Bower And Hecker Theory

Bower (1981) and Hecker (1984) developed two competing theories, which were defining and explaining the impact on music and cognitive activity. Bower (1981) proposed such theory by citing two real cases, which were watching movie “City Lights” and having a talk with Bernard Diamond, a forensic psychiatrist. He illustrated that Emotion muscularly manipulated cognitive processes such as free associations, imaginative fantasies, social perceptions, etc. This means the salience and memorability of events in that narrative was increased when the feeling-tone of narrative agreed with the reader’s emotion. Moreover, diversified readers with multiple emotions will attend more to the related material, identify with associated character from a story,
and recall more about that character. In the theory, an emotion serves as a memory unit that can enter into associations with coincident events.

On the other hand, Hecker’s (1984) argument was totally different from Bower’s (1981) thesis. “Music enriches the key messages and stimulates the listener”. (Hecker’s, 1984) The appropriateness of music technique used in advertising will totally affect the objective and value as of measurements on music as music comprehended critical characteristics with capability of attracting people’s attention onto music itself (Chebat a, Chebat b, Vaillant, 2001). Therefore, human’s concentration will be drawn by music with powerful characteristics.