Augmented reality experiences: exploring psychological, cognitive, and sensory aspects

Augmented reality (AR), which overlays a virtual world onto the real world, provides tremendous opportunities for brands to engage consumers through psychological, cognitive, and sensory processes as they interact with the technology. Due to the rapid development of AR, however, there is a dearth of research to understand how individual psychological, cognitive, and sensory aspects associated with AR experiences influence commonly studied outcome behaviors. With company investments in AR technology set to increase to $195 billion by 2025 and consumer downloads of mobile AR applications expected to reach 5.5 billion by 2022, the need to deepen the understanding of this burgeoning technology's impact on consumption experiences is of importance to both firms and scholars. We seek to address this gap by examining the psychological, cognitive, and sensory aspects of AR experiences that foster positive brand outcomes through the elicitation of episodic memories.