Summary Chapter 9 Learning and Memory PDF

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Summary Of chapters coming out in Final Exam Section B (Short Answer Questions) 2018 Sem2 ...

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Chapter 9 Learning and Memory Consumers must learn almost everything related to being a consumer: product existence, performance, availability, values, preference, and so on. Marketing managers are very interested in the nature of consumer learning. Learning is defined as any change in the content or organisation of long-term memory. Consumers use two basic types of learning: conditioning and cognition. There are two forms of conditioned learning: classical and operant. Classical conditioning is the process of using an existing relationship between a stimulus and response to bring about the learning of the same response to a different stimulus. Reinforcement plays a much larger role in operant conditioning than it does in classical conditioning. No automatic stimulus–response relationship is involved so the subject must first be induced to engage in the desired behaviour and then this behaviour must be reinforced. The cognitive approach to learning encompasses the mental activities of humans as they work to solve problems. It includes iconic rote learning (forming associations between unconditioned stimuli without rewards), vicarious learning/modelling (learning by observing others) and reasoning. Low-involvement learning occurs when an individual is paying only limited or indirect attention to an advertisement or other message. Low-involvement learning tends to be limited due to a lack of elaborative activities. Nonetheless, it explains a substantial amount of consumer learning. While all of the learning theories may operate in a low-involvement situation, classical conditioning, iconic rote learning and modelling are the most common. The strength of learning depends on four basic factors—importance, reinforcement, repetition and imagery. Importance refers to the value that the consumer places on the information to be learned—the greater the importance, the greater the learning. Reinforcement is anything that increases the likelihood that a response will be repeated in the future—the greater the reinforcement, the greater the learning. Repetition refers to the number of times that consumers are exposed to the information or that they practise behaviour. Repetition increases the strength and speed of learning. Imagery is the degree to which concepts evoke well-defined mental images. Highimage concepts are easier to learn. Stimulus generalisation is one way of transferring learning by generalising from one stimulus situation to other, similar ones. Leveraging brand equity is an example of the use of stimulus generalisation by marketers. Stimulus discrimination refers to the opposite process—that of learning to respond differently to somewhat similar stimuli. Marketers interested in building brand-loyal customer segments must help consumers to discriminate between similar brands. Extinction, or forgetting, is also of interest to marketing managers. Extinction is directly related to the strength of original learning and can be modified by continued repetition. Corrective advertising is designed to increase the rate of extinction for incorrect material that consumers have learned. Memory is the result of learning. Most commonly, information goes directly into short-term memory for problem solving or elaboration, where two basic activities occur—maintenance rehearsal and elaborative activities. Maintenance rehearsal is the continual repetition of a piece of information in order to hold it in current memory.

Elaborative activities are the use of stored experiences, values, attitudes and feelings for interpreting and evaluating information in current memory. Long-term memory is information from previous processing that has been stored for future use. Information is retrieved from retention for problem solving and the success of the retrieval process depends on how well the material was learned and the match between the retrieval and learning environments. Brand image is what we think of and feel when we hear or see a brand name. Major consumer marketers have recognised that establishing and maintaining a strong brand image is crucial to long-term success. Product positioning, which is a brand’s position in a consumer’s semantic memory in relation to competing brands, is a major focus of marketing activity. It is the final outcome of the consumer’s information-processing activities for a product category. That market segment will value a brand image that matches a target market’s needs and desires. Such a brand is said to have brand equity because consumers respond favourably toward it in the market. In addition, these consumers may be willing to assume that other products with the same brand name will have some of the same features. Introducing new products with the same name as an existing product is referred to as brand leverage or brand extension....