The Classical Conditioning Paradigm

Abstract

Classical conditioning implies that pairing a product (neutral stimulus) with a well-liked piece of music (unconditioned stimulus) will produce an association between the two, and therefore a preference for the product (a conditioned response). One of the most popular experiments regarding the effects of music in advertising was Gerald J. Gorn's experiment (Gorn, 1982). In keeping to the classical conditioning approach, he paired a light blue or a beige coloured pen (neutral stimulus) with both well-liked and disliked music (unconditioned stimulus). Seventy-nine percent of the subjects chose the pen with music they liked – a conditioned reaction. Further studies by Bierley et al. (1985) and Tom (1995) supported Gorn's results, but other examinations (Allen and Madden, 1985; Pitt and Abratt, 1988) did not arrive at the same conclusions. It was not possible to create such conditioned responses for products of higher personal relevance like condoms. Middlestadt et al. (1994) doubted that studies using the classical conditioning paradigm could measure affective reactions to music. They found that music was able to spotlight different features of products, to influence the recipients' feelings, and as well to influence their beliefs. Scherer and Zentner (2001) defined the affective changes that music is supposed to produce in the listener and identified the determinants of the listening situation including the musical structure of the piece, relevant listener state and trait characteristics, and respective context. Recapitulatory conditioning as a general process in advertising has to be questioned and is still being debated. THE ELM The ELM by Petty and Cacioppo (1981, Petty et al., 1983) and the involvement-concept connected with it examined the topic in more detail and provided an integral basis to explain contradictory findings. ELM postulates two ways of changing or creating one's attitudes: a central route and a peripheral one. In theory, attitudes are defined as general evaluations of ourselves, other persons, objects or facts. These general evaluations rely on behavioural, affective and cognitive experiences and influence our behaviour, our emotions, our preferences and our knowledge. Attitudes are influenced through the central route when one has the motivation, opportunity and ability to carefully process information about a product. Then, the likelihood of elaboration is high and the person is in a state of high involvement with the product. If there is no motivation, opportunity or ability to process the product information, the peripheral route of persuasion remains in the foreground. Here, attitudes are formed less by active thinking about the object and its characteristics than by positive or negative associations with the object caused by music. The person in this case is in a state of low involve-ment with the product and conditioning effects are more likely. In a state of 466 Psychology of Music 34(4)