The effects of cognitive resource requirements, availability, and argument quality on brand attitudes - A melding of elaboration likelihood and cognitive resource matching theories

Researchers have investigated a number of different psychological constructs that occur as a result of advertising exposure, constructs that contribute to the formation of attitudes toward the ad (A(ad)) and brand (A(b)). The Dual Mediation Model (DMM) (MacKenzie and Lutz 1989), which defines hypothesized interrelationships among these constructs, has been well supported in previous research. Other researchers have provided evidence that brand. attitudes formed as a result of advertising exposure are greater if there is a "match" between the cognitive resources required to process the advertising message and those made available for processing (Anand and Sternthal 1989). The authors suggest that DMM constructs, as well as the links among those constructs, are moderated by the match between cognitive resource requirements and availability. Furthermore, the authors suggest that the nature of these moderating effects will depend on argument quality. The results of empirical testing of a modified version of the DMM under alternate processing-resource/argument-quality conditions are consistent with this theoretical explanation.