The Role of Imagery in Information Processing: Review and Extensions
Journal of Consumer ResearchPublished 1 March 1987
Deborah J. MacInnis, Linda L. Price
Citations1,249
SJR quartileQ1
SJR score8.56
SNIP3.32
Generate an AI Snapshot to get a quick, structured summary of this paper.
Study Snapshot
ObjectiveStudy objective
MethodsResearch methodology
PopulationPopulation studied
Sample sizeSample sizes
OutcomesStudy outcomes here
ResultsStudy results comes here
LimitationsResearch study limitations comes here
A concise AI-generated summary of the paper will appear here once you click Generate AI Snapshot.
Abstract
Mental imagery is receiving increased attention in consumer behavior theory and research. This article describes imagery, characterizing it as a processing mode in which multisensory information is represented in a gestalt form in working memory, and discusses research on the unique effects of imagery at low levels of cognitive elaboration. It specifies researchable propositions for the relationship between high elaboration imagery processing and consumer choice and consumption behaviors. Finally, it reviews specific methods for studying imagery.
Keywords
PsychologyBusiness, Management and Accounting
Understanding Attitudes and Predicting Social Behavior
26,054 Citations1980Icek Ajzen, Martin Fishbein
Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal BehaviorLevels of processing: A framework for memory research
9,538 Citations1972Fergus I. M. Craik, Robert S. Lockhart
An alternative framework for human memory research is outlined in terms of depth or levels of processing and some current data and arguments are reexamined in the light of this alternative framework.
Journal of Consumer ResearchThe Experiential Aspects of Consumption: Consumer Fantasies, Feelings, and Fun
7,997 Citations1982Morris B. Holbrook, Elizabeth C. Hirschman
Advances in experimental social psychologyThe Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion
7,565 Citations1986Richard E. Petty, John T. Cacioppo
This chapter discusses a wide variety of variables that proved instrumental in affecting the elaboration likelihood, and thus the route to persuasion, and outlines the two basic routes to persuasion.
ScienceMental Rotation of Three-Dimensional Objects
6,230 Citations1971Roger N. Shepard, Jacqueline Metzler
The time required to recognize that two perspective drawings portray objects of the same three-dimensional shape is found to be a linearly increasing function of the angular difference in the portrayed orientations of the two objects.
Journal of Personality and Social PsychologyHeuristic versus systematic information processing and the use of source versus message cues in persuasion.
5,164 Citations1980Shelly Chaiken
Henry Holt and Co eBooksPlans and the structure of behavior.
4,538 Citations1960George A. Miller, Eugene Galanter +1 more
Journal of MarketingHedonic Consumption: Emerging Concepts, Methods and Propositions
4,461 Citations1982Elizabeth C. Hirschman, Morris B. Holbrook
Psychological ReviewExtensional versus intuitive reasoning: The conjunction fallacy in probability judgment.
3,902 Citations1983Amos Tversky, Daniel Kahneman
Journal of Experimental Psychology GeneralDepth of processing and the retention of words in episodic memory.
3,882 Citations1975Fergus I. M. Craik, Endel Tulving
Medical Entomology and ZoologyAttitudes and Persuasion: Classic and Contemporary Approaches
3,406 Citations1981Richard E. Petty, John T. Cacioppo
Conditional ReflexPsychotherapy by reciprocal inhibition
3,383 Citations1968Joseph Wolpe
A variety of the techniques based on reciprocal inhibition, such as systematic desensitization, avoidance conditioning, and the use of assertion, are described in detail.
Archives of Neurology And PsychiatryPsychotherapy by Reciprocal Inhibition
3,096 Citations1958Jules H. Masserman
Cambridge University Press eBooksThe Meaning of Things
2,305 Citations1981Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, Eugene Halton
Primary Mental Abilities
2,078 Citations1973L. L. Thurstone
Psychology Press eBooksHuman Associative Memory
2,036 Citations2013John R. Anderson, Gordon H. Bower +1 more
Annual Review of PsychologyCategorization of Natural Objects
1,946 Citations1981Carolyn Β. Mervis, Eleanor Rosch
Journal of Consumer ResearchThe Effects of Product Class Knowledge on Information Search Behavior
1,941 Citations1985Merrie Brucks
British Journal of PsychologyVISUAL IMAGERY DIFFERENCES IN THE RECALL OF PICTURES
1,796 Citations1973David F Marks
Male and female subjects who differed in their verbal reports of visual image vividness were tested for recall in three experiments involving coloured photographs as stimuli and subjects who report vivid visual imagery were more accurate in recall than subjects who reported poor visual imagery.
Journal of Consumer ResearchInnovativeness, Novelty Seeking, and Consumer Creativity
1,698 Citations1980Elizabeth C. Hirschman
Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal BehaviorRecognition memory for words, sentences, and pictures
1,548 Citations1967Roger N. Shepard
Cambridge University Press eBooksThe simulation heuristic
1,461 Citations1982Daniel Kahneman, Amos Tversky
What the Mind’s Eye Tells the Mind’s Brain: A Critique of Mental Imagery
1,354 Citations1973Zenon W. Pylyshyn
Journal of Consumer ResearchEffects of Prior Knowledge and Experience and Phase of the Choice Process on Consumer Decision Processes: A Protocol Analysis
1,351 Citations1980James R. Bettman, C. Whan Park
Principles of Categorization
1,152 Citations2024Eleanor Rosch
Journal of Consumer ResearchConsumer Search: An Extended Framework
1,027 Citations1986Peter Bloch, Daniel L. Sherrell +1 more
Journal of Consumer ResearchAudience Involvement in Advertising: Four Levels
1,014 Citations1984Anthony G. Greenwald, Clark Leavitt
Elsevier eBooksCognitive Learning, Cognitive Response to Persuasion, and Attitude Change
974 Citations1968Anthony G. Greenwald
Journal of Marketing ResearchConsumer Dissatisfaction: The Effect of Disconfirmed Expectancy on Perceived Product Performance
969 Citations1973Rolph E. Anderson
Journal of Consumer ResearchFamiliarity and Its Impact on Consumer Decision Biases and Heuristics
950 Citations1981C. Whan Park, V. Parker Lessig
Behavior TherapyImagery in therapy: an information processing analysis of fear
792 Citations1977Peter J. Lang
Advances in experimental social psychologyProcesses in Delay of Gratification
773 Citations1974Walter Mischel
This chapter provides an overview of research on choice preferences for delayed, larger versus immediate, smaller gratifications and selected studies that focus on the role of cognitive processes during self-imposed delay.
Journal of Consumer ResearchInformation Load and Consumer Decision Making
763 Citations1982Naresh K. Malhotra
Cognitive PsychologyPicture superiority in free recall: Imagery or dual coding?
761 Citations1973Allan Paivio, Kalman G. Csapo
Journal of Consumer ResearchConditions for a Picture-Superiority Effect on Consumer Memory
609 Citations1984Terry L. Childers, Michael Houston
Journal of Consumer ResearchThe Information Processing of Pictures in Print Advertisements
592 Citations1983Julie A. Edell, Richard Staelin
Journal of Consumer ResearchPlay as a Consumption Experience: The Roles of Emotions, Performance, and Personality in the Enjoyment of Games
550 Citations1984Morris B. Holbrook, Robert W. Chestnut +2 more
Journal of Personality and Social PsychologySelf-relevant scenarios as mediators of likelihood estimates and compliance: Does imagining make it so?
546 Citations1982W. Larry Gregory, Robert B. Cialdini +1 more
A series of studies have shown that the effec t of struc-tured scenarios on com pliance is no t du e to additional in fo rm atio n provided by the scenario, and an interpretation based on the availability heuristic is favored.
Memory & CognitionPerceptual comparisons through the mind’s eye
541 Citations1975Allan Paivio
Four experiments tested a theory of memory and cognition which assumes that verbal and nonverbal information are processed in functionally distinct LTM systems, and results cannot be easily explained by current verbal coding or abstract theories of LTM representations.
Cognitive PsychologyInformation representation in visual images
541 Citations1975Stephen M. Kosslyn
The results support a constructivist notion of imagery, and the idea that images may act as ‘analogues’ to percepts, and that subjectively larger images required more time to evoke than smaller images.
Journal of Consumer ResearchMeasurement of Individual Differences in Visual versus Verbal Information Processing
499 Citations1985Terry L. Childers, Michael Houston +1 more
Journal of Experimental Social PsychologyThe effect of imagining an event on expectations for the event: An interpretation in terms of the availability heuristic
479 Citations1978John S. Carroll
Journal of Consumer ResearchEffects of Information Presentation Format on Consumer Information Acquisition Strategies
438 Citations1977James R. Bettman, Pradeep Kakkar
Journal of Personality and Social PsychologyImagination and expectation: The effect of imagining behavioral scripts on personal influences.
417 Citations1983Craig A. Anderson
Journal of Marketing ResearchThe Impact of Inferential Beliefs on Product Evaluations
405 Citations1982Joel Huber, John M. McCann
Personality and Social Psychology BulletinImagining Can Heighten or Lower the Perceived Likelihood of Contracting a Disease
386 Citations1985Steven J. Sherman, Robert B. Cialdini +2 more
Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal BehaviorImagery as a relational organizer in associative learning
369 Citations1970Gordon H. Bower
Management ScienceState of the Art—Encoding Subjective Probabilities: A Psychological and Psychometric Review
354 Citations1983Thomas S. Wallsten, David V. Budescu
Behavioral and Brain SciencesOn the demystification of mental imagery
349 Citations1979Stephen M. Kosslyn, Steven Pinker +2 more
Journal of Marketing ResearchDetecting and Explaining Vividness Effects in Attitudinal Judgments
313 Citations1984Jolita Kisielius, Brian Sternthal
Journal of Consumer ResearchTask Complexity and Contingent Processing in Brand Choice
288 Citations1979Denis A. Lussier, Richard W. Olshavsky
Evidence is presented that brand choice strategy is contingent upon task complexity and that when three brands were presented, subjects used a compensatory strategy.
Journal of Consumer ResearchFeature Interactions in Consumer Judgments of Verbal versus Pictorial Presentations
269 Citations1981Morris B. Holbrook, William L. Moore
Journal of Consumer ResearchMessage-Evoked Thoughts: Persuasion Research Using Thought Verbalizations
268 Citations1980Peter Wright
Modes of Normal Conscious Flow
262 Citations1978Eric Klinger
Journal of Experimental Social PsychologyThe effects of explaining hypothetical future events: From possibility to probability to actuality and beyond
248 Citations1981Steven J. Sherman, Richard B. Skov +2 more
Journal of Marketing ResearchA Model of Multiattribute Judgments under Attribute Uncertainty and Informational Constraint
212 Citations1981Robert J. Meyer
Schema-triggered Affect: Applications to Social Perception
209 Citations2014Susan T. Fiske
Perceptual and Motor SkillsA Factor-Analytic Study of Daydreaming and Conceptually-Related Cognitive and Personality Variables
208 Citations1963Jerome L. Singer, John S. Antrobus
This report summarizes a study of the factorial composition of a series of measures of the structure and content of daydreaming behavior that examines the relationships of fantasy to measures of divergent thought productivity, attention, curiosity, and personality measures.
The Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion
199 Citations2022Benjamin C. Wagner and, Richard E. Petty
Journal of Consumer ResearchThe Effect of Numbers on the Route to Persuasion
188 Citations1984Richard F. Yalch, Rebecca Elmore-Yalch
Journal of Consumer ResearchInformation-Presentation Format and Learning Goals as Determinants of Consumers' Memory Retrieval and Choice Processes
185 Citations1982Gabriel Biehal, Dipankar Chakravarti
Journal of Consumer ResearchConsumers' Use of Memory and External Information in Choice: Macro and Micro Perspectives
167 Citations1986Gabriel Biehal, Dipankar Chakravarti
Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal BehaviorImaginal and verbal mediators and noun concreteness in paired-associate learning: The elusive interaction
152 Citations1970Allan Paivio, Dennis Foth
Journal of Consumer ResearchInferential Beliefs in Consumer Evaluations: An Assessment of Alternative Processing Strategies
132 Citations1987Gary T. Ford, Ruth Ann Smith
Journal of Consumer ResearchConstructive Processes in Consumer Choice
126 Citations1977James R. Bettman, Michel Zins
Journal of Consumer ResearchProduct Class Advertising Effects on First-Time Buyers' Decision Strategies
115 Citations1980Peter Wright, Peter D. Rip
Journal of Experimental Psychology GeneralGenerating visual images: Units and relations.
102 Citations1983Stephen M. Kosslyn, Brian J. Reiser +2 more
Three major conclusions were drawn from the results of the experiments reported in this article: First, mental images may be constructed by amalgamating images of individual parts, and an increment of time is required to add each additional part to an image.
Journal of Consumer ResearchDo Cognitive Responses Mediate the Effects of Advertising Content on Cognitive Structure?
96 Citations1982Jerry C. Olson, Daniel R. Toy +1 more
Journal of Consumer ResearchExamining the Target of Receiver Elaborations: Rhetorical Question Effects on Source Processing and Persuasion
89 Citations1985John L. Swasy, James M. Munch
SciencePursuit Eye Movements in the Absence of a Moving Visual Stimulus
81 Citations1964Gordon H. Deckert
Subjects instructed to imagine a beating pendulum develop pursuit eye movements of a frequency comparable to the frequency of a previously visualized real pendulum, which supports an "outflow" theory for central control of eye movement and suggests an objective technique for the identification of certain types of visual imagery.
The American Journal of PsychologyImages as Motives and Motivators: A Historical Perspective
79 Citations1973C. E. McMahon
Marketing ScienceA Descriptive Model of Consumer Information Search Behavior
77 Citations1982Robert J. Meyer
British Journal of PsychologySOME VARIABLES AFFECTING THE VIVIDNESS OF IMAGERY IN RECALL
65 Citations1969Peter W. Sheehan, Ulric Neisser
Journal of Consumer ResearchAn Analysis of Conjunctive Choice: Theory and Experiments
62 Citations1984David M. Grether, Louis L. Wilde
Experimental Studies of Daydreaming and the Stream of Thought
57 Citations1978Jerome L. Singer
PsychophysiologyImagery Vividness Affects Habituation Rate
37 Citations1978P. D. Drummond, Ken White +1 more
It is demonstrated that subjects with non-vivid imagery habituated to the tone more rapidly than subjects with vivid imagery when the tone was associated with imagining an electric shock.
Journal of Personality and Social PsychologyWhy never forgetting a face matters: Visual imagery and social memory.
35 Citations1982William B. Swann, Lynn C. Miller
Investigation 2 provided more definitive evidence for the link between visual imagery and social memory by demonstrating that vivid imagers had more accurate memories after seeing an interviewee answer questions, whereas seeing the interviewee had no impact on the memories of nonvivid imagers.
British Journal of PsychologyTHE RELATION OF REPORTED IMAGERY TO COGNITIVE PERFORMANCE
35 Citations1976Alan Durndell, N. E. Wetherick
Perceptual and Motor SkillsReliability of Two Measures of Imagery
32 Citations1976Thomas B. Westcott, Edward H. Rosenstock
ACR North American AdvancesProduct Familiarity and Learning New Information
30 Citations1981Eric J. Johnson, J. Edward Russo
Covert Conditioning: A Learning-Theory Perspective on Imagery
29 Citations1978Joseph R. Cautela, Leigh McCullough
Journal of Consumer ResearchRelationships between Information Recall and Subsequent Attitudes: Some Exploratory Findings
28 Citations1985Barbara Loken, Ronald Hoverstad
Perceptual and Motor SkillsReliability of a Measure of Visual Imagery
26 Citations1977Joseph S. Rossi
The high values of alpha, as well as the finding that a single general component accounted for approximately 50% of the test variance, suggest that the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire is a reasonably pure measure of the ability to form visual images.
Journal of GerontologyA Factor Analytic Study of Daydreaming, Imaginal Process, and Temperament: a Replication on An Adult Male Life-span Sample
24 Citations1977Leonard M. Giambra
The earlier derived factor of "Neurotic-Anxious Absorption in Daydreaming" was found in this sample and had a negative correlation with chronological age, suggesting a decrease with increasing age.
Multivariate Behavioral ResearchDefinition And Measurement Of Three Processes Of Imagery Representation: Exploratory Studies Of Verbally Stimulated Imagery
17 Citations1978Desmond S. Cartwright, Mary E. Marks +1 more
Three sets of experiments lend support to the hypothesis that there are at least three processes of imagery: (1) figural, in which a quasi-visual or other sensory representation of an object is made; (2) symbolic in which an abstract concepts is illustrated or symbolized by some imaginal representation; and (3) mimetic.
Munich Personal RePEc Archive (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich)Probable Cause: A Decision Making Framework.
4 Citations1984Hillel J. Einhorn, Robin M. Hogarth
…
