Knowledge that Transforms

The purpose of this research is to test the temporal stability and validity of decompositional perceptions measures. The test is based upon a perceptions measurement experiment focusing on the perceived visual congruence between product concept statements and product prototypes that were designed by manipulating four product characteristics that affected product appearance. The results indicate the perceptions measures are characterized by considerable temporal stability, discriminant validity, and predictive validity.

Robert J. Meyer, Eric J. Johnson; Information Overload and the Nonrobustness of Linear Models: A Comment on Keller and Staelin, Journal of Consumer Researc

Kevin Lane Keller, Richard Staelin; Assessing Biases in Measuring Decision Effectiveness and Information Overload, Journal of Consumer Research, Volume 15,

Examination of the properties of component scores in the presence of group structure shows that the first few components extracted, typically viewed as most informative regarding total variance, do not necessarily contain the most information across group differences. A method for identifying informative components that account for across group differences is presented and illustrated.

Results of an experiment manipulating the effects of cognitive conflict, role dominance, and persuasive messages on husband-wife decisions show that couples tend to choose options that are equitable and centered in their negotiation set, a tendency that is prevalent over choice occasions and bargaining conditions. Two mechanisms that support equity—static cooperation and dynamic shifts in individual utility functions—are interpreted in light of these findings and those of other researchers.

Journal Article Colonial Consumers in Revolt: Buyer Values and Behavior During the Nonimportation Movement, 1764–1776 Get access Terrence H. Witkowski Terrence H. Witkowski Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Journal of Consumer Research, Volume 16, Issue 2, September 1989, Pages 216–226, https://doi.org/10.1086/209210 Published: 01 September 1989 Article history Received: 01 May 1988 Revision received: 01 February 1989 Published: 01 September 1989

We conducted a large scale, nationally representative study of the comprehension/miscomprehension of print communication involving 54 advertisements and 54 editorials. On average, 21.4 percent of the material was miscomprehended with an additional 15.5 percent of “don't know” responses. Editorial content was associated with slightly higher rates of miscomprehension than was advertising content. Except for age and amount of formal education and income, other basic sociodemographic variables appeared to be negligibly related to miscomprehension. We discuss the implications of these findings.

We tested the cognitive response model of communication effects in an experiment in which subjects were exposed to brand advertisements with the goal of evaluating either the advertised brand or the ad itself. The results suggest that brand-related cognitive responses are the primary mediators of ad effects on cognitive structure variables, but only for subjects who had a brand evaluation goal. For subjects with an ad evaluation goal, cognitive responses about both the brand and the ad appeared to mediate independently about equal amounts of the message-induced variation in cognitive structure variables. Implications of these findings for future communication research are discussed.

Examination of the process by which consumers form decision criteria and subsequently evaluate and choose product-level alternatives when purchase goals are well defined indicates that decision criteria are formulated in a goal-driven, top-down fashion rather than a product-driven, bottom-up fashion. Evaluation of alternatives follows a within-product strategy, as opposed to a within-attribute strategy, and is characterized by less reliance on price information than reported in previous research. Even without a specific goal for product decisions, the formation and utilization of decision criteria did not follow the bottom-up process. Alternative explanations are offered for these contrasts along with implications for future research on product-level decisions.

This article contrasts consumer choice processing of single products from different categories (noncomparable alternatives) with the processing of multiple products from different categories (product category alternatives). It is unclear whether choosing among single or multiple alternatives from different product categories will drastically affect choice processing. Theoretically, the processing of product categories should be more hierarchical or top-down, and the processing of non-comparables should be more constructive or bottom-up. The results reported here support the theoretical predictions and demonstrate the perceptual and processing differences between the two types of choices. Copyright 1989 by the University of Chicago.