The effects of learning intentions and choice task orientations on buyers' knowledge of price: an experimental investigation

• Main Author: Mazumdar, Tridib
• Other Authors: General Business (Marketing)
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University 2015
• Subjects: LD5655.V856 1987.M398; Information retrieval; Consumer price indexes; Learning intentions; Prices
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10919/53645

This dissertation examines the process by which buyers encode and store price information in their memories and how the information is retrieved when such a need arises. Using theories in human learning and memory, it has been argued that buyers’ learning of price information is primarily influenced by their learning plans and the criteria they use pin choice decisions. Because of the differences in learning and choice task orientations, buyers are postulated to encode and store the information differently and therefore, different memory tests are necessary to investigate the retrieval mechanisms and thereby making inferences about their knowledge of price. While it is recognized that buyers may encode and retrieve price information in many different ways, this research has examined the differential impact of learning and choice task orientations on their recall, recognition, and ranking performances. The hypotheses developed in this research were tested in a laboratory experiment using ninety women shoppers as subjects. The two levels of learning (incidental and intentional) and the three levels of choice task orientations (non-price, mixed, and price) were fully crossed in a 2 x 3 full-factorial between-subjects design. Subjects, after being randomly assigned to one of the six experimental conditions took part in a simulated grocery shopping. Having made their selections, subjects responded to recall, recognition, and ranking memory tests involving prices of the items selected. Subjects also indicated their confidence about the accuracy of their responses. The accuracy and confidence ratings were used as dependent measures when testing the hypotheses. Since accuracy measures were dichotomous (correct or incorrect) in nature, loglinear modes were tested using maximum likelihood estimation procedure. For continuous dependent measure (e.g. confidence), ordinary least square estimations were carried out in a univariate ANOVA framework. In addition, several multiple comparison procedures were used to test differences between mean accuracy and confidence scores. The data analysis supported fifteen out of sixteen hypothesized relationships. The results supported the argument that buyers’ learning of price information improves with greater use of price in their choice decisions and with greater need to remember the information for later use. Overall, recognition was found to be a more appropriate retrieval mechanism than recall. Need for remembering specific prices did not significantly improve buyers° ability to rank items in terms of their expensiveness. The conceptualization and the research results are expected to make both theoretical and methodological contributions in pricing research. Particularly, the issues involving formation of reference prices and the manner in which the internal reference prices are retrieved and used in iii choice decisions are partially addressed using a consumer information processing perspective. Nonetheless, future research is needed to resolve additional issues in price perception research. === Ph. D.