The Development of Consumer Information-Processing Skills: Contributions From Cognitive Development Theory

OVERVIEW OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENTAL-CONCEPTS

As with all cognitive developmental theories, Piaget's theory posits a cognitive representational or coding process intervening between a stimulus and a child's response, These cognitive representations are organized into cognitive structures, or integrated patterns of thought and behavior which change with age. Kohlberg (1971) refers to these cognitive structures as "rules used for processing information and connecting experienced events." The qualitative changes in thought which children undergo are conceptualized as "stages," which are considered as (1) distinct, qualitative differences in children's modes of thinking or problem solving; (2) invariant so that environmental facts may influence the pace of development, but not the sequence; (3) structured wholes, so that a child at a given stage will show thinking typical of his stage in diverse situations; and (4) not in conflict with one another--each successive stage encompasses lower stages into higher levels of organization.

Piaget posits four developmental stages: (1) sensori-motor (birth to two years); (2) preoperational (two to seven years); (3) concrete operational (seven to eleven years); (4) formal operational (eleven through adulthood). The age ranges are approximate, but the stage-age relationship has been well established (Favell, 1963).

Of particular interest in current research are the differences between preoperational and concrete operational thinking since children in these two stages are the focal age group in current policy controversies. Pre-operational thinking is characterized by developing symbolic abilities (such as language and mental imagery)~ but the child at this stage is very much "perceptually bounds" i.e., reality is understood primarily in terms of the immediate perceptual environment, By the concrete operational stage, the child has developed conceptual skills which enable him to effectively mediate perceptual activity, but only when dealing with concrete objects. Children at the concrete operational stage can focus on more dimensions of a situation than can younger, preoperational children, who tend to focus on one dimension (the concept of "centration"). Other cognitive abilities differentiate preoperational and concrete operational developmental stages too, but our research has primarily focused on this perceptual boundness dimension,

USING DEVELOPMENTAL CONCEPTS IN CONSUMER SOCIALIZATION RESEARCH

Developmental concepts are useful in understanding differences in children's selection of information, and evaluation and use of information, in making consumer-related decisions, These processes are portrayed in Figure 1, as "initial" and "central" processing.

FIGURE 1

RESEARCH MODEL OF CHILDREN'S CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

It was also found that children exhibit qualitative differences in recall of commercials, as well as differences in the amount of material recalled, Data in Table 1, for example, show clear developmental differences in the degree of organization of recalled information, as predicted by development theory.

TABLE 1

RECALL OF FAVORITE COMMERCIAL

Another aspect of initial information processing focuses on the types of information children select in order to evaluate a product. Developmental theory would lead one to predict that preoperational children would be more likely to use perceptual (physical) attributes as a primary basis of evaluations compared to older, concrete operational children, who should use more attributes, particularly "abstract" ones, in product evaluations. Data in Table 2 support this prediction: when asked about the kind of information they would want if they were buying a television set, most children requested information about physical attributes (how big is the screen?), but older children were considerably more likely than younger children to also request information about performances price and functional (e.g., how long will it last) attributes.

TABLE 2

SELECTION OF INFORMATION ABOUT A TELEVISION SET (% MENTIONING AT LEAST ONCE)

As an aspect of "central processing," (see Figure 1), developmental theory was used to predict age-related differences in the number and kind of attributes children use to compare brands. Data in Table 3 show the mean numbers of attributes children used to compare two brands in three product groups (peanut butter, milk additives and toothpaste). All three age groups are similar in mentioning perceptual attributes of the products, but older children are more likely to mention ingredients and functional attributes which are more conceptual in nature (e.g., "the way the milk additive mixes with water" or "the toothpaste keeps you from getting cavities").

TABLE 3

MEAN NUMBER OF ATTRIBUTES PER PRODUCT USED TO COMPARE BRANDS

We should point out that the results reported here are not particularly surprising: older children use more, and more "sophisticated" kinds of information in their developing consumer information processing skills. The point is that the results are predicted from cognitive development theory,

FUTURE DIRECTIONS FOR RESEARCH

Up to this point, our research has focused on the content of children's consumer information--the kinds of information children select and use relative to consumption, The next step in our research will be to shift our focus to the processes children use in selecting, storing, and handling consumption related information, Two major areas of interest will receive our attention initially: representational processes and information use processes, These correspond quite closely to the distinction between initial processing and central processing depicted in Figure 1.

Representational processes refer to the processes by which children select information and store it in memory, Our research strategy to the present has been to ask children open-ended questions, thereby trying to tap verbally what children have stored. But, as Rossiter (1975) properly points out, alternative representations (e.g., visual) are possible and, indeed, they are likely, as his data show, Of particular interest in the area of representational processes will be examination of questions regarding how children store product-related information,

Information use processes refer to the processes by which children utilize information in reeking decisions, Recent consumer research has focused on a variety of strategies adults can--and do--use in choosing brands, e.g., various compensatory models, lexicographic models, conjunctive models, etc. To what extent children use simplified versions of these models--or entirely different ones--will be of central interest in our research, And obviously how a child represents information will have a major impact-on the strategies he can adopt in making consumption decisions,

In terms of guiding this future research, we expect the cognitive development literature to be just as useful as we have found it in our previous research. Specifically, we expect it to be useful in providing concepts descriptive of specific cognitive operations that can stipulate necessary conditions for utilizing different representational and information use processes,

For example, in focusing on the question of how children store information regarding various brands within a product category, we can ask what are the cognitive skills necessary to build an object/attribute matrix. We can stipulate a sequence of cognitive operations and the resultant representation that can be made when each operation is added:

In shorts specification of the operations necessary to building a full-matrix and the kinds of matrices implied by having only a partial set enables us to conceptualize--and then test--the kinds of representation children of various ages (and skill levels) are likely to have. Each of these cognitive operations, and the sequence of their development are discussed in cognitive development theory.

Similarly, different types of logical operations identified by cognitive development theorists will help in specifying different kinds of information use processes children might utilize in making consumption decisions. Cognitive developmental concepts that may be candidates for suggesting necessary conditions for utilizing various information use strategies include sereation, inferential ability, and transitive reasonings etc. In generals it is to be expected that the child's ability or inability to perform various logical operations will (a) limit or expand the number and types of decision strategies a child can use, and (b) reduce or increase his flexibility in shifting strategies.

In Rossiter's (1975) research reported in this volume, a large percent of the children drew a premium on a cereal box when asked to draw a cereal box. He interprets this as indicating that children see premiums as an attribute of cereal. However, when he asked the children to verbally describe their favorite cereal, few made any reference to premiums; instead, they mentioned taste, sweetness, etc. This suggests the possibility that the subjects in Rossiter's study were responding to two different objects. On the one hand, they were asked to draw a cereal box, and for the children, premium is an important attribute of the object "cereal box." On the other hand, they were asked to describe their favorite cereal, and for them, premium is not an important attribute of the object "cereal." If this alternative interpretation is corrects then it would appear that most children are representing premium and cereal as two different objects. Of course, this would increase the likelihood that advertising of a premium is indeed selling the premium to the child, rather than the primary product. In any case, the example clearly indicates the relevance of questions raised when an information processing perspective is utilized.

To summarize our position briefly, we believe our prior research has shown that the combination of an information processing perspective and cognitive development theory is an extremely useful conceptual marriage in guiding our research and in providing explanations for our results. As we continue to pursue consumer socialization research--shifting our attention to questions regarding the processes children utilize in representing and using information--we are convinced it will continue to be extremely useful.

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