What Recall Errors Tell Us About Price Memory

It is difficult to retain multiple prices, or complex prices that are long to pronounce. We advance that consumers often resort to adaptive strategies, simplifying prices to remember them. This leads to apparent “errors.” Depending on the setting (lab, in front of the shelf, exiting store, entering store), short-term memory or long-term memory is involved. Relying on Dehaene’s conceptual framework, we develop a classification of “errors” (rounding, truncating, verbal confusions, interference between different prices, etc.), separating simplification strategies from actual mistakes. “Errors” are not random, but depend on the structure of the true price, the setting, and individual ability.

Citation:

Marc Vanhuele and Gilles Laurent (2009) ,"What Recall Errors Tell Us About Price Memory", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 36, eds. Ann L. McGill and Sharon Shavitt, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 184-187.