JCU PY1102: Laboratory Report on Classical Conditioning Experiment

This laboratory report details an experiment investigating the effects of classical conditioning on consumer attitudes and purchase intentions. The study, conducted as part of a PY1102 course, involved 50 participants randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The experimental group underwent a classical conditioning procedure using a target product (Brand L Toothpaste) paired with pleasant images, while the control group did not. Participants rated their favorability and intention to purchase the product. Descriptive statistics and independent sample t-tests were used to analyze the data. The results indicated no significant difference between the experimental and control groups for both favorability and purchase intention ratings, leading to the rejection of the alternative hypotheses. The report also discusses limitations, such as the use of stimuli designed to maximize conditioning and the single-session design, and suggests areas for further research. The study aimed to determine if classical conditioning could influence consumer behavior in a laboratory setting, and the findings are discussed in relation to existing literature on the topic.

Running head: LABORATORY REPORT 1
PY1102: Laboratory Report
By (Name of Student)
(Institutional Affiliation)
(Date of Submission)

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Introduction
Classical conditioning is deemed to be one of the topics which has gained much interest in
the recent past since several reasons are accounting for the classical conditioning’s appeal.
Despite many discussions and debates on classical conditioning’s role in marketing and
advertising, only a handful of consumer behaviour studies have tested for the effects of the
classical conditioning. The studies of Gorn (2015) intimated that the consumer attitudes and
choice behaviour are susceptible to the classical conditioning. Many recent works have not
been as supportive of the classical conditioning hypothesis. Many other recent researches and
studies have also failed to provide strong support that favours interpretation of classical
conditioning. Additional researches is thus needed to determine whether the lack of empirical
support is because classical conditioning in consumer behaviour has not been up to the task.
The latter possibility is suggested in the important review of recent developments in the
classical conditioning by McSweeney and Bierley (2014), who points out that conditioned
responses will be very weak when research fails to adhere to the essential requirements for
proper conditioning experiments. In paper thus reports the study of the experiment that was
conducted to demonstrate different characteristics of classical conditioning. The experiment
was conducted among the participants who underwent classical conditioning procedures to
buying and those who were not exposed to the classical conditioning procedure.
Aim of the Experiment
The aim of this experiment was to investigate whether participants who underwent a classical
conditioning procedure would be more likely to rate a household product as more favourable
and rate greater intentions to purchase the product than those who were not exposed to the
classical conditioning procedure.
Methodology

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Participants
The experiment was conducted using a random sample size of 50 participants. Furthermore,
the participants in this experiment were assigned to experimental (n=24 participants) and the
control (n=26 participants) groups on the basis of their tutorial enrolment times. The
participants were mixed gender from which the male participants were 13 while females were
37. The number of male participants
Study Design
In this experiment, the study design was divided into two main group. The table below
provides the summary of the study design undertaken in this experiment.
Experimental Group Control Group
3 paired presentations of target item and
affective image
3 unpaired presentations of the target item
and affective images
Materials
The stimuli consisted of the experimental stimuli and distractor stimuli. The experimental
stimuli included an image of the target item (Brand L Toothpaste) and three affective images
(images rated as pleasant, for example, sunset, and waterfall and ship mast). The distractor
stimuli included three images of other products (Brand R Cola, Brand M Laundry Detergent
and Brand J Soap) and 9 neutral images (images rated as neutral, for example, tubes,
barometer, neon sign, street, microscope etc.).

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A paper booklet was provided to participants to rate their favourability of and intention to
purchase the target item and the three distractor brands. Participants were asked questions of
all four brands as follows:
Sample questions
a Overall my feeling about ITEM NAME is:
Unfavourable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Favourable
b All things considered, if you were to purchase toothpaste on one of your next several trips
to the supermarket, what are the chances in 10 that you would purchase ITEM NAME if it
were available?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Results and Analysis
Based on the data obtained, different statistical analyses are conducted which ranges from the
descriptive level to inferential level. The results from the different hypothesis testing are as
well given and discussed.
Descriptive statistics
The table 1 below shows the descriptive statistics for favourability of the target item and the
intention to purchase target item of the participants
The mean age of the participants is given as 21.54 years with a standard deviation (SD) =
3.55 years N= 50

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For the intention to purchase target item, the experimental groups produced a mean age of
6.00 years with a standard deviation of 1.49 years while for the Control group, the mean age
was 5.08 years with a standard deviation of 2.12 years. The experimental group thus indicates
a higher mean age than the control group.
Table 1: The descriptive Statistics (Favourability of target item and Intentions to purchase
target item)
Favourability of target item
Experimental Group Control Group
M SD M SD
4.83 1.49 4.73 1.12
Intentions to purchase target item
Experimental Group Control Group
M SD M SD
6.00 2.34 5.08 2.12
Results
Independent Sample t-test
Hypothesis testing
The two hypotheses were tested as follows;

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Hypothesis 1 (H1): Participants who underwent a classical conditioning procedure would be
more likely to rate a household product as more favourable and rate greater intentions to
purchase the product
Hypothesis 2 (H2): Participants who underwent a classical conditioning procedure would be
less likely to rate a household product as less favourable and rate lesser intentions to purchase
the product. The table 2 below shows the ANOVA table showing the findings regarding the
analysis.
Table 2: Independent Sample t-test
df t-value p-value
Favourability Ratings 48 -.28 0.78
Intentions to Purchase Ratings 48 -1.47 0.15
Discussion
Based on the results, the results for both the hypotheses were obtained as given in table 2
above. For all the groups (Both favourability ratings and intentions to purchase ratings) all
the p-values were more than 0.05. These results shows that there exist a strong evidence
against the alternative hypotheses in both cases. All these results in the rejection of the
alternative hypotheses in both the two case. It therefore implies that the participant who
underwent a classical conditioning procedure would be more likely to rate a household
product as more favourable and rate greater intentions to purchase the product. The t-value as
well were obtained to be negative and thus suggest acceptance of the null hypothesis in both
cases of the study. In this study therefore,
Study limitations

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While we have carefully followed the exact and strict methodological requirements for
classical conditioning in this experiments, a number of limitation in regard to the study can
still be identified and noted. In this experiment, the stimuli included in this work were
purposely designed to create a maximal opportunity for the classical conditioning to occur.
The CS was designed to not elicit a positive response by itself. Comparatively, product
names, the brand names and other actual communication stimuli are designed to attract
consumer attention and to the pleasing. Hence, there exist limits to the realism of the present
experiments and consequently to the generalization of study findings to the real world.
Another limitation in this study was inclusion of all the trials of classical conditioning and the
measures of CR within a single experimental session. The influence of conditioning trials
over a longer duration of time would not only be a more realistic study of the effects but also
would provide meaningful implications for the development of theory.
Conclusion
Our experiment have thus produced findings that are compatible with an explanation of
classical conditioning. Although genuine considerations remain over whether classical
conditioning of consumer’s attitude can be demonstrated under natural conditions, the current
study, by evidencing two exceptional characteristics of conditioning, suggests that
conditioned learning of brand specific attitudes is indeed demonstrable under laboratory
conditions.
References
Stuart, E. W., Shimp, T. A., & Engle, R. W. (1987). Classical conditioning of consumer
attitudes: Four experiments in an advertising context. Journal of Consumer Research, 14(3),
334-349.

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