8 Perception: Worlds of Sensations Chapter McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2004 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Learning Objectives After completing this chapter, you should be able to: Explain the meaning of and relationship between perceptions and sensations and discuss some basic facts about the classic five sensory receptors: Vision, smell, hearing, touch, and taste. Describe how sensory thresholds are used by marketers, including marketing applications of Weber’s law. Outline the process through which our sensory systems select, organize, and interpret stimuli, including preattentive processing, perceptual selection, organization and categorization, interpretation, and elaboration.

Learning Objectives (continued) Describe some basic tools consumers use in primitive categorization, including grouping, figure, and ground, and develop marketing applications using these three tools. Explain how elaboration of marketing stimuli influences consumer perceptions and preferences. Define some basic features of perceptual preferences and consumer tastes.

Perception Perception is a process of giving meaning to sensory stimuli. People’s perceptions are the way they sense and interpret the world around them. Sensory preferences are the sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and feelings that people like over other sensations. People often do not recognize that perceptions are created through indirect inference and assume others perceive situations in the same way. This bias is known as phenomenal absolutism.

Sensation and Sensory Thresholds People detect stimuli through a variety of sensory receptors--the organs of perception. NOSE EYES MOUTH EARS SKIN

Sensory Thresholds Absolute Threshold Differential Threshold The lowest level of input to be detected by the various sensory receptors in the human body. Perceptual filters are used to screen out unwanted stimuli. Differential Threshold Just noticeable difference (JND) - the minimum change in sensation necessary for a person to detect it. Weber’s law - the stronger the initial sensory stimulus, the greater the additional intensity needed for the second stimulus to be perceived as different.

Consumer Chronicles 8.4 Some Approximate Detection Threshold Values Sense Detection Modality Threshold Light A candle flame seen at 30 miles or a dark clear night. Sound The tick of a watch under quiet conditions at 20 feet. Taste One teaspoon of sugar in two gallons of water. Smell One drop of perfume diffused into the entire volume of a three-room apartment. Touch The wing of a bee falling on your back from a distance of one centimeter. CONSUMER CHRONICLES 8.4 Source: Donald H. McBurney and Virginia B. Collings, Introduction to Sensation/Perception (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1977), p. 7.

The Perceptual Process Preattentive Processing the simultaneous preconscious monitoring of all sensory channels for events that will require a shift in attention Perceptual Selection that portion of stimuli selected for conscious processing or focal attention Perceptual Organization how consumers classify perceptions into categories and apply prior knowledge about the categories to organize them. Perceptual Interpretation and Elaboration how consumers derive meaning from the totality of the perceptual information they receive at a given moment.

Exposure and Selection Individual Determinants Motives and goals perceptual vigilance Stimulus Determinants Size Color Contrast Position Novelty Directionality Movement Isolation Priori Learning

Perceptual Organization Consumers classify perceptions into categories Consumers apply prior knowledge about categories to organize them Categories are shaped by goals, values, or the need to respond Categories are socially and culturally constructed and learned Categorization involves comparison between a perceived target and categorical knowledge.

Perceptual Organization Grouping Individuals assume that options found in proximity to one another go together. Figure and ground Individuals determine what aspects of stimuli they should focus on. Closure Individuals use partial cues to complete an image.

Exhibit 8.1 A Classic Figure-and-Ground Problem

Interpretation and Elaboration Schemas Organized collections of beliefs and feelings that a person has about objects, ideas, people, or situations. Scripts Sequences of actions associated with objects, ideas, people, or situations.

Perceptual Inference Perceptual Inferences Interpretations that go beyond the information given. Inferences are influenced by: Context, goals, prior knowledge, personal experiences Marketing Implications brand extensions priming What flavor is this ice cream cone?

Elaboration Elaboration: the extent to which perceptual stimuli are integrated with prior knowledge structure High levels of elaboration lead to counterarguing, problem-solving, day-dreaming, and fantasizing Low levels of elaboration involve simple recognition A boomerang effect occurs when the attitude change is opposite to that advocated in the persuasive message.

Perceptual Judgments and Marketing Strategies Perceived Quality the consumer’s evaluative judgment about an entity’s overall excellence or superiority in providing desired benefits. Predictive Value the degree to which consumers associate a given cue with product quality, the confidence value of a cue, and the degree to which consumers have confidence in their ability to use and judge the cue accurately extrinsic cues - price, brand name, packaging, store name, etc. intrinsic cues - taste, texture, aroma, etc.

Perceptions of Quality Intrinsic Cues of Product Quality Extrinsic Cues of Product Quality: Brand name Price Store image Manufacturer’s image Country of origin image

Product-Country Image Effects Product-Country image effects reflect consumers’ use of country of origin or country of manufacture as a cue to infer beliefs about product attributes. Product-Country image (PCI) is a schematic mental representation of a country’s people, products, culture, and national symbols. Consumer voting captures the normative dimension of product-country images. By deciding to purchase or avoid a country’s products, consumers “vote” for or against the policies of its government.

Key Terms absolute threshold differential threshold elaboration ad hoc categories atypicality autonomic responses boomerang effect categorization closure consumer voting contrast effects country of origin differential threshold elaboration exposure extrinsic cues figure and ground grouping intrinsic cues involuntary attention just noticeable difference (JND) learned responses orientation reflex perceived quality

Key Terms (continued) perceptions schemas perceptual filters scripts perceptual inferences perceptual organization perceptual selection perceptual vigilance phenomenal absolutism preattentive processing predictive value primitive categorization product-country image role taking schemas scripts sensation sensory preferences sensory receptors sensory thresholds SERVQUAL scale symbol taste transformational advertising Weber’s law