Journal Article analysis on classical conditioning

JOURNAL ARTICLE 1

Purpose of study

The purpose of the study was to generate attitudes toward a brand by using classical conditioning procedures and examine whether or not conditioned attitudes persist over time

What others have investigated and Gap in literature

a. Researchers have expressed concern that measurements of advertising effectiveness taken immediately after exposure may lack generalizability to actual advertising contexts (Haugtvedt 1989) and may overestimate the effect of advertising on the development of brand attitudes (Laczniak and Muehling 1990).

b. Researchers have begun to examine advertising's ability to influence attitudes over time. However, studies of the long-term effects of persuasion have suggested that attitudes do not necessarily remain consistent, and researchers have reported counter intuitive and seemingly conflicting results (Cook and Flay 1978.

c. Moore and Hutchinson (1983) found that only positive attitudes toward the ad affected brand attitudes immediately after ad exposure and after a two-day delay. However, after a seven-day delay, both positive and negative attitudes toward the ad affected brand attitudes.In a second study, Moore and Hutchinson (1985) replicated the findings of their first study (though with weak results) and also found that attitude toward the advertisement decayed over time, but brand awareness increased (Moore and Hutchinson 1985).

d. In a study of attitude change over time, Mitchell (1983) showed subjects affectively positive and negative pictures embedded in advertisements for four brands (different product categories). A pen and facial tissues were paired with positive pictures, whereas the toothpaste and deodorant were paired with negative pictures. Subjects were asked to evaluate the brands both immediately after exposure and after a two-week delay. The results indicate that attitudes toward the brands paired with the negative pictures were less favorable than attitudes toward the brands paired with the positive pictures and that the attitudes remained fairly stable over the two-week period.In another study Mitchell (1993) exposed subjects to advertisements for brands in the same four product categories (pen, tissue, deodorant, toothpaste) containing moderately salient brand attribute information then measured attitudes both immediately after exposure and after a two-week delay. Attitudes toward the brand were found to decay over time, but purchase intent persisted. Advertising researchers have, to some extent, examined the persistence of attitudes generated by advertising. Though atleast one study found that attitudes persist (Mitchell 1983), other studies produced mixed results (Mitchell 1993; Moore and Hutchinson 1985,1983). Because classical conditioning is a mechanism that can be used to generate responses to advertising stimuli, its persistence warrants examination as well.

e. Research in the area of classical conditioning suggests that conditioned responses are enduring in the absence of extinction procedures. To eliminate a conditioned response, the conditioned stimulus should be presented in the absence of the unconditioned stimulus and the connection will eventually extinguish (Martindale 1991; Pavlov 1928)

f. Baeyens et al. (1988) found that classical conditioning was resistant to extinction when they presented the US without the CS five times. Further, after a period of about two months, evaluative reactions still persisted. Zellner et al. (1983) found that one week after the conditioning procedure, attitudes to- ward the CS persisted and treatment subjects rated the flavor (CS) that had been paired with sucrose (US) more favorably than the control group. Hence, the literature suggests that conditioning may lead to long- lasting responses.

g. Recently, however, theorists have suggested that classical conditioning is actually a more complicated process that requires thought on the part of the individual and awareness often relationships between the product and image stimuli used in the procedure (Kim, Allen, and Kardes 1996; Rescorla 1988; Shimp 1991).

h. The gap in the literature lies in the fact that all the previous studies fail to acknowledge that attitues formed through classical conditioning are enduring.

Hypothesis
HI: Subjects exposed to a classical conditioning procedure in which a CS is systematically paired with a positive US develop more favorable attitudes toward the CS than subjects in a control group.
H2: Subjects exposed to a classical conditioning procedure in which a CS is systematically paired with a positive US maintain a favorable attitude toward the CS over time.

Method and result
Method: subjects were exposed to classical conditioning procedures in which favorable images were
paired with a fictitious brand of mouthwash. Study 1, a within-subjects design, examined attitudes of a single subject pool immediately after exposure, after a one-week delay, and after a three-week delay.
In study 2, the same methods and procedures were used to condition favorable responses to the test brand, but a between- subjects design was used to control for possible measurement effects.
Measurements were taken immediately after exposure to conditioning trials for one group of subjects and three weeks after exposure to the trials for a second group.
Result: both studies support the hypothesis that attitudes formulated through classical conditioning are enduring.

Contribution to literature and In your opinion what’s next

Although this study proves that attitudes formed through classical conditioning are enduring, the strength of the attitude formed through conditioning procedures can be the subject for future investigation in my opinion.