Model 2.1 Lecture recap on ‘Attention’
Recap: What is Attention?
Answer: Attention is levels of Processing / Involvement
Think of Times Square: companies are trying to break through the media clutter. In everyday life
when consumers watch tv or look at magazine. Here companies are also trying to break through the
clutter. But how can companies achieve this?
Attention is…
4 key characteristic of attention:
• Limited – consumers have limited resources with regard to their attention. They do not pay
attention all the time.
• Selective – as a result of limited attention, people selectively choose between information in
the environment.
• Voluntary or involuntary – People voluntary draw attention to things that they are interested
in. But people drawn also attention to things involuntary. Think of a red star that pops up in
the powerpoint presentation. These things are salient (in het oog springend).
• A precondition for further processing – meaning that only after attention is allocated to a
specific stimulus, only then resources are being made available in order to understand the
information that is being communicated.
So: more attention leads to more cognitive capacity, which then leads to more comprehension of the
information being communicated and so more elaboration.
In the bone structure of this course
Attention is first step for any (effect of) communication to take place! A banner for example first
needs attention before the consumer can comprehend the stimulus and make judgement or
decisions based on this.
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,Levels of Processing / Involvement*
4 steps / levels in processing (also called levels of audience involvement)
• Pre-attention: little or no capacity required (automatic processing) – this usually happens
unintentionally / unconscious form of processing. Features of the stimulus are being seen of
the stimulus.
• Focal attention: little capacity required – when a stimulus is important then more attention is
being allocated to the stimulus. Voluntary attention. Still little capacity is required in order to
process the stimulus.
• Comprehension: modest levels of capacity required
• Elaboration: substantial levels of capacity required – elaboration = uitwerking van de
stimulus.
* Greenwald, A. G., & Leavitt, C. (1984). Audience involvement in advertising: Four levels. Journal of
Consumer research, 11(1), 581-592
Example of Apple:
− Pre-attention: You see a picture of an apple (features of the logo are being processed).
− Focal-attention: You use perceptual knowledge and semantic processing to give some sort of
meaning to the features that you see (so you know that it is the logo of Apple).
− Comprehension: You use syntactic knowledge and analysis in order to construct
propositional representations (so you starting to think about what the brand Apple is).
− Elaboration: You link the propositional code to other things that are already in your cognitive
mind (so you are starting to think about that Apple products are fast and expensive).
Module 2.2 Lecture Increasing Voluntary and Involuntary Attention
How campaigns can stand out: Increasing attention.
Increasing:
• Involuntary attention – unintentionally / automatic process → these stimuli are called
‘attractors’
• Voluntary attention – especially the case when stimuli are more personally relevant → these
stimuli are called ‘magnifiers’, because these stimuli magnify / increase the cognitive
resources that are allocated to the stimuli (think of an advertisement). Most of the time this
is an intentionally process.
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,Keep in mind that: The form of stimuli determines the amount of cognitive capacity is being released
by the consumer in order to comprehend and elaborate on this stimuli.
Increasing Involuntary Attention
4 psychological mechanisms that can increase involuntary attention to a stimulus:
• Saliency
• Horizontal Centrality
• Primacy
• Picture Superiority
Involuntary attention
Various communication cues can increase an automatic orienting response. So when we talk about
involuntary attention we talk about an unconscious process that causes an automatic oriented
response. So consumers respond automatically to stimuli that are:
o Salient, original, and novel stimuli (Saliency)
o Centrally located stimuli (Horizontal Centrality) – Horizontally presented
o Stimuli presented first (Primacy) - First in the list
o Pictures (Picture Superiority) – Visually attractive
Oftentimes unconscious and unintended / automatically.
These kind of stimuli are called: “Attractors”*
Associated with bottom-up processing. Bottom-up refers to the way information processing is build
up from the smallest pieces of information coming into our brain and therefore driving information
processing. So from the bottom (outside world), to the senses, to the top (out memory). Associated
with processing based on what we see and what we hear.
4* Cialdini, R. (2016). Pre-suasion: A revolutionary way to influence and persuade. Simon and
Schuster
Saliency
• Salient stimuli (stimuli that stick out / uit het oog springen):
o Perceptually prominent (size, color, contrast, …) – omdat ze prominent zijn
o Novel, unexpected, and original stimuli*(1): - omdat ze nieuw zijn
o Stimuli related to life and death*(2) – omdat ze relateren aan leven of dood
These stimuli automatically attracts our attention. Salient stimuli are hard to ignore because
they cause a mild psychological reaction which then leads to more focal attention to the
stimuli.
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, • These stimuli:
o Stick out and are hard to ignore
o Lead to mild psychological arousal – a mild state of activation
o Result in focal attention to the source of stimulation / the information
*(1) Pieters, R., Warlop, L., & Wedel, M. (2002). Breaking through the clutter: Benefits of
advertisement originality and familiarity for brand attention and memory. Management science,
48(6), 765-781.
*(2) Cialdini, R. (2016). Pre-suasion: A revolutionary way to influence and persuade. Simon and
Schuster
Example: All of a sudden you see a spider. This spider is salient because it is there
all of a sudden and maybe life threatening. It will cause a mild (for some heavier)
activation of the mind which results in more focal attention to the source of
information (the spider).
Perceptual prominence and novelty:
In a marketing setting you can think of adds that are perceptual
prominence through their unexpected colors or images (something that
stands out / you did not expect).
Novelty:
Novelty in advertising by using variations in a team can also prevent
boredom. And assures that people are more likely to allocate more
attention to the stimuli.
Life and death (such ad sexual and threatening stimuli):
Think about the spider. Campaigns / ads that refer to life and
death situations (think of for example sex / reproduction
instincs). Stimuli referring to life attract attention because we
want them. Stimuli referring to death attracts attention because
we want to avoid them.
Arousal (opwinding) explains the relationship between saliency, focal attention, and elaboration.
• Yerkes-Dodson law.
This law states that mild or moderate states of arousal
will result in a relatively high level of cognitive capacity.
We need this cognitive capacity in order to comprehend
and elaborate on the stimuli. If we have either to high or
to low levels of arousal, the cognitive capacity that
comes free is low. This results in that people will find it
harder to understand the information.
High -> think of the spider, someone who is afraid can not fully elaborate to the stimuli.
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,Horizontal Centrality
Stimuli in the center receive more attention (and are more likely to be chosen)* We as
consumers tend to pay more attention to things that are in the middle of the screen /
advertisement / webpage etc.
* Atalay, A. S., Bodur, H. O., & Rasolofoarison, D. (2012). Shining in the center: Central gaze
cascade effect on product choice. Journal of Consumer Research, 39(4), 848-86
Primacy
Consumers are more attentive to items that are presented first in a list*
Explanation for this affect: In the beginning we have more resources available so
we pay more attention. At the end we have less resources available so we pay less
attention.
A learning explanation: We have learned that items that first in the list are more
important, so we pay more attention to these.
Think also about a commercial break: you pay more attention to the commercials that come first.
Less attention to the lasts commercials.
In the example you see that we pay more attention to the first websites on the search page. We also
pay more attention to the first words in the sentences. This triangle we call: the Golden triangle in
internet research. Important for SEO.
* Pieters, R., & Bijmolt, T. H. (1997). Consumer memory for television advertising: A field study of
duration, serial position, and competition effects. Journal of Consumer Research, 23(4), 362-372
Picture Superiority
Pictorial information receives more information than textual information. But what does
this imply for advertisement? Pictures in general get more attention (ongeacht the size).
To what elements do consumers pay most attention?
• Brand?
• Pictorial?
• Text?
Analysis of 1363 print ads with eye tracking technology*(study):
• Pictures: attract attention, regardless of size
• Text: the bigger the text, the more attention
• Brand: the bigger the brand name, the more attention
Increasing Voluntary attention
- Personal Interest and Inattentional Blindness
- Self-Referencing
- Proximity and curiosity
Voluntary attention is often conscious and intended.
Increasing Voluntary Attention
We pay more attention to stimuli that are self-relevant and that make us curious.
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, How to increase voluntary attention?
• Increase self-relevance
o Personal interest avoids inattentional blindness
o Self-referencing
o Proximity
o ….
• Curiosity
o Unfinished ads
o Mysterious ads
o …
Oftentimes conscious and intended.
These stimuli are called: “Magnitizers”* Because more cognitive capacity it being released because
the stimuli is more important to us.
Associated with top-down processing. Top-down refers to perceptions that is driven by cognition /
by memory where your brain applies what you know / what you expect in order to interpret the
information (stimuli). Associated with processing based on what we know.
17* Cialdini, R. (2016). Pre-suasion: A revolutionary way to influence and persuade. Simon and
Schuster.
Personal Interest & Inattentional Blindness
• Consumers allocate more attention to information that is consistent with their goals.
Example: My goal is to lose weight, then I will pay more attention to information (ads) that
are about losing weight. Think back of the top-down processing -> based on what you know /
cognition you pay attention to what you see and release cognitive capacity in order to
comprehend and elaborate on the information / stimuli.
• Information that is not relevant, is often ignored, and will lead to inattentional blindness.
This also has to do with that attention is limited.
Exagerated example:
When you are not occupied with being pregnant then you will probably not see this add
/ not pay attention to it and also will probably not remember the advertisement at all.
Important to keep in mind is that you do not spend too much money on ads that are
likely to be not important for your target group.
Inattentional blindness & banner blindness / add avoidance:
People will skip the first sponsored add because it is not important
to them. People will also learning to avoid commercial adds and
get more experience when doing it.
The adds on the webpage on the right are just being ignored by
consumers.
Implications for SEA (searched engine advertisement = paid advertising.) and SEO (searched engine
optimization = free advertising)
• Organic results generate more attention and traffic because they are immediately relevant
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