Chapter 4
Learning and Memory
How Do We Learn?
• Learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior caused
by experience.
• The learner need not have the experience directly, however;
we can also learn when we observe events that affect others.
• Incidental learning: we learn even when we don’t try.
• Learning is an ongoing process: Our knowledge about the
world constantly updates as we are exposed to new stimuli
and as we receive ongoing feedback that allows us to modify
our behavior when we find ourselves in similar situations at a
later time.
How Do We Learn?
• Behavioral learning theories
• Cognitive learning theory
Behavioral Learning Theories
• Behavioral learning theories assume that learning takes place
as the result of responses to external events.
• Classical conditioning
• Instrumental conditioning
• The feedback we receive as we go through life shapes our
experiences.
Classical Conditioning
• Classical conditioning occurs when a stimulus that elicits a
response is paired with another stimulus that initially does not
elicit a response on its own.
Classical Conditioning (cont.)
• Conditioning effects are more likely to occur after the
conditioned (CS) and unconditioned (UCS) stimuli have been
paired a number of times.
• Repetition: increases the strength of stimulus–response
associations and prevent the decay of these associations in
memory.
• Extinction: happens when the effects of prior conditioning
diminish and finally disappear.
Stimulus Generalization &
Stimulus Discrimination
• Stimulus generalization refers to the tendency of stimuli
similar to a conditioned stimulus to evoke similar, conditioned
responses.
• Halo effect: react to other, similar stimuli in much the same
way they responded to the original stimulus
• Family branding
• Product line extension
• Licensing
• Look-alike packaging
• Stimulus discrimination occurs when an unconditioned
stimulus does not follow a stimulus similar to a conditioned
stimulus.
Family Branding
Product Line extension
Licensing
Look-alike packaging (
Look-alike packaging
Look-alike packaging
Instrumental Conditioning
• Instrumental conditioning (or operant conditioning) occurs
when we learn to perform behaviors that produce positive
outcomes and avoid those that yield negative outcomes.
• Instrumental learning occurs when a learner receives a reward
after he or she performs the desired behavior. Over time,
consumers come to associate with people who reward them
and to choose products that make them feel good or satisfy
some need.
Types of reinforcement
Types of reinforcement (cont.)
• Fixed-interval reinforcement
• Variable-interval reinforcement
• Fixed-ratio reinforcement
• Variable-ratio reinforcement
TYPES OF REINFORCEMENT
Fixed-interval reinforcement: After a specified time period has passed,
the first response you make brings the reward. Under such conditions,
people tend to respond slowly right after they get reinforced, but their
responses get faster as the time for the next reinforcement
approaches.
Variable-interval reinforcement—The time that must pass before you
get reinforced varies based on some average. Because you don’t know
exactly when to expect the reinforcement, you have to respond at a
consistent rate.
Fixed-ratio reinforcement—Reinforcement occurs only after a fixed
number of responses. This schedule motivates you to continue
performing the same behavior over and over
Variable-ratio reinforcement—You get reinforced after a certain
number of responses, but you don’t know how many responses are
required. People in such situations tend to respond at high and steady
rates, and this type of behavior is difficult to extinguish.
Cognitive Learning Theory
• Cognitive learning theory approaches stress the importance of
internal mental processes.
• This perspective views people as problem-solvers who actively
use information from the world around them to master their
environments.
• Supporters of this view also stress the role of creativity and
insight during the learning process.
Observational Learning
• Observational learning occurs when we watch the actions of
others and note the reinforcements they receive for their
behaviors.
Observational Learning (cont.)
• People store these observations in memory as they
accumulate knowledge and then they use this information at a
later point to guide their own behavior.
• Modeling is the process of imitating the behavior of others.
• The consumer’s attention must be directed to the appropriate
model, whom, for reasons of attractiveness, competence, status,
or similarity, he or she must want to emulate.
• The consumer must remember what the model says or does.
• The consumer must convert this information into actions.
• The consumer must be motivated to perform these actions.
How Do We Learn to Be Consumers?
• Consumer socialization is the process by which young people
acquire skills, knowledge, and attitudes relevant to their
functioning in the marketplace.
• Parents’ influence
• Television and the Internet
3 styles of parents
• authoritarian
• neglect
• indulgent
Memory
• Memory is a process of acquiring information and storing it
over time so that it will be available when we need it.
• The memory process:
encoding storage retriev
stage stage al stage
• Many of our experiences are locked inside our heads, and they
may surface years later if the right cues prompt them.
Types of memory
How Our Brains Encode Information
• The way we encode, or mentally program, information helps
to determine how our brains will store this information.
• Episodic memories relate to events that are personally
relevant.
• A narrative, or a description of a product that is written as a
story, is often an effective way to convey product information.
Sensory memory
• Sensory memory stores the information we receive from our
senses.
• This storage is temporary; it lasts a couple of seconds at most.
Short-term memory (STM)
• Short-term memory (STM) stores information for a limited
period of time, and it has limited capacity.
• Similar to a computer, this system is working memory; it holds
the information we are currently processing.
• Our memories can store verbal input acoustically (in terms of
how it sounds) or semantically (in terms of what it means).
Long-Term Memory (LTM)
• Long-term memory (LTM) is the system that allows us to retain
information for a long period of time.
• A cognitive process of elaborative rehearsal allows
information to move from STM into LTM.
• Elaborative rehearsal: involves thinking about the meaning of
a stimulus and relating it to other information already in
memory.
• The more effort it takes to process information (so-called deep
processing), the more likely it is that information will transfer
into LTM.
Nostalgia
• Nostalgia describes the bittersweet emotion that arises when
we view the past with both sadness and longing - the good old
days.
How the world
looked 10 years ago
Election & re-election
London Olympics
Facebook IPO
Movie
Movie (cont.)
• The Avengers
• The Dark Knight Rises
• The Hunger Games
• Skyfall
• The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2
• The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
• The Amazing Spider-Man
• Brave
• Ted
• Life of Pi
• Hotel Transylvania
Song
• Call Me Maybe – Carly Rae Jepsen
• Whistle – Flo Rida
• Gangnam Style – Psy
• What Makes You Beautiful – One Direction
• Titanium – David Guetta ft. Sia
• Moves like Jagger – Maroon 5 ft. Christina Aguilera
• The One That Got Away – Katy Perry
Eschatology December 21/2012