ABSTRACT
When consumers receive information about a product or service, they usually construe its implications with reference to their previously acquired knowledge about the type of stimulus to which it refers. The cognitive operations they perform in doing so can depend on not only the nature of the information itself but also the purpose for which the information is to be used. However, they can also be inuenced by situational and individual dierence factors that are independent of the information content – for example, the way the information is presented, the amount of time and eort that recipients are willing and able to spend thinking about it and the mood they happen to be in. Moreover, recent experiences that are objectively unrelated to the information presented or the object to which it refers can inuence the cognitive processes that underlie recipients’ construal of its implications and, therefore, the judgement or decision they make on the basis of it.
