Advertisement pacing and the learning of marketing information by the elderly

This study investigates how pace of information presentation to the elderly influences learning of marketing information. The learning task involved recalling or recognizing brand, product, and commercial information from three advertisements which were mechanically manipulated through time compression or expansion to expose a subject to the commercials at different paces. In order to test the total time hypothesis of Cooper and Pantle (1967), the total time of exposure was held constant by varying the repetitions of the advertisement. Results indicate that elderly consumers remember less than younger subjects, but support the total time hypothesis of no pacing effects for older subjects. Some support was also found for applicability to younger subjects.