Literature Review > Information Processing
In applying visual rhetoric to the online environment, it is important to take into account how consumers process information and form brand attitudes online when exposed to interactive advertising. There exists a common agreement among scientists that humans were made to process and organize information in certain ways. This process involves variables of thought capacity, control of information flow, and feedback. First, a broad look at information processing will be presented followed by a specific investigation into cognitive processing of advertising messages. (Huitt, 2003)
A traditionally rich information processing theory used in cognitive psychology research today is called the "stage theory" and was developed by researchers Atkinson and Shiffrin in 1968. This theory posits that information processing occurs in three stages, sequentially. To add on to this theory, the model presented below, developed by Huitt (2003), adds on a dimension of parallel processing, by which consumers can process multiple information points using various receptors to generate a meaning.
As shown in the diagram below, consumers must first store information in short-term memory, then use a retrieval mechanism between short and long-term memory to develop a schema for responses to the stimulus. During the information retrieval process, consumers elaborate, via the central or peripheral route, to determine the ultimate meaning of the stimulus at hand. It is during the retrieval phase that parallel processing occurs between memory systems and existing cultural stereotypes and references.
Huitt's (2003) information processing model (Shown to the right) indicates that exposure to a stimulus must be an exciting moment that intrigues the consumer and triggers something in their sensory memory. As open, visually rhetorical advertisements are considered stimulating, this model applies to how such imagery might be processed by consumers. In order to apply this model to consumer research, several other variables must be considered, including motivation, attention to processing, and type of consumer need. A brand, information processing model developed by MacInnis and Jaworski (1989) takes into account these variables, as well as ultimate brand attitude formation and emotional response. For this model, motivation is taken as a goal to evaluate the brand being advertised, that is to determine whether it services a utilitarian or "expressive" need and its attributes therein. This model is extremely robust and presents a plethora of variables for manipulating in research designs. (MacInnis & Jaworski, 1989)
Among the many finding in the MacInnis and Jaworski (1989) study, a relationship between processing capacity and level of motivation was found; that is to say the higher the motivation within the consumer, the more brain power they allocate towards interpreting an advertising message. As attention for consumers is provoked and increases, more "processing capacity" is allocated to the task of understanding the riddle in the advertisement. In this research, it is also posited that consumers with utilitarian needs tend to evaluate product attributes and would therefore be less receptive to highly visual, open advertisements. Consumers with "expressive" or hedonic motivations would be more geared toward such visual imagery in interactive advertising because it is associated with being entertained while at the same time being rewarded with the answer to the visual riddle. Tied to both types of consumers is level of ability to deal with information; MacGinnis and Jaworski (1989) indicate that lack of ability is directly tied to each consumer's achievable information processing level. This reinforces the assumption that more complex visual imagery will be harder to comprehend by consumers and therefore potentially less favorable. (Phillips, 2000)
Digital communications sources, such as the Internet, give consumers a tremendous amount of active control over information. Level of control is seen as a variable factor that can be manipulated by either the information marketer or the consumer to achieve their goals. Ariely (2000) presents the concept of dynamic heterogeneity to describe the way in which increased information control within the consumer effects the processing mechanism by which a consumer turns information into knowledge. With increased information control, consumers can manipulate the flow of content in order to accommodate for variations in their mental model and to test new hypothesis. Over time, as consumers become more adept at processing large amounts of information, their cognitive load will lessen thereby freeing up mind space for information management and cataloging. This logic adheres to that presented in the Persuasion Knowledge Model (PKM); the more experience a consumer has with a given product or environment, the more comfortable they will feel processing information within that environment. (Friestad & Wright, 1994) Ariely concurs that information processing scenarios are impacted by a trio of consumer attributes that include level of information control, cognitive load, and experience level. Additionally, experiments conducted by Ariely found that in situations where consumers were exposed to high cognitive load conditions they initially were not concerned with information flow. However, management of information flow was the most important factor in task improvement and comprehension over time. (Ariely, 2000)
As witnessed by this literature presentation, information processing is a complex topic and becomes quite multidimensional when combined with the affective research variables typical of consumer behavior models. It is clear that several routes to persuasion exist in a typical information processing model. When applying this model to online consumer behavior, it is detrimental to account for individual differences within the consumer that will impact routes and levels of information processing. These include need for cognition, level of experience, and motivation, all of which will be discussed in the following section.