Further experiments on the attention value of size and repetition in advertisements

Abstract

In the size investigation, squares of various colors varying in size from 1/2" to 3" (side) were pasted in the middle of the rectangles formed by dividing cards the size of a Collier's page into six equal parts; all possible combinations of the three variables were represented. 107 subjects, approximately equally divided as to sex, were shown the cards for 3/4 sec. each, and asked to record all the colors seen in the order in which they were seen; only the first seen were tabulated. The percentage of initial fixations shows an S-type curve, with plateau, when plotted against side of square; the plateau is interpreted as due to inhibition by position and color. In the recognition experiment (73 subjects) eight 12-page dummies were shown, each page containing four four-letter words, 12 of the total 48 being repeated in each of the dummies; the significant words were repeated from one to eight times. After reading through each dummy, the subject indicated on a five-point scale the degree of his certainty that the items in a mimeographed sheet (48 in the dummy, 48 new) had been in the dummy. A recall test was later introduced. Plotting the percentage of recall against the number of presentations gave an S-curve again; the recognition curve rises and flattens out, but does not rise again, due, the author thinks, to the inhibitions introduced by the irrelevant elements of the test. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)