The cognitive processes underlying cultivation effects are a function of whether the judgments are on-line or memory-based

Abstract

The dependent variables typically used in testing for the cultivation effect have often been grouped into two categories: those that relate to the demographics or facts of television content and those that relate to the values expressed in television content (Hawkins and Pingree, 1982). This article explores this distinction in terms of the cognitive processes underlying the different types of judgments. The author argues that the demographic judgments are typically made in a memory-based fashion and the value judgments are typically made in an on-line fashion (Hastie and Park, 1986). This notion is then used to construct cognitive process models for each type of judgment that specifies when and how television information exerts its influence and results from previous research are presented that support these models. The general finding is that the same factors (motivation and ability to process information) affect the extent to which television information is used regardless of the type of judgment. However, the way in which these factors influence cultivation of demographic measures is exactly the opposite of the way in which they influence value measures.