Psycholinguistic Investigations of Brand Names Via Word Recognition and Memory Experiments
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University of Windsor Scholarship at UWindsor Electronic Theses and Dissertations Theses, Dissertations, and Major Papers 2011 Psycholinguistic Investigations of Brand Names via Word Recognition and Memory Experiments Darren Schmidt University of Windsor Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd Recommended Citation Schmidt, Darren, "Psycholinguistic Investigations of Brand Names via Word Recognition and Memory Experiments" (2011). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 497. https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd/497 This online database contains the full-text of PhD dissertations and Masters’ theses of University of Windsor students from 1954 forward. These documents are made available for personal study and research purposes only, in accordance with the Canadian Copyright Act and the Creative Commons license—CC BY-NC-ND (Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivative Works). Under this license, works must always be attributed to the copyright holder (original author), cannot be used for any commercial purposes, and may not be altered. Any other use would require the permission of the copyright holder. Students may inquire about withdrawing their dissertation and/or thesis from this database. For additional inquiries, please contact the repository administrator via email ([email protected]) or by telephone at 519-253-3000ext. 3208. PSYCHOLINGUISTIC INVESTIGATIONS OF BRAND NAMES VIA WORD RECOGNITION AND MEMORY EXPERIMENTS By Darren N. Schmidt A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies Through the Department of Psychology In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Windsor Windsor, Ontario, Canada 2011 © 2011 Darren N. Schmidt iii Author‟s Declaration of Originality I hereby certify that I am the sole author of this thesis and that no part of this thesis has been published or submitted for publication. I certify that, to the best of my knowledge, my thesis does not infringe upon anyone‟s copyright nor violate any proprietary rights and that any ideas, techniques, quotations, or any other material from the work of other people included in my thesis, published or otherwise, are fully acknowledged in accordance with the standard referencing practices. Furthermore, to the extent that I have included copyrighted material that surpasses the bounds of fair dealing within the meaning of the Canada Copyright Act, I certify that I have obtained a written permission from the copyright owner(s) to include such material(s) in my thesis and have included copies of such copyright clearances to my appendix. I declare that this is a true copy of my thesis, including any final revisions, as approved by my thesis committee and the Graduate Studies office, and that this thesis has not been submitted for a higher degree to any other University or Institution. iv Abstract Most research investigating brand names is aimed at understanding consumer- purchasing behaviours. Although there are a number of studies on brand names within the fields of marketing and advertising, there are relatively few within the field of psycholinguistics. Consequently, there is little knowledge about brand name representation, including how these representations become components of language. The psycholinguistic findings of the five experiments in this study are as follows: brand names have a lexicalized status, ambiguous brand names have a reaction time advantage over nonambiguous brand names, pronounceable nonwords benefit from high orthographic neighbourhoods of real English words, repeated exposure to nonwords does not necessarily improve memory based on orthography, and the addition of semantic content offers very little effect in improving memory for novel brand names (i.e., novel nonwords). This information forms the basis for the Stratified Brand Name Hypothesis, which will provide a springboard for further investigations of linguistic properties of brand names. v Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to give a special thanks to Dr. Lori Buchanan. You have been both my academic and research supervisor for over 10 years, during which time you have infused me with the necessary knowledge and encouragement to continue in my academic pursuits. You have been essential in my development as a student, and I will take what I have learned from you and use it in future professional pursuits. I would like to thank my committee members, Dr. Dennis Jackson, Dr. Keith Taylor, and Dr. Christopher Abeare, as well as my external examiner, Dr. Antonia Mantonakis, for their guidance and valued feedback during the process of completing my Ph.D. dissertation. I would also like to take this time to thank my lab mates, Tara, Kevin, Gillian, and Lois for their valued support during all of the hardships that one experiences in completing these degree requirements. Finally, I would like to thank my family and friends for their unwavering support and faith in me. Thank you to my wife, Karen, for her patience and support. I could not have done this without her continued love and encouragement. I love you! vi Table of Contents Author‟s Declaration of Originality……………………………………….. iii Abstract……………………………………………………………………. iv Acknowledgements……………………………………………………….. v List of Tables…………………………………………………………….. viii List of Appendices………………………………………………………… ix Chapter 1: Marketing and Advertising……………………………………… 1 Chapter 2: Brand Names…………………………………………………… 6 Chapter 3: Psycholinguistics……………………………………………… 9 Chapter 4: Brand Name Representation………………………………… 13 Memory Research…………………………………………. 17 Summary………………………………………………………………….. 20 Chapter 5: Methodology………………………………………………… 22 Pre-Screening Measures…………………………………. 22 Stimulus Set Construction……………………………….. 22 Purpose…………………………………………… 22 Methods………………………………………….. 23 Results…………………………………………… 23 Experiment 1: Exploration of Brand Name Hypothesis….. 26 Purpose…………………………………………… 26 Methods………………………………………… 26 Results…………………………………………. 28 Discussion……………………………………… 31 Experiment 2: Exploring Lexical Output of Brand Names… 32 Purpose…………………………………………. 32 Methods………………………………………… 33 Results…………………………………………. 33 Discussion……………………………………… 37 Experiment 3: Memory for Visually Displayed Nonwords… 37 Purpose…………………………………………. 37 Methods………………………………………… 38 Results…………………………………………. 39 Discussion……………………………………… 43 Experiment 4: Memory for Visually Displayed Nonwords Following Double Exposure………………………………………… 43 vii Purpose…………………………………………. 43 Methods………………………………………… 44 Results…………………………………………. 41 Discussion……………………………………… 48 Experiment 5: Novel Brand Name Semantic Memory Test.. 48 Purpose…………………………………………. 48 Methods………………………………………… 49 Results…………………………………………. 51 Discussion……………………………………… 54 Chapter 6: General Discussion…………………………………………... 56 Common Nouns, Proper Nouns, Brand Names………….. 56 Research Question 1……………………………………… 56 Emotion Testing for Brand Names……………………….. 59 Methodology…………………………………….. 60 Results…………………………………………...... 61 Emotion Ratings…………………………………… 62 Research Question 2……………………………………... 64 Creating Novel Brand Names…………………………… 67 Research Question 3…………………………………….. 69 Research Question 4……………………………………… 71 Research Question 5……………………………………… 72 Chapter 7: Brand Name Representations………………………………… 75 Chapter 8: Research Contributions……………………………………… 77 Contributions to Originality………………………………. 77 Further Research Implications…………………………… 77 Chapter 9: Overall Conclusions…………………………………………… 78 Future Considerations………………………………………. 79 Summary…………………………………………………… 80 References………………………………………………………………… 82 Vita Auctoris………………………………………………………………….. 128 viii List of Tables Table 1: Mean Familiarity Ratings as a Function of Word Category………….. 25 Table 2: Mean Lexical Decision RTs as a Function of Word Category.……….. 30 Table 3: Mean Letter Detection RTs as a Function of Word Category………… 36 Table 4: Mean Recall and Probability of Recognition as a Function of Orthographic Neighbourhood Size……………………………………………………………. 42 Table 5: Mean Recall as a Function of Orthographic Neighbourhood Size and Exposure ………………………………………………………………………… 47 Table 6: Mean Recall and Probability of Recognition as a Function of High/Low Semantic Pairings and Orthography …………………………………………………………………………………… 53 Table 7: Mean Emotion Ratings as a Function of Word Category …………….. 62 ix List of Appendices Appendix A: Investigations on Word Classes as a Function of Hemispheric Ability……………………………………………………………………… 106 Appendix B: Questionnaire………………………………………………. 107 Appendix C: Reading Fluency…………………………………………… 109 Appendix D: Consent Form for Familiarity Rating Test…………………. 110 Appendix E: Word and Nonword List for Experiments 1 and 2………….. 112 Appendix F: Consent Form for Experiment 1…………………………… 113 Appendix G: Consent Form for Experiment 2…………………………… 115 Appendix H: Consent Form for Experiment 3…………………………… 117 Appendix I: High and Low Orthographic Nonword List for Experiments 3, 4, and 5…………………………………………………………………………… 119 Appendix J: Consent Form for Experiment 4…………………………. 120 Appendix K: Consent Form for Experiment 5…………………………….. 122 Appendix L: Matching Task………………………………………………… 124 Appendix M: Stimuli for Emotion Study………………………………….. 125 Appendix N: Consent Form for Emotion Study……………………………… 126 1 Chapter 1 Marketing and Advertising Marketing and advertising researchers are interested in what drives consumer- purchasing behaviour. Variables of interest include those related to product exposure and placement (Pavia & Costa, 1993; Vanden Bergh, Adler, & Oliver, 1987), spokesperson appeal and credibility, visual