Theory and Method in Consumer Information Processing

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of the relations between the methods that are often used to evaluate the cognitive operations that occur at several different stages of information processing. The cognitive procedures that are involved in making conscious behavioral decisions are part of declarative knowledge. Priming methodology has typically been used to confirm hypotheses concerning the cognitive and affective bases for judgments and behavior. In consumer research, the variables that are assumed to mediate the effects of information on judgments and behavior pertain to both the concepts and knowledge and the cognitive process. More relevant to consumer behavior is research on sensory marketing. To reiterate, responses to consumer information are often reported along a category scale of ordered alternatives, each of which is assumed to reflect a particular magnitude of the quantity to which the scale pertains.