ABSTRACT
Human information processing employs multiple modes of processing (Berry & Broadbent, 1987, 1988; Hayes & Broadbent, 1988). In certain cases, individuals are deliberate and effortful, able to make distinctions among message qualities, and carefully evaluate message content. In other cases, individuals exert less effort, are guided by already established distinctions among message qualities, and can poorly evaluate message content. Despite these potential differences, a primary consensus exists in the message processing literature: Individuals have dominant processing responses. However, these dominant processing responses must be superseded by contingencies that prompt an adaptation to another processing mode or to multiple processing modes.
