things

• General knowledge concerns people's interpretations of relevant information in their environments
• The connections or links are the key to understand meaning. Knowledge or meaning exists when a concept in memory is linked to another concept. Essentially, knowledge or meaning is defined by the connections between concepts!
• Consumer's general knowledge is either EPISODIC or SEMANTIC
  • Episodic knowledge concerns specific events in a person's life, e.g. buying a candy bar
  • semantic knowledge is about objects and events in the environment, e.g. my personal meaning about this candy bar
  • → When activated from memory, the episodic and semantic components of general knowledge can influence consumer's decision making and overt behaviours
• Consumers have procedural knowledge about how to do things. Procedural knowledge is also stored in memory as a specific type of “if...then...” link between a concept or an event and an appropriate behaviour.
• Both general knowledge and procedural knowledge have important influences on consumers' behaviours.

Structures of Knowledge

• Consumer's general and procedural knowledge is organized to form structures of knowledge in memory. Our cognitive systems create associative networks that organize and link many types of knowledge together

Types of knowledge structures

• People have to types of knowledge structures, i.e. SCHEMAS and SCRITPS with each being an associated network of linked meanings. But...
  • schemas contain mostly episodic and semantic general knowledge
  • scripts are organized networks of procedural knowledge

Cognitive Learning

How do consumers learn the general and procedural knowledge in their schema and script structures? Distinction between cognitive learning and behavioural learning

• Cognitive learning occurs when people interpret information in the environment and create new knowledge or meaning. Often these new meanings modify their existing knowledge structures in memory, e.g. through direct personal use experience
• Interpreting information about products and services can result in three types or levels of cognitive learning, i.e. ACCRETION, TUNING, and RESTRUCTURING
  • accretion – most cognitive learning probably occurs by accretion, i.e. interpreting information and adding this new knowledge to their existing knowledge structure
  • tuning – can occur when parts of a knowledge structure are combined and given a new overall meaning. Combining parts of knowledge in one larger knowledge part that is more accurate and more generalizable
  • restructuring – involves the revision of the entire associative network of knowledge, which might include creation of entirely new meaning structures and/ or reorganizations of an old knowledge structure. Accretion and sometimes tuning can occur without much cognitive effort or awareness (essentially unconsciously and automatically). In contrast, restructuring usually involves extensive cognitive effort and substantial thinking and reasoning processes

Changes in consumer's values can also precipitate a restructuring of consumers' product knowledge.

Many marketing implications are aimed at accretion learning.

Chapter five – Sensation and perception

It's in the brain that visual perception is created out of the incoming sensory information. In reality perception is based on a complex chain of receiving, transmitting, and interpreting sensory information. → we know “reality” only through our sensation and perception

Raw sensations have little meaning until they are organized and interpreted in the process of perception. Our perceptions of reality are also coloured by individual expectations, cultural learning experiences, and needs, however. As a result, different people sometimes have rather different views of the same world.

Sensation – process of receiving, translating, and transmitting messages from the outside world to the brain

Perception – process of organizing and interpreting information received from the outside world and forming images of the world

stimulus – any aspect of the outside world that directly influences our behaviour or conscious experience (virtually anything that can excite receptor cells can be a stimulus)

Sensation: Receiving Sensory Messages

We are aware of the world only because we have a number of sense organs able to receive messages. Sense organs operate through sensory receptor cells, which receive outside forms of energy (light, vibrations, heat) and translate them into neural impulses that can be transmitted to the brain for interpretation. Whenever a person is aware of, or in some other way responds to, a part of the outside world, she or he receives a stimulus.

Transduction: Translating messages for the brain

To reach the brain, sensory messages must be translated into neural impulses carried by neurons to the brain. The translation of energy from one form to another is called transduction. !Note that we can be aware of a stimulus only if we have receptor cells that can transduce it!

Sensory Limits: How strong must messages be?

The two primary kinds of thresholds are:

(a) absolute threshold is the smallest magnitude of a stimulus that can be detected and

(b) difference threshold is the smallest difference between two stimuli that can be detected half the time

Sensory Adaptation

• When a stimulus is continuously present or repeated at short intervals, the sensation that the same amount of sensory energy causes becomes gradually weaker, in part because the receptor cells become fatigued.
• Because our knowledge of the outside world is limited to what we sense, we need to understand that under some conditions our sensations do not directly reflect the physical nature of the stimulus.
• Psychophysicists have been fascinated since the 19^th century with the fact that the difference threshold increases as the strength of the physical stimulus increases. When a stimulus is strong, changes in it must be bigger to be noticed than when the stimulus is weak.

Psychophysics – specialty are of psychology that studies sensory limits, sensory adaptation, and related topics

Weber's Law states that the amount of change in a stimulus needed to detect a difference is in direct proportion to the intensity of the original stimulus. Weber's law tells us that what we sense is not always the same as the energy that enters the sense organ.

Review

The world is known to us only indirectly because our brains are not in direct contact with the outside world. Sensory receptor cells transduce physical energy into neural messages sent to the brain (sensation), where they are interpreted (perception). Not all forms of physical energy can become part of our perception of the world: we must have sensory receptor cells that can transduce that form of energy, and the stimulation must be strong enough to exceed the sensory threshold. Our perception of external reality is complicated, because there is not simple and direct relationship between the properties of physical stimuli and our conscious sensations. For example a small change in the intensity of sound from a stereo is noticeable when the stereo is being played softly, but the same size change might go unnoticed if the stereo were at high volume

Vision: Sensing Light (review)

The lens of the eyes focuses a visual image on the retina, which contains two kinds of sensory receptor cells, the rods and cones. These transduce the wavelength, amplitude, and complexity of the light waves into neural messages. The two kinds of receptor cells perform their jobs somewhat differently. Cones work best in intense light, provide good visual acuity, and transduce information about the wavelength of light that result in the perception of colour. Rods work well in weak light, do not provide good acuity, and do not code information about colour. The eye does not function well when the intensity of light suddenly changes, but it quickly regains its sensitivity through the processes of light and dark adaptation. There are two major theoretical explanations for how the visual system transduces colour. One states that three different kinds of cones are most sensitive to light of different wavelengths. The other suggests that two kinds of colour processing mechanisms in the visual system process complementary colours. Each theory is correct at different stages of the information processing about the wavelength of light. 

Hearing: Sensing Sound Waves

When an object, such as a tuning fork, vibrates back and forth, it sets in motion successive waves of compression (increased density) and rarefaction (reduced density) of the molecules of the air. When the waves reach the ear, the reception of sound begins.

Audition – Sense of hearing

hertz (Hz) – Measurement of the frequency of sound waves in cycles per second (the number of vibratory cycles per second)

timbre – characteristic quality of a sound as determined by the complexity of the sound wave

Sound waves differ in the frequency of cycles of compression and rarefaction of the air. Objects that vibrate slowly create low-frequency sound waves, whereas rapidly vibrating objects produce high-frequency sound waves. The frequency of a sound wave largely determines its pitch, or how high or low it sounds to us. Gently tapping a bass drum produces less dense compression and rarefaction, and a quieter sound, than striking it hard. Loudness seems greatest for tones about 3,000 to 4,000 Hz; higher or lower frequency sounds of the same intensity seem less loud to us.

Orientation and Movement – Vestibular Organ... the semicircular canals are composed of three nearly circular tubes (canals) that lie at right angles to one another, providing information on orientation of the body in three planes.

The disorientation and dizziness of seasickness resemble the dizziness caused by poisoning. The body apparently vomits in response to dizziness regardless of the cause, just in case it is due to poisoning.

Kinesthetic Sense – Throughout the skin, muscles, joints, and tendons are kinesthetic receptors, that signal when they are moved. (closing eyes and wiggling toes). The kinesthetic receptors provide detailed information on the orientation of the head and body, differences in pressure due to gravity and movement on different parts of the body, the movement of each body part, and a host of other kinds of information (Gray, 2008; Sholl, 2008). The skin can detect pressure, temperature, and pain.

Temperature – we actually sense skin temperature only through sensory receptors located in rather widely spaced “spots” on the skin. One set of spots detects warmth and one detects coldness. The information sent to the brain by these spots creates the feeling of temperature across the entire skin surface.

Pain – Free nerve endings throughout the body serve as nocioceptors – receptors for stimuli that are experienced as painful (Perl, 2007).Neural messages from the nocioceptors are transmitted to the brain along two distinct nerve pathways – rapid and slow neural pathways. This is why we of the experience “first and second pain” (Melzack & Wall, 1983). The first pain tells us what part of the body has been hurt and what kind of injury occurred. The second pain is a more diffuse, long- lasting pain that hurts in the emotional sense. (the two neural pathways travel to different parts of the brain). Persons who where given electrical shocks reported less pain when they were told to make no facial reaction than when they let their emotions show in their face (Colby, Lanzetta, & Kleck, 1977).

Perception: Interpreting Sensory Messages

Neural messages from sensory receptors transmitted to the brain must be organized and interpreted in the process we call perception. The process is pretty much the same in all of us (really??) If this were not the case – if each of us were to interpret sensory input in a unique way – there would be no common “reality” (??) in the sense of a perceived world that we all share. Our learning experiences, motives, and emotions also can influence our perceptions..

Although it's easy to distinguish between sensation and perception in theory, it is very difficult to do so in practice.

Visual Perception

The key point is that what we perceive is often based more on how sensory information is processed in our brains than what is in front of our eyes (Long & Toppino, 2004). Which image you see depends on how the visual information is processed. Our discussion of perception focuses on visual perception for several reasons: visual perception is a highly important sensing system, scientists understand how it works better than they do other systems, and it is representative enough of other systems to tell us something about the process of perception in general.

Five Gestalt principles of perception

1. figure-ground – what we perceive is often based more on what goes on in our brains than what is in front of our eyes
2. continuity – we tend to perceive lines or patterns that follow a smooth contour as being part of a single unit, we tend to perceive continuity in lines and patterns
3. proximity – things that are proximal (close together) are usually perceived as belonging together
4. similarity – similar things are perceived as being related
5. closure – incomplete figures of familiar things tend to be perceived as complete wholes

Perceptual constancy – we perceive the world as a fairly constant and unchanging place.

1. Brightness constancy – our perception corresponds to the unchanging physical properties of the paper rather than to the changing sensory information about its brightness
2. colour constancy
3. size constancy – familiar objects do not change in perceived size at different distances
4. shape constancy

The process of perceptual constancy means our perceptions are automatically adjusted to correspond with what we have learnt about the physical world, rather than relying solely on changing stimulus input (Graf, 2006).

Depth Perception

The monocular cues to depth perception can be perceived by one eye, e.g. texture gradient, linear perspective, superposition, shadowing, speed of movement, aerial perspective, accommodation, vertical position

Binocular cues in depth perception can only be perceived using two eyes, e.g. convergence, retinal disparity,

Visual Illusions make use of manipulating depth perception, e.g. Ames room (they just look different because of the context they are in)

Multisensory Integration

We integrate and interpret information from multiple senses at the same time (Ernst & Bulthoff, 2004).

Our motivational and emotional states influence our perception. Our emotions can strongly influence perception (Proffitt, 2006).

Unfortunately, U.S. College students who are more concerned about the risk of terrorism conducted by Arab individuals perceive Arab faces as expressing more anger than do people less concerned about such terrorism (Maner & others, 2005). Perception is not a “cold” mechanical process. It can be influenced strongly by the “heat” of our emotions.

Many of the ways in which we organize and interpret sensations are inborn and common to all humans.

What every sceptic should know about subliminal persuasion

Subliminal persuasion refers to the use of subliminally presented stimuli, or messages presented to individuals beneath their level of conscious awareness, that are intended to influence their attitudes, choices, or actions.

Subliminal perception - messages in such a way that one is unable to report even the presence of the stimulus, perception of stimuli that are below the threshold of conscious awareness.

subliminal presentation of stimuli – cognition can occur without conscious awareness, and that this unconscious cognition can be affected by subliminal stimuli, thereby influencing individual's judgements, attitudes, and even their behaviour.

• Indeed, stereotypes seem to be most readily applied at those times when one's conscious capacities are the most limited. (Bodenhausen 1990)

• Thus, ample evidence attests to the fact that much of what goes on in the mind is unavailable to conscious awareness.

• “mere exposure” leads to liking: the more one sees something, the more one comes to like it (Robert Zajonc 1968)

• This suggests, that the effect of subliminal stimuli can be quiet complex, mediated here by the personal relevance of the stimuli
• Neuberg (1988) has argued that subliminally presented stimuli can influence behaviour indirectly, by way of activating concepts that can influence the way individuals interpret the behaviour of others. (Prisoner's Dilemma)

Chapter seven – Basic principles of learning

Definition of Learning

In psychology, the term learning refers to any relatively permanent change in behaviour brought about through experience. (opposed to temporary changes that are the result of experience, rather than changes due to biological causes such as drugs, fatigue, maturation, and injury)

The change in behaviour that is created by learning is not always immediately obvious.

Classical Conditioning: Learning by association

The dog Pavlo knew he had witnessed a form of learning based on the repeated association of tow stimuli. A stimulus is anything that can directly influence behaviour or conscious experience.

Association: the Key Element in classical conditioning

Aristotle noted that two sensations repeatedly experienced together become associated more than 2000 years ago. Association is the key element in classical conditioning.

Unconditioned stimulus (UCS) – stimulus that can elicit a response without any learning

unconditioned response (UCR) – unlearned, inborn reaction to an unconditioned stimulus

conditioned stimulus (CS) – stimulus that comes to elicit responses as a result of being paired with an unconditioned stimulus

Classical Conditioning is a form of learning in which a previously neutral stimulus (CS) is followed by a stimulus (UCS) that elicits an unconditioned response (UCR). As a result of these pairings of the CS and UCS, the CS comes to elicit a conditioned response (CR) that, in most cases, is identical or very similar to the UCR.

→ classical conditioning is considered to be a form of learning not because a new behaviour has been learned but because old behaviour can be elicited by a new stimulus.

• e.g. Watson (1920) was convinced that many of our fears were acquired through classical conditioning and sought to test this idea by teaching a fear to an 11-month-old child (without counterconditioning)
• As strange as it may seem, the body's immune system responses can be classically conditioned (Bovbjerg, 2003)
• Sexual arousal has also been shown to be influenced by classical conditioning

Operant Conditioning: Learning from the consequences of your behaviour

To a great extent, the frequency with which people do things increases or decreases depending on the consequences of their actions. When our behaviour “operates” on the outside world, it produces consequences for us, and those consequences determine whether we will continue to engage in that behaviour. We can define operant conditioning, then, as the form of learning in which the consequences of behaviour lead to changes in the probability of its occurrence. (Schulz, 2006)

1. Positive Reinforcement

We say that positive reinforcement has occurred when a consequence of behaviour leads to an increase in the probability that we will engage in that behaviour in the future. Two important issues in the use of positive reinforcement should be noted

• Timing – the positive reinforcer must be given within a short time following the response, or learning will progress very slowly, if at all
  delay of reinforcement meaning the greater the delay between the response and the reinforcer, the slower the learning
• consistency in the delivery of reinforcement

Primary and Secondary Reinforcers 

• primary reinforcers – are innately reinforcing and do not have to be acquired through learning, e.g. food, water, warmth, novel stimulation, sexual gratification, physical activity
• secondary reinforcers – are learned through classical conditioning. E.g. You would only need to say, “Good dog,” to the dog every time you give the dog a biscuit. After enough pairings of these two stimuli, the praise will become a secondary reinforcer and will be effective in reinforcing the dog's behaviour.

Shaping – the method of successive approximations, because we “shape” the target response out of behaviours that successively approximate it.

2. Negative Reinforcement

A behaviour is reinforced (and, therefore, becomes more likely to occur), because something negative (or unpleasant or aversive) is removed by the behaviour or does not happen at all because of the behaviour.

Escape conditioning – operant conditioning in which the behaviour is reinforced, because it causes a negative event to cease (a form of negative reinforcement)

Avoidance conditioning – the behaviour has the consequence of causing something negative not to happen when it otherwise would have happened

Negative reinforcement is a very powerful method of reinforcement, so we learn patterns of behaviour quickly and easily from it. Unfortunately, what we learn are often immature ways of dealing with unpleasant situations rather that mature ways of facing them directly.

3. Punishment
Punishment is a negative consequence that leads to a reduction in the frequency of the behaviour that produced it (Church, 1969). When appropriately used, punishment can be an ethical and valuable tool for discouraging inappropriate behaviour.

Fife dangers are inherent in punishment:

• The use of punishment is often reinforcing to the punished
• punishment often has a generalized inhibiting effect on the individual
• we commonly react to physical punishment by learning to dislike the person who inflicts the pain, and sometimes by reacting aggressively toward that person (may lead to aggression)
• what we think is punishment is not always effective in punishing the behaviour, e.g. many think that criticism will punish the behaviour at which it's aimed, yet in many settings criticism is often a positive reinforcer, e.g. class room → criticism trap (Madsen, 1968)... being reinforced by the attention one receive when criticized
• even when punishment is effective in suppressing an inappropriate behaviour, it does not teach the individual how to act more appropriately. Punishment used by itself may be self-defeating: it may suppress one inappropriate behaviour only to be replaced by another one 

Guidelines for the use of Punishment:

• do not use physical punishment
• punish the inappropriate behaviour immediately
• make sure that you positively reinforce appropriate behaviour to take the place of inappropriate behaviour you are trying to eliminate. Punishment is not effective in the long run unless you are also reinforcing appropriate behaviour
• make it clear to the individual what behaviour you are punishing and remove all threat of punishment as soon as that behaviour stops “Do not punish people; punish specific behaviours”
• do not mix punishment with rewards for the same behaviour
• once you have begun to punish, do not back down

Contrasting classical and operant conditioning differ from each other in three primary ways:

• classical conditioning involves an association between two stimuli, such as a tone and food. In contrast, operant conditioning involves an association between a response and the resulting consequence, such as studying hard an getting an A
• classical conditioning usually involves reflexive, involuntary behaviours that are controlled by the spinal cord or autonomic nervous system. These include fear responses, salivation, and other involuntary behaviours. Operant conditioning, however, usually involves more complicated voluntary behaviours, which are mediated by the somatic nervous system
• the most important difference concerns the way in which the stimulus that makes conditioning “happen” is presented (as the unconditioned stimulus, or UCS, in classical conditioning or the reinforcing stimulus in operant conditioning). In classical conditioning, the UCS is paired with the conditioned stimulus (CS) independent of the individual's behaviour. The individual does not have to do anything for either the CS or UCS to be presented. In operant conditioning, however, the reinforcing consequence occurs only if the response being conditioned has just been emitted. That is, the reinforcing consequence is contingent on the occurrence of the response.

Stimulus Discrimination and Generalization

Most responses are more likely to occur in the presence of some stimuli than in the presence of others. This phenomenon is called stimulus discrimination, meaning that we discriminate between appropriate and inappropriate occasions for a response. Humans have to learn stimulus discriminations, too lots of them.

The opposite of stimulus discrimination is stimulus generalization. This term indicates that people do not always discriminate between stimuli that are similar to one another. Stated another way, the more similar two stimuli are, the more likely the individual is to respond to them as if they were the same stimulus.

Review

We learn from the consequences of our behaviour. If our behaviour leads to a positive consequence, we are more likely to engage in that behaviour again, with the specific pattern of behaviour depending in part on the schedule with which reinforcement is deliver. The events that serve as positive reinforcers are both inborn (primary reinforcers) and learned (secondary reinforcers). Positive reinforcement can even increase the probability of behaviours that initially never occur by reinforcing successive approximations to that behaviour (shaping).

Behaviour can be reinforced not only when the consequence is positive but also when the behaviour removes or avoids a negative consequence (negative reinforcement). Actually, two slightly different forms of learning are based on negative reinforcement: (a) escape conditioning, in which the behaviour removes a negative event, and (b) avoidance conditioning, in which behaviour causes the negative event not to occur at all. Punishment, which is different from negative reinforcement, is a negative consequence of behaviour that reduces the probability of its future occurrence.

Behaviour that is reinforced only in the presence of a specific stimulus tends to occur only in the presence of that stimulus (stimulus discrimination). However, there is a strong tendency to respond to similar stimuli as if they were the same (stimulus generalization). The phenomena of stimulus generalization and discrimination also occur in classical conditioning.

Extinction: Learning when to quit

extinction – process of unlearning a learned response because of the removal of the original source of learning

If changes in the environment did not lead to changes in our learned behaviour, we would be in big trouble.

Removing the source of learning

Extinction occurs because the original source of the learning has been removed. In the case of operant conditioning, extinction results from a change in the consequences of behaviour. If a response is no longer reinforced, then that response will eventually decline in frequency.

Partial reinforcement effect – phenomenon whereby responses that have been reinforced on variable ration or variable interval schedules are more difficult to extinguish than responses that have been continuously reinforced

Response prevention – prevention of avoidance responses to ensure that the individual sees that the negative consequence will not occur to speed up the extinction of avoidance responses.

Spontaneous Recovery and Disinhibition

Disinhibition – temporary increase in the strength of an extinguished response caused by an unrelated stimulus event. No response was ever really un-learned, just “inhibited” by another part of the brain

Theoretical Interpretations of Learning

Neural connections between brain regions associated with specific stimuli and specific responses are acquired during the learning process.

Other psychologists argue that internal mental processes play a central role in the learning process and are therefore deserving of study. For these psychologists, learning involves changes in cognitions rather than specific neural connections.

Cognition or Connection?

Place Learning

Tolman interpreted this as meaning that they had learned a new cognition, knowledge of the location of the food. Recent research has shown that the hippocampus plays an essential role in learning such “cognitive maps”

Latent Learning

Tolman interpreted these results as showing that the unreinforced rats had learned just as much about the location of the food box as the reinforced group, but they showed their learning only when given a reason to do so (the food).

Insight Learning and Learning sets.

Insight – form of cognitive change that involves recognition of previously unseen relationships (a sudden cognitive change that solved the problem)

learning set – improvement in the rate of learning to solve new problems through practice solving similar problems

Harlow showed that the ability to solve problems insightfully is itself partially learned. (learned to learn insightfully)

Modeling: learning by watching others (Bandura, Blanchard, & Ritter 1969)

In Bandura's view, a great deal of cognitive learning takes place through watching, before there is any chance for the behaviour to occur and be reinforced. Modeling can also remind us of appropriate behaviour in a given situation, reduce our inhibitions concerning certain behaviours that we see others engaging in, or suggest to us which behaviours lead to reinforcement. “they learned to act more aggressively through modeling” → Modeling can be an important and powerful form of learning.

We are not equally likely to imitate all behaviour of all models, however. We are considerably more likely to imitate a model whose behaviour we see reinforced (vicarious reinforcement) than when we see that behaviour punished in the model (vicarious punishment) (Carnagey & Anderson, 2005)

Interestingly, we are prepared to learn to fear only the things that would have been dangerous to our evolutionary ancestors. e.g. fears cannot be easily conditioned to modern dangerous stimuli, such as electric outlets

Learned taste aversion - negative reaction to a particular taste that has been associated with nausea or other illness

Chapter Eight – Memory (p.183)

Three stages of memory: an information-processing view

Psychologists have developed theories of memory using the computer as a model. The influential stage theory of memory (Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1968; Baddeley, 1999) assumes that we humans have a three-stage memory that meets our need to store information for different lengths of time. We seem to hae one memory store that holds information for exceedingly brief intervals, a second memory store that holds information for no more than 30 seconds unless it's “renewed”, and a third, more permanent memory store. (sensory register – does not last long, but it's apparently a complete replica of the sensory experience; short-term memory, and long-term memory)

Visual information in the sensory register is lost and replaced so rapidly with new information that we seldom are aware we even have such a memory store.

Short-term memory

• just paying attention to the information is enough to transfer it, five to nine bits of information can be stored for brief periods of time, it can be of many different types of memories e.g. smell of a perfume, notes of a melody, taste of papaya.
• We probably use acoustic codes in STM as much as possible, because it's easier to rehearse by mentally talking to ourselves than by mentally repeating the images of sights, smells, and movements.
• It serves as our working memory when old memories are temporarily brought out of long-term memory to be used or updated.
• Thinking takes up space in STM and forces out e.g. numbers.
• One way to overcome the limited amount of bits is through chunking the information. Chunking strategies can be used to expand the amount of information that can be stored in STM.

Long Term Memory

LTM differs from STM in four major ways:

1. the way in which information is recalled* LTM has to be indexed and we retrieve information from LTM using cues. Then only information relevant to the cue is retrieved, rather than the entire contents of LTM

2. the form in which information is stored in memory
   * information is usually stored in STM in terms of the physical qualities of the experience (what we saw, did, tasted, touched, or heard), with a special emphasise on acoustic codes
3. the reasons that forgetting occurs
   * information stored in LTM is not just durable but actually appears to be permanent, i.e. that forgetting occurs in LTM not because the memory is erased but because we are unable to retrieve it for some reason (Baddeley, 1999)
4. the physical location of these functions in the brain

Types of long term Memory

Procedural memory

• for motor movements and skills, e.g. how to ride a bicycle, to cook

Semantic memory

• memory for meaning without reference to the time and place of learning, e.g. meaning of father, guitar, peace of mind

Episodic memory

• memory for specific experiences that can be defined in terms of time and space

Declarative memory – semantic and episodic memory

The LTM mechanisms are apparently able to store procedural and semantic memories quiet effectively. The meaning of the sentences (semantic memory) was held in LTM, whereas details about their physical structure (episodic memory) were forgotten when they were lost from STM.

Organization in Long-Term Memory

• organization helps to facilitate the retrieval of information from the vast amount stored in LTM
• e.g. organize information into a single story helps to recall 90% of words in contrast to 15%

Some theory suggests associative network by (Ellis and Hunt, 1993). According to this view, memories are associated, or linked together, through experience. We form links between various concepts and their characteristics based on our experience. When we are asked a question, representations of the concepts or characteristics are activated. The model assumes that this activation spreads out along previously formed links to other representations.

Retrieval of Long-Term Memory

• in the recall method, you are asked to recall information with few, if any, cues
• we can “remember” more when tested by the recognition method rather than recall method (e.g. multiple choice)
• relearning method – a measure of memory based on the length of time it takes to relearn forgotten material

Studies suggest that about half of the things that we cannot remember, but are on the tip of our tongues, are recalled within a minute or so (Schachter, 1999).

Serial Learning

• The recall of items in the serial lists is often better for items at the beginning and end of the list than in the middle. This is called the serial position effect

Elaboration and Deep Processing

Elaboration, in this sense, means creating more associations between the new memory and existing memories through deep processing. Therefore, deeply processing the information in this paragraph by linking the new information to your existing memories will improve your memory of the paragraph and your ability to use the information later.

Our memories often play tricks on us both in the sense of incorrectly recalling events that actually occurred and remembering events that did not occur. Memory is partly an “imaginative reconstruction” of experience that is guided by schemas.

Motivated forgetting – Forgetting that is believed to be based on the upsetting or threatening nature of the information that is forgotten.

Mild levels of either positive or negative arousal appear to enhance memory.

Biological Basis of Memory

Synaptic Theories of Memory: Search for the Engram (the something that remains after learning, the engram)

According to Hebb, each experience activates a unique pattern of neurons in the brain. This activity causes structural changes to occur in those neurons near the synaptic gaps that link them. To Hebb, these changes in the functioning of synapses in the brain, which he termed synaptic facilitation, is the biological basis of memory. At least for some simple forms of memory, the learned response is “remembered” in changes in neurons at the synapse.

Consolidation – the gradual strengthening of chemical changes in synapses following learning experience.

There is convincing evidence that a period of sleep following learning helps consolidate and protect new memory.

DNA and memory

Recently, it has become clear that part of the biological basis of memory involves rapid changes in the expression of genes that influence neurons in the brain. A number of studies have shown that some genes are “turned on” or “turned off” when new memories are formed. Experiences do not change our DNA, but experience can change how DNA is expressed. These changes in DNA expression are now believed to be part of what happens in the brain when a memory is created.

Hippocampus – the part of the limbic system that plays a role in emotional arousal and long term memory

confabulation – when people with Korsakoff's syndrome cannot remember something that is needed to complete a statement, they make it up

Application of Psychology

• what goes into memory is not always the same as what comes out
• events that create intense negative emotional arousal leave memories that are vivid but very subject to distortion
• a considerable number of imprisoned persons – many on death row – have been found to be innocent on appeals based on DNA evidence
• the way in which an eyewitness is questioned can greatly affect the accuracy of the information recalled
• People who believe that African Americans are more likely to be criminals will be more likely to “recall” information that is consistent with that schema

Chapter Nine: Cognition, language and intelligence

Cognition can be defined as the intellectual processes (such as perception, memory, thinking, and language) through which information is obtained, transformed, stored, retrieved, and used. Let's consider each the three aspects of the definition of cognition:

1. cognition processes information – information is the stuff of cognition: the stuff that is obtained, transformed, kept, and used. Much of this information is dealt with in the form of categories or concepts
2. cognition is active – in cognition information is a. obtained through the senses, b. transformed through the interpretive processes of perception and thinking, c. stored and retrieved through the processes of memory, d. used in problem solving and language
3. cognition is useful – it serves a purpose

Concepts: The basic units of thinking

Concepts are the basic units of thinking. Concepts are general categories of things, events, and qualities that are linked by a common feature or features, in spite of their differences. Concepts allow us to process information in more general, efficient ways. In this way, concepts are the basic units of logical thinking.

Conjunctive concepts are defined by the simultaneous presence of two or more common characteristics. The concept of aunt is an example of a conjunctive concept because it has two simultaneous defining characteristics (female and sibling of one of your parents)

Disjunctive concepts are defined by the presence of one common characteristic or another one, or both.

Natural concepts are basic. A basic concept is one that has a medium degree of inclusiveness. Inclusiveness simply refers to the number of members included in a concept. Three levels of inclusiveness have been distinguished by Rosch:

1. superordinate concepts are very inclusive – they contain a great many members, e.g. vehicle
2. basic concepts are of a medium degree of inclusiveness – e.g. cars
3. subordinate concepts are the least inclusive level of concept – e.g. sports car

Basic concepts share many attributes, similar shapes, often share motor movements, and are easily named. Rosch believes that these four characteristics of basic concepts make them more “natural” - easier to learn and use in the human information processing system.

Thinking and problem solving: Using information to reach goals

the cognitive process through which information is used to reach a goal that is blocked by some obstacle.

There are three steps in the cognitive operations involved in problem solving that apparently must be performed in sequence. First, we have to formulate the problem to decide what kind of problem we face. Second, we need to evaluate the elements of the problem to decide what information and tools we have to work with. Finally, we often need to generate a list of solutions and evaluate them.

As Michael Posner (1973) pointed out, the key to effective problem solving is often our initial formulation of the problem.

We are often not flexible enough in evaluating the elements in a problem. We get stuck in mental sets, a habitual way of approaching or perceiving a problem.

Very often a problem has more than one solution. Our task then is to generate a list of possible solutions, evaluate each one by attempting to foresee what effects or consequences it would produce, choose the best solution, and then develop an effective way of implementing it.

Algorithms are systematic cognitive strategies that (if followed) virtually guarantee a correct solution. In contrast, heuristic reasoning is based on strategies that increase the probability of finding a correct solution but do not guarantee it. Heuristic reasoning is very efficient but is subject to error. E.g. we tend to make judgements about the unknown on the assumption that it is similar to what we know (Tversky & Kahneman, 1974), named representativeness heuristic.

Creative Problem Solving: Convergent and divergent thinking

We can define creativity in general terms, however, as the ability to produce “products” (such as plays, solutions to social problems, poems, sources of energy, symphonies) that are both novel and valued by others (useful, aesthetically beautiful, informative). We typically view creativity as an individual ability or attribute, similar to intelligence.

Convergent thinking is logical, factual, conventional, and focused on a problem until a solution is found. (e.g. solve an algebra problem using convergent thinking skills to provide answers)

Divergent thinking is loosely organized, only partially directed, and unconventional. Unlike convergent thinking, divergent thinking produces answers that must be evaluated subjectively. Divergent thinkers, in other words, more easily break out of mental sets that limit our thinking. In our culture, people who are good divergent thinkers tend to be thought of as creative (Butcher, 1968)

Wallas (1926) suggests that creative problem solving typically proceeds in four steps, i.e. preparation, incubation (period of rest), illumination, verification.

Although people from different cultures are far more alike than they are different, psychological research has revealed some important ways in which people raised in different cultures think differently. (e.g. using picture of fish)

Course Outline

The intrusiveness of organised marketing is so all‐pervasive that it emerges as one of the most potent social force that shapes human behaviour and this behaviour is the subject matter of the course “Consumer Behaviour”. Here, in the study of Consumer Behaviour, one can take two approaches, a managerial orientation that focus on the premise that if more is known about the consumer, marketing can be made more effective. This approach is the ‘Positivism” where the emphasis is on the questions viz. Who? What? When? Where? How? and How much? Another perspective is that of a social scientist‐ one who realises that a large part of human behaviour is consumption behaviour and a dispassionate scientific enquiry is required to understand this phenomenon. This course will attempt to have a blend of both approaches so that the study of Consumer behaviour will have personal, professional and academic relevance to you.

Course Objectives

• To provide conceptual and analytical framework to understand and analyse consumer behaviour so that a marketer can use these insights to develop and implement marketing strategies
• To sensitise you on consumption as a pervasive phenomenon that has a lot of personal relevance •
• To help develop fresh perspectives and approaches to understand and appreciate the challenges involved in marketing.