In the 1980s our understanding of how advertising affects consumer behavior was undergoing a dramatic transformation. Recent theoretical and methodological advances in cognitive psychology, social cognition, and artificial intelligence were largely responsible for this transformation. These advances provided a better understanding of the information acquisition process and how information is stored in memory. Consequently, we have been able to incorporate memory, the processing of visual information and affect into our models of advertising effects. However, there were still many unanswered questions. Among these are: (1) Exactly what is the relationship between the different mediators of persuasion? (2) How is memory for advertising related to persuasion? (3) What are the theoretical underpinnings of attitude toward the advertisement? (4) What determines the effect of persuasion over time? (5) What factors affect attention to advertising? (6) What psychological processes occur during the watching of a television commercial? and (7) What factors affect individual differences in the processing of advertising messages? Originally published in 1985, the chapters in this volume provide insights into these questions. They are organized in terms of four psychological processes which contribute to our understanding of how advertising works. These are affective reactions to advertisements, persuasion, psychological processes during television viewing, and involvement.

Theoretical research on advertising effects at the individual level has focused almost entirely on the effects of advertising exposure on attitudes and the mediators of attitude formation and change. This focus implicitly assumes attitudes are a good predictor of behavior, which they generally are not, and downplays the role of memory, in that, there is generally a considerable amount of time between advertising exposure and purchase decisions in most marketing situations. Recently, a number of researchers have developed conceptual models which provide an explicit link between two separate events -- advertising exposure and purchase behavior -- with memory providing the link between these events. Originally presented at the eighth annual Advertising and Consumer Psychology Conference held in Toronto, some chapters in this volume present recent research on the role of inferences in advertising situations, the effects of exposure to multiple advertisements, message receptivity, drama advertisements and the use of EEG in measuring advertising effectiveness. Contributions focus on research examining the effects of advertising exposure on consumer information processing and decision making. This book will be of interest to consumer psychologists and professionals in advertising and marketing.