ABSTRACT
The intentional consumer-situation pursued in Chapter 5 posits an idealized consumer whose behavior can be readily understood in terms of her maximizing utilitarian and informational reinforcement. This is capable of generating a plausible intentional interpretation of consumer choice in intentional terms but it needs to be cashed out by reference to our understanding of the cognitive structure and functions that would be required to sustain the actions it suggests will follow from this supposed intentionality. This is pursued principally by reference to micro-cognitive psychology in the form of a discussion of the tripartite model of cognition proposed by Stanovich (2009), especially in its understanding of rationality and irrationality as elements which determine the desires and beliefs that influence action. An important question raised in this chapter is whether this level of cognitive theorizing is necessary in order to sustain the intentional consumer-situation that proceeded in terms of conative, and cognitive, as well as perceptual and emotional contingency-representations. Might it be possible to dispense with this cognitive apparatus and to restrict our explanations of consumption to perceptual contingency-representation?
