Department of Advertising

Involvement and Attention

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

As this web site develops, in the space below we will provide a bibliography of articles and books relevant to this topic. To the extent practical, bibliographic references will be annotated.

Anyone interested in submitting additional bibliographic material for this reference page, or for any of the others at this site, is welcome to send such material via e-mail to jef@mail.utexas.edu. Please type the references in the same format as is used here, and keep the annotations to a few sentences.

Involvement

  1. James H. Leigh and Anil Menon (1987). Audience Involvement Effects on the Information Processing of Umbrella Print Advertisements. Journal of Advertising, 16 (3): 3-12.

    This study examines the effects of learning conditions and the stimulus complexity on recall and recognition of various ad elements. The intentional/incidental paradigm for learning is used as a means of manipulating involvement. Hypotheses regarding the relationship of involvement and stimulus complexity are developed from Knowledge- Assembly theory and tested in an experiment with a sample of college students. Different versions of a mock-up, umbrella print ad are used. Results show a superiority of intentional over incidental learning that tends to be more pronounced with a less complex stimulus.

  2. Meryl P. Gardner, Andrew A. Mitchell, and J. Edward Russo (1985). Low Involvement Strategies for Processing Advertisements. Journal of Advertising, 14 (2): 4-12, 56.

    The authors conceptualize involvement as a situation specific state variable with two components, intensity and direction. The latter component is viewed as being represented by the strategy used to process it. Two types of processing strategies are discussed and empirically compared. Findings indicate that a nonbrand (low involvement) strategy yields less brand knowledge retained, but more positive brand attitudes than a brand processing (high involvement) strategy.

  3. Stephen D. Calvert, Jane Ring, and Robert M. Cosenza (1984). Physiological and Psychological Union As a Necessary Step toward the Understanding of Consumer Information Processing. Proceedings of the 1984 Convention of the American Academy of Advertising, Donald R. Glover (ed.): 127-132.

    This paper reviews theoretical and methodological developments with regard to involvement and its impact on consumers' information processing and learning. A model incorporating both physiological and psychological perspectives is proposed for future research on consumer information processing.

Attention

  1. Charles E. Young and Michael Robinson (1987). GuidelineSM: Tracking the Commercial Viewer's Wandering Attention. Journal of Advertising Research, 27 (June/July): 15-22.

    This article presents a technique for quantifying consumer attention on a frame-by-frame basis to television commercials. As part of a standard copy test, the diagnostic technique called GuidelineSM involves the viewer sorting through a sample of still photographs taken from the commercial. The method is described with an illustrative case, together with findings of studies that have employed the technique and their relationship with recall.

  2. James E. Nelson, Calvin P. Duncan, and Nancy T. Frontczak (1985). The Distraction Hypothesis and Radio Advertising. Journal of Marketing, 49 (4): 60- 71.

    The effect of distraction in a radio commercial on cognitive response and message acceptance is examined in an experiment involving 157 male student consumers. The study uses as the stimulus a 60-second radio commercial for a hypothetical product embedded in a 15-minute program. Results fail to support the distraction hypothesis. Possible explanations for the results are discussed and directions for future research are offered.

© 1995, 1996, 1997 Jef I. Richards
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