atw: keeping it simple....


        People Remember Prices More Easily If They Have Fewer Syllables

        In the first study to combine theories of working memory and
numerical cognition, researchers find that every extra syllable in a
product's price decreases its chances of being remembered by 20 percent. The
researchers explain this effect by the fact that our phonological loop - an
important regulator of memory - can only hold 1.5 to 2 seconds of spoken
information.

        "It is not the length of the price in digits that determines how
difficult it is to memorize, but rather how many syllables this price has
when read," explain Marc Vanheule, Gilles Laurent (both HEC School of
Management, Paris), Xavier Dreze (University of Pennsylvania), and Bobby
Calder (Northwestern University). "Faster speakers are better at immediate
price recall because they can fit more syllables into the phonological
loop."

        In a study forthcoming in the September issue of the Journal of
Consumer Research, the authors show that people who use memorization
techniques to shorten the number of syllables have better recall (e.g. read
5,325 as 'five three two five' as opposed to 'five thousand three hundred
and twenty five'). Interestingly, the researchers also found that
Hungarians, who tend to be faster speakers, have better price recall.

        However, consumers store information both verbally and visually, say
the researchers. Thus, unusual looking prices, such as $8.88, are recalled
better than typical looking prices. People also store magnitude information
about prices, remembering approximate figures when they forget the exact
price: "We show that prices are encoded in multiple ways and that each form
of encoding affects the way prices are remembered."

        Reference: Marc Vanhuele, Gilles Laurent, Xavier Dreze, and Bobby
Calder. "Consumers' Immediate Memory for Prices" Journal of Consumer
Research. September 2006.

        Source: University of Chicago Press Journals
        http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/06/060623001231.htm


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