Whereas each of the memory mechanisms described above suggests that novelty enhances memory, research on learning finds that lack of prior experience, a dimension of novelty, diminishes memory. These seemingly conflicting predictions can be
reconciled upon closer inspection into the memory processes involved. Because novelty often leads to greater involvement, novelty will enhance memorability if the experience would not be sufficiently involving otherwise. Because novelty contributes to distinctive processing, novelty will enhance memorability if the memory task depends critically on accessing an experience in the face of possible interference with other experiences. However, because learning is superior with prior experience in a domain, novelty will diminish memorability if the memory task depends on accessing detailed attribute information.
Why might consumers be better able to remember attribute information for common experiences? Through repeated experiences, consumers are exposed to similar attribute information on each occasion. In order to make sense of this information, consumers develop a cognitive structure for the type of experience as well as domain-specific analytical and elaborative skills. Together, repetition, a cognitive structure, and domain- specific skills tend to enhance memory for attribute information, as revealed by
Research on consumer learning observes many instances in which prior knowledge or familiarity aids in memory for attribute information. Lynch and Srull (1982) provide a review of earlier consumer research with this finding. Johnson and Russo (1984) also find that familiarity facilitates learning, conditional on sufficient involvement; consumers who are highly familiar with a product class may search less, exposing themselves to less new information. Kent and Allen (1994) revealed that memory for advertising was superior for familiar than unfamiliar brands. Shapiro and Spence (2002) found that simply
providing consumers with evaluative criteria prior to a product trial aids in their memory for attributes. Given that consumers develop such criteria as they repeat a type of
experience, novel experiences will be associated with poorer recall for their attributes.
Consumption experiences may be evaluated on either encountered attributes, experienced affect, or both depending on the choice context. Evaluations of attributes and affect may jointly determine many choices, but there may also be conditions in which only one type of evaluation governs choice. For example, a restaurant experience may be scored on various attributes: variety and quality of menu items, ambience, location, cost, etc. These judgments could feed into choices in which various attributes are weighted in a restricted context, such as when a consumer needs to visit a restaurant with a quiet ambience and higher perceived luxury to conduct a business dinner. Alternatively, consumers may evaluate experiences purely on their own affective response. For instance, a consumer may decide to go to the restaurant she had the best experience at, independent of its attributes.
Attribute and affective information vary on at least two dimensions. First, attribute information is externally presented, whereas experienced affect is internal to the consumer. Internal states are more prominent in consumers’ subjective experience (Loewenstein 1996), which may make them more likely to influence choices. Second, attribute information is detailed and requires deliberation, but experienced affect is a more “global response” (Zajonc 1980 p. 5). Indeed, recent research finds that experiences with prior exposure are processed at a lower level of construal than novel experiences (Förster 2008). This construal level finding is consistent with research on consumer learning, which finds that prior experience aids in processing of detailed (i.e., lower level construal) product information. In sum, differences in the type of information may lead to asymmetric learning effects: Learning advantages are critical in memory for attribute information but less important in memory for affective response, which is relatively easy to evaluate retrospectively if the experience is accessible.
There are also boundary conditions to the attribute versus affect distinction in learning. Some past research on memory for emotions finds that prior experience in a behavioral domain can strengthen learning of experienced affect. Familiarity contributes to the development of an enduring affective representation of the experience, which aids in organizing experienced affect into memory (Breckler 1994; Breckler and Wiggins 1989, 1993). When an enduring affective representation is set, people are able to reconstruct their affective response based on their memory for attributes, because affect is implied by
these attributes. For instance, if one has had much prior experience eating sushi as well as stable preferences in this domain, then it would be possible to form an overall evaluation of enjoyment of a past sushi sequence by simply recalling the items consumed.
How might learning of affect influence overall evaluations of conventional and novel experiences? The relationship between prior experience in a domain and accessibility of affect may not be monotonic and may differ by experiential domain. While people can easily access affect derived from a unique experience, as they accumulate more
experiences in the domain any one of these experiences becomes more difficult to access due to interference. On the other hand, as people become well-versed with a domain they set enduring affective representations which aids in learning of affect. However, only when experiences are complex in their affective reactions would affective learning advantages off-set memory interference disadvantages that arise from accumulated experience. As such, affect from novel experiences should be easier to access than affect from conventional experiences, assuming that experienced affect generally does not require much deliberation.
V.
Novelty and related constructs
To further explicate novelty, I compare and contrast this construct with related constructs, incongruity and unfamiliarity.