Laura A. Peracchio

The Moderating Role of Prior Knowledge in Schema-Based Product Evaluation

Recent evidence suggests that a new product is evaluated more favorably when its attributes are moderately incongruent with an activated product category schema than when its attributes are either congruent or extremely incongruent with the schema. We extend this finding by showing that it obtains when consumers have limited knowledge about the product category. When consumers possess elaborate knowledge about the category, their evaluations are unaffected by the level of congruity but rather are influenced by their schema-based associations to specific product attributes. These findings are discussed in terms of current theorizing related to schema congruity and schema-based inferencing. Copyright 1996 by the University of Chicago.

Cross-Cultural and Cognitive Aspects of Web Site Navigation

The Web is intrinsically a global medium. Consequently, deciding how a Web site should express potentially culturespecific content to worldwide visitors is an important consideration in Web site design. In this article, the authors examine some of the site content characteristics that can lead Web site visitors to an optimal navigation experience, or flow, in a cross-cultural context. In particular, a cognitive framework focuses on the effect of culture on attitudes toward the site and flow. The authors suggest that the congruity of a Web site with a visitor’s culture is a site content characteristic that influences the likelihood of experiencing flow. The authors develop a conceptual model to account for the impact of culture and other site content characteristics on flow and describe preliminary evidence supporting their model.

Understanding Materialism Among Youth

As an emerging value, materialism helps explain the consumer behavior of youth. Using a national sample of 9- to 14-year-olds, in this study we developed a Youth Materialism Scale. The findings suggest that more materialistic youth tend to shop more and save less. They are most interested in new products and most responsive to advertising and promotional efforts. Their parents view them as more expert with regard to products and they wield more purchase influence on their parents. Parents who are more materialistic tend to have children who are more materialistic. This study also reveals a modest negative relation between materialism and liking for school and school performance.

Understanding the Effects of Color: How the Correspondence between Available and Required Resources Affects Attitudes

The impact of presenting full-color, black-and-white, and color-highlighted ad photos is examined under different processing resource conditions. When viewers devote few resources to processing, ads with some color outperform black-and-white ads. However, when viewers engage in more effortful ad processing, attitudes are sensitive to the match between available and required resources. When the substantial resources devoted to ad processing are inadequate of thorough ad scrutiny, black-and-white ads or those that color highlight aspects highly relevant to ad claims are more persuasive. By contrast, when available resources better approximate those required for extensive ad scrutiny, full-color ads or ads that color highlight ad photo elements that are highly relevant to the ad claims are more persuasive than either black-and-white ads or ads that color highlight aspects of low relevance to ad claims. These outcomes are interpreted by extending notions offered by elaboration-likelihood and resource theories. Copyright 1995 by the University of Chicago.

How Ambiguous Cropped Objects in Ad Photos Can Affect Product Evaluations

Research in both the consumer and aesthetics literatures suggests that the ambiguity created by a cropped or incomplete object may prompt people to seek closure by supplying the missing part. In turn, this process of resolving the ambiguity can enhance affect. Applying this notion to advertisements, a study is reported that examines whether and when severe cropping of key objects in ads will influence peoples product evaluations. The results indicate that severe cropping of objects in ads can enhance product evaluations if people are sufficiently motivated to complete the cropped object and the cropped object does not impede peoples attempts to verify the ad claims. Copyright 1994 by the University of Chicago.

One Individual, Two Identities: Frame Switching among Biculturals

Bicultural bilingual individuals have incorporated two cultures within themselves and speak the languages of those cultures. When cued by a particular language, these individuals activate distinct sets of culture-specific concepts, or mental frames, which include aspects of their identities. Three studies show that language-triggered frame switching (i.e., switching from one set of mental frames to another) occurs only with biculturals, not with bilinguals who are not bicultural. The studies uncover frame switching at the within-individual level, and they include both qualitative and experimental evidence. They also provide a methodology to identify the relative activation strength of specific mental frames in different languages. (c) 2008 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..

Moderators of Language Effects in Advertising to Bilinguals: A Psycholinguistic Approach

This article examines a psycholinguistic model of bilingual concept organization and extends it to the processing of advertisements by bilingual consumers. The model suggests that second-language (L2) messages result in inferior memory as compared with first-language (L1) stimuli. These language asymmetries in memory are thought to occur because processing an L2 message at a conceptual level is less likely than processing an L1 message conceptually. Applying this notion to advertisements, this research examines picture-text congruity as a potential moderator of language effects in memory. The results suggest that a high level of congruity between picture and text facilitates conceptual processing of L2 messages, increasing memory for second-language ads and thereby reducing the impact of language asymmetries on memory. Copyright 2001 by the University of Chicago.

Evaluating persuasion-enhancing techniques from a resource-matching perspective

This article examines how two ad execution characteristics intended to heighten persuasion can influence the resources required to process an ad under high and low motivation conditions. These ad execution characteristics include (1) whether the ad copy is narrative or factual and (2) whether the ad layout either physically integrates or separates the ad picture and ad claims. Results reveal that under low motivation, persuasion is unaffected by these two execution characteristics but instead is affected by heuristic aspects of the ad photo. Under high motivations whether persuasion is heightened or undermined appears to depend on the extent to which the ad execution characteristics render the resources needed to process the ad equal to, in excess of, or inadequate compared with those that motivated viewers have available for processing the ad. Copyright 1997 by the University of Chicago.

From Nutrients to Nurturance: A Conceptual Introduction to Food Well-Being

The authors propose a restructuring of the “food as health” paradigm to “food as well-being.” This requires shifting from an emphasis on restraint and restrictions to a more positive, holistic understanding of the role of food in overall well-being. The authors propose the concept of food well-being (FWB), defined as a positive psychological, physical, emotional, and social relationship with food at both individual and societal levels. The authors define and explain the five primary domains of FWB: food socialization, food literacy, food marketing, food availability, and food policy. The FWB framework employs a richer definition of food and highlights the need for research that bridges other disciplines and paradigms outside and within marketing. Further research should develop and refine the understanding of each domain with the ultimate goal of moving the field toward this embodiment of food as well-being.

MAPping the Frontiers: Theoretical Advances in Consumer Research on Memory, Affect, and Persuasion

Information processing research published in the Journal of Consumer Research has produced theoretical advances in our understanding of consumer behavior. This article highlights two themes that have emerged in consumer research over the past 15 years. These are the interplay between motivation and cognition and the impact of implicit processes on consumer behavior. We examine these themes in three core areas of information processing research-memory, affect, and persuasion. We also discuss methodological innovations that have enabled theory building and conclude with suggestions for future theoretical work in consumer research. (c) 2006 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..