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Visual information processing of print advertising: Cognitive and experiential response to artistic style
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to advance the understanding of the visual/verbal relationship in advertising by assessing the influence of cognitive style and information presentation format on consumer information processing. Through the incorporation of cognitive style, as operationalized by the dimensions of Origence and Intellectence derived from the Welsh Figure Preference Test, consideration was given to the notion that not all consumers process information in the same fashion. Hypotheses were tested in a 2 (Cognitive Style: Rational processing orientation, and Experiential processing orientation) x 3 (Artistic Style: Realism, Impressionism, and Surrealism) x 2 (Verbal Copy Length: Short and Long) x 2 (Type of Product: Functional and Expressive) repeated measure ANOVA design. Subjects were exposed to a set of advertisements and asked to evaluate them using both aided and unaided measures. Aided measures assessed attitude, emotional response, price perception, and purchase intent. The unaided measure, in the form of thought-listing, addressed a number of dimensions related to attentional focus and subsequent recall. In general, consumers considered to be experiential in orientation tended to focus on the more complex visual information, and often responded to it in an emotional fashion. Alternatively, rationally-oriented consumers, tended to prefer longer verbal copy as compared to the more complex visual images. When consumers with a rational-orientation did evaluate visual information positively, it was often an advertisement which incorporated Realism as the visual image. Significant interactions were also identified between cognitive style and artistic style as well as, cognitive style and copy length on measures such as attitude toward the advertisement and brand, price perception, and purchase intention. Typically, when a consumer's cognitive style was congruent with their preferred advertising information format positive evaluations were indicated. In view of this study, cognitive style might be considered as an audience segmentation variable providing advertisers with the opportunity to more finely segment their market with media vehicles and creative presentations best suited to the target consumers preferred information processing orientation.
Subject Area
Marketing|Psychology|Experiments
Recommended Citation
Lapidus, Richard Steven, "Visual information processing of print advertising: Cognitive and experiential response to artistic style" (1991). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9200144.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9200144