ISSN 0439-755X
CN 11-1911/B

Acta Psychologica Sinica ›› 2018, Vol. 50 ›› Issue (1): 69-81.doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2018.00069

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 The effect of presentation format for consumer responses: Evidence from eye movements

 LI BaoZhu; WEI ShaoMu   

  1.  (School of Management, Tianjing University of Technology, Tianjing 300384, China)
  • Received:2016-12-05 Published:2018-01-25 Online:2017-11-28
  • Contact: WEI ShaoMu, E-mail: 317851935@qq.com
  • Supported by:
     

Abstract:  Research has shown that the framing strategy (mental simulations and analogies) have a great influence on the consumer response. The most existing research mainly focused on presentation format conveyed by words. However, the framing strategy based on mental simulations and analogies also could use pictures. Therefore, the researcher adopted the eye movement tracking technique to do experiment which explored the relationship between the independent variable (presentation format) and the intermediary variable (eye movement index) to find the inherent mechanism of product feedback, as well as studied the adjustment variables which include product type and framing strategy. The experiment was conducted among 78 respondents (56.41% were female). And it constructed theoretical model with three factors, which are 2 (presentation format: words versus pictures) ×3 (framing strategy: mental simulation versus analogy versus control) × 3 (product type: utilitarian versus hedonic versus hybrid). The presentation format is independent variable, and the framing strategy and product type are adjustment variables. All the participants ascertained that they had limited familiarity with the products at the beginning of the experiment. After that, the stimuli were shown to the participants and the eye movement has been noted by TX300 Eye-tracker simultaneously. Finally, the participants filled out two questionnaires about product comprehension and product attitude. In the present research, for the three type stimulus, the words expression created a higher level of participants fixation count and fixation duration than pictures. The product comprehension test showed that the main effect of product comprehension were significant, words would be more successful in enhancing comprehension to the product than pictures in all three product types. As for the product attitude, the interaction effect of framing strategy and presentation format was significant and this interaction effect on fixation count and fixation duration was also significant. The pictures created more positive product attitude than that of words in the mental simulation condition. Furthermore, there was no significant difference in eye movement index between the words and pictures for the hybrid product in the mental simulation and analogy condition. Bootstrap analysis showed that eye movement mediated in presentation format and product responses. The following experiment of Latin-square design and Low-level element test reached the same conclusion, that the individual response to product will not be affected by position effect of stimulus and Low-level element (e.g: brightness and saturation). This research revealed that presentation formats and framing strategies are interactive and affect the individual responses based on the different type products. As for utilitarian product, using words would be more successful in increasing individual eye movement index and also can improved the product comprehension than using pictures. Whereas, the picture does gain much more attention from the participants than words in mental simulation condition and has more positive attitude to the product than using words for the hedonic product. As for hybrid product, using words improve the product presentation, and the framing strategy based on mental simulations or analogies has less influence on product attitude. This research combined presentation format and framing strategy and adopted eye tracker technology to analyze the individual eye movement index, thus it confirmed the influence of presentation format on product feedback. The conclusions of this study would be the guidance of enterprise's advertising planning.

Key words: presentation format, framing strategies, product type, eye movement, consumer responses

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