Susan E. Heckler

The Role of Expectancy and Relevancy in Memory for Verbal and Visual Information: What Is Incongruency?

Three experiments are presented that investigate the effect of using incongruent information to improve the memorability of complex marketing communications. The basic premise of the research is that incongruency is a multidimensional concept, the components of which may produce countervailing effects on memory. Drawing on research in social cognition and information processing, a theoretical framework is developed that posits two dimensions of incongruency: relevancy and expectancy. Results of the research provide empirical support for the framework and suggest implications for consumer research and the development of ads. Copyright 1992 by the University of Chicago.

Measurement of Individual Differences in Visual versus Verbal Information Processing

The examination of individual differences in consumer information processing is an emerging area of research within both marketing and consumer behavior. In this article, we report on two studies that focus on ability versus preference for imaginal or visual processing. The first study assesses the psychometric properties of frequently used measures of imaginal processing ability and preference; the studys results were somewhat supportive of the two ability measures but not supportive of the preference measure. The second study proposes and tests a new measure of processing preference—the Style of Processing (SOP) scale—which exhibits internal consistency as well as discriminant and criterion validity.

Picture-Word Consistency and the Elaborative Processing of Advertisement s

Many advertisers believe the pictorial and verbal components of an ad should convey the same meaning. Based on theoretical and empirical evidence from a variety of areas, three experiments were con...