ABSTRACT
Consumer research is largely concerned with the factors that influence the impact of the information that consumers receive on judgments, behavioral decisions, and overt behavior. The information might be obtained from advertisements, word of mouth, direct experience, or previously acquired knowledge. It can be transmitted in several sense modalities (verbal, visual, auditory, affective, etc.), and its source could be either external (e.g., an advertisement) or internal (subjective experience, bodily sensations, or memory). The influence of this information might result from its effects at different stages of cognitive activity, including comprehension, memory retrieval, inference, and the generation of an output (a judgment, decision, or overt behavior).
