The Effects of Preattention in an Online Advertising Context: A Neuroscience Perspective

Consumers are exposed to thousands of marketing messages every day. In such a
cluttered environment, gaining consumers· attention becomes an increasingly important
business objective. This study expands the concept of attention from a simple view of
attention as se lection of stimuli to a more elaborate two step process consisting of (I)
preattention and (2) focal attention. The focus of this research is on preattention, which is
determined by physical characteristics of objects in a visual scene. This study also
i1Pproves the measurement ofpreattention by surveying the neuroscience literature and
using a computational model to measure preattention. This improved measure allows us
to provide an enhanced explanation of how preattention f::tcilitates mere exposure effects.
Results confirm that preattentive processing of an ad in a visual scene affects liking of
that ad even when people do not remember previously seeing the advertisement. The study also finds that subtle. preattentive processes require increasing amounts of time in
order to affect focal attention and attitude toward the ad.