The 20th annual Symposium will be held on Thursday, April 23, 2009.

The Effect of Music Familiarity on Information Recall in Advertising
Norris 102, 9:30 AM

Alexandra  Goss,   '09 44
   Major: Psychology
   Hometown: Dexter, MI

Sponsor(s): Andrew Christopher
Support:  

Abstract: 
This study examined recall for information present in radio advertisements as it was influenced by the familiarity of the background music of the advertisement. Limited previous research has explored the influence of song familiarity on information recall with regard to information load. In addition, this study focused on Consumer Need for Uniqueness (CNU) as a predictor of recall. High CNUs are nonconformists, and low CNUs are conformists. Participants completed a survey to measure CNU and then heard a nine-minute, talk-radio segment including the advertisement of interest. They then completed a survey to measure information recall for key information in the advertisement (e.g., company, product, website) immediately after hearing the radio segment as well as one week later. Mood and demographic information was also obtained. The independent variables for this study were song familiarity (familiar or unfamiliar) and time of recall (immediately and one week later), with participant CNU scores serving as a quasi-independent variable. The dependent variables were information recall and mood. It was predicted that those high on CNU (nonconformists) would recall information better overall for the advertisement with the unique, unfamiliar song, whereas those low on CNU (conformists) would recall information better overall for the advertisement with the popular, familiar song. It was also predicted that information recall would not differ between familiar and unfamiliar song conditions immediately after hearing the advertisement; however, recall would be greater for the familiar song long-term (after one week). Results and implications are discussed.

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