Low involvement processing, effects of stimulus exposure and repetition on implicit memory, explicit memory and affect

grantor: University of TorontoInvolvement is widely regarded as an important construct in consumer behaviour, particularly in terms of its role in moderating effects of advertising exposure on memory and affect. Effects and processes that characterize the higher end of the low involvement continuum, however, are much better understood in comparison to lower levels. This dissertation attempts to contribute to an understanding of the latter with three experiments that examine the effects of stimulus exposure and repetition on memory (experiments 1 and 2), as well as on affect (experiment 3), under conditions of involvement that may be described as 'very low'. In the first two experiments, using a selective attention procedure, subjects were incidentally exposed to advertising messages. Evidence that these exposures had an impact on memory was sought using two types of memory measures--direct and indirect measures, believed to tap explicit and implicit memory respectively. The results suggest that, despite minimum amounts of attention devoted to processing the advertising messages, there was implicit memory for the advertised brand names as evidenced by an increased propensity to respond with those brand names on the indirect measures of brand name generation (experiment 1), consideration set formation and choice (experiment 2). A concomitant finding was poor explicit memory for the same brand names. These results were, however, moderated by repetition status (1 exposure vs, 3 exposures) of the brand names at exposure. The third experiment examined, within the context of the mere exposure effect, the effects of perceptual fluency and conceptual fluency on liking for words encountered under low involvement conditions. In particular, the proposition that both types of fluency can give rise to the mere exposure effect was tested. The results support that proposition and also indicate that perceptual and conceptual fluency operated independently in generating the observed effects. Moreover, the effects on recognition bore similarity to that found for, affect. Repetition of the words was also found to have a moderating influence.Ph.D