W3 Learning and Memory

W3 Learning and Memory

1. learning

   • a change in behaviour that’s caused by experience
   • Marketers can benefit from knowing about how consumers learn about things (Evans et al. 2009)

2. behavioural

   • focus on stimulus - response connections
   • Behavioural learning theories assume that learning occurs as a result of responses to external events (Solomon et al. 2013)

3. cognitive

   • focus on consumers as problem solves who learn when they observe relationships
   • Occurs as a result of mental processes, e.g. observational learning takes place when a consumer performing a behaviour as a result of seeing someone else performing it and being rewarded for it
   • This perspective views people as problem solvers who actively use information from the world around them to master the environment
   • The focus is on what happens in the consumer’s mind (the black box) and the cognitive processes of evaluation and interpreting information

4. classical conditioning

   • A stimulus that elicits a response is paired with another stimulus that initially does not elicit a response on its own
   • Occurs when a stimulus that naturally elicits a response (a unconditional stimulus) is paired with another stimulus that does not initially elicit this response. Over time, the second stimulus (the conditioned stimulus) comes to elicit the response as well
   • Palovain classical conditioning
     • unconditioned stimulus, neutral stimulus -> unconditioned response -> conditioned response -> (after repeated pairings) conditioned stimulus
   • marketing applications
     • A brand can be simultaneously and repetitively paired with, say popular music, so that each time the consumer thinks of the brand the positive feelings associated with that music are aroused
     • Other examples include the use of celebrities in advertising and the aim is to transfer the endorsers characteristics and what they stand for to the brand
     • The transfer of meaning from an unconditioned stimulus to a conditioned stimulus explains why the ‘made-up’ brand names (e.g. Coca-Cola, Nike, Volvo) can exert such powerful effects on consumers (i.e. brand differentiation and positioning)
     • Conditioned associations are crucial to many marketing strategies that rely on the creation and perpetuation of positive feelings and associations

5. operant conditioning (Skinner, 1938)

   • Operant (instrumental) conditioning occurs as the person learns to perform behaviours that produce positive outcomes and avoid those that result in negative outcomes
   • positive reinforcement
     • Where a reward is delivered following a response
   • negative reinforcement
     • Where a negative outcome is avoided by not performing a response
   • punishment
     • Where a response is followed by unpleasant events
   • marketing applications
     • A supermarket offers a price reduction of 10% off everything bought at the time of purchase to increase the possibility that consumers will repeat behaviour (shop at store)
     • Loyalty card benefits

6. observational learning

   • Consumers observe the actions of other and the consequences of these actions, When the consequences are positive, consumers imitate the behaviour
   • Attention -> retention -> production processes -> motivation -> observational learning