Spatial Memory Affects Recall and Attitudes Toward Advertisements

Much of the literature examining spatial aptitude has reported male dominance. However, Silverman and Eals (1992-1994) demonstrated in a series of studies that females outperform males in spatial memory. To date, there is no research testing the relationship between this ability and memory for advertisements. This thesis describes an experiment where a computer version of Silverman and Eals Recall of Object Arrays ( 1994) was used to examine sex and individual differences in ad recall and attitude toward a target advertisement. Participants were classified into high and low spatial groups. Significant differences were found in object-location recall demonstrating a female advantage. In addition, high-spatial memory individuals outperformed low-spatial memory individuals in layout memory performance. These persons also generated more emotional responses toward the target advertisement. Findings establish that aptitude in spatial memory ability frees one\u27s resources to concentrate on an emotional response toward an advertisement. These conclusions were discussed in terms of Baddeley\u27s Working Memory Model (Baddeley 1986) and supporting marketing literature