Learning, Memory and Nostalgia

Learning and Memory

People learn in different ways.  Teaching skills therefore, need to be adapted to how people learn, in order to effectively teach someone.  In the same way, when advertising a product, advertisers need to know how to appoint a message with thier target audience.  "Every time an advertisement or commercial appears, the objective is to have the reader or viewer learn something and remember what he learned."  Thefreedictionary.com defines learning as "The act, process, or experience of gaining knowledge or skill."

There are two different types of learning:

Behaviourist Approach
-Behaviour is a response to a stimulus

• Classical conditioning (Pavlov) 

Is a reflexive or automatic type of learning in which a stimulus acquires the capacity to evoke a response that was originally evoked by another stimulus.

• Operant Conditioning (Skinner)

A process of behavior modification in which a subject is encouraged to behave in a desired manner through positive or negative reinforcement, so that the subject comes to associate the pleasure or displeasure of the reinforcement with the behavior.  Through operant conditioning, an association is made between a behaviour and a consequence for that behaviour.

Cognitive Learning
-Consumer as complex problem solvers

• Latent Learning

Type of learning that may not be immediately apparent until there is some reinforcement or incentive to demonstrate it.

• Observational Learning

Occurs when an observer’s behavior changes after viewing the behavior of a model. An observer’s behavior can be affected by the positive or negative consequences–called vicarious reinforcement or vicarious punishment– of a model’s behavior.

EXAMPLES

Classical Conditioning

Operant Conditioning



Latent Learning

Without actually, having played the game before, contestants can play the game and get the 'hang' of it, from watching previous contestants play.


Observational Learning

Nostalgia

WHAT IS NOSTALGIA???
"Nostalgia is a wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one's life, to one's home or homeland, or to one's family or friends."  (dictionary.com)

Without a doubt, nostalgia can be defined in many ways.  "Nostalgia has been described as a bitter sweet emotion, where the past is viewed with both sadness and longing," (Solomon, 2000) This charcterisation, best fits my personal definition of nostalgia.

Marketers have the ability to connect on more personal level with consumer's by reaching the consumer's memory and triggering nostalgia.

Besides the cartoons, I have included the Dr Martens boots because it is something that makes me nostalgic for my past.  As a kid, I remember going to Covent Garden with my mum and siblings.  My mum took us there when we were due to start a new term at school.  We would all go and get a pair of Dr Martens, for school.  There is also a song by Gary Numan that reminds me of the time that my mum used to take us to Covent Garden.  This memory has a snow ball effect as it also reminds me of the scones that my mum used to buy us, from a near by Marks & Spencers.  I had initially forgotten this experience however, what triggered my memory, was hearing the song by Gary Numan, years later.  I doubt that the song played every time we went to Covent Garden.  That would be a coincidence, but, something stood out around that time, that made me remember the song and link it to that experience. 

The images above are also things that I remember from my past, that make me nostalgic.

Nostalgia can be used effectively, to reach a target market.  My dad would react to an advertisement or commercial and any feature, relating to the Biafran War, which was a civil war in Nigeria that started in 1967 - 1970.  When my dad relives the biafran war through his recollection of memories, he tends to repeat the fact that he was eager to fight, but was too young.  This is what helps him to re-tell his story! I, on the other hand, would react to something from 1991(the year I was born) onwards. 

I have created a timeline with events that marked certain years, in my life:
In 1997, Diana died  - 2004, there was an Indaian Ocean Tsunami - 2001, the Twin Towers were attacked by terrorrists - 2003, War started in Iraq - 2011, The Royal Wedding.

Thinking back, there have been more memorable occurances in my life however, they are not on my time line because they clearly have less significance to the memories I have already stated.  For example, the voting for the next president of America, that saw Barack Obama being elected as the 44th president, after George Bush, is one to remember.  Being the first African, American president, this news was world wide!!!  However, this memory did not initially come to my mind.  Marketers can use nostagia to select people that do and do not fit into their target audience. 
  

Nostalgia affects people in different ways.
WHY DO WE EXAGGERATE NOSTALGIC MEMORIES?
Growing up, people tend to follow the trend of their current generation.  Fashion constantly changed in my mums generation, as much as it has in mine.  Unconsciously, people tend to change with the current trend and any previous experience, becomes a memory.  Depending on how the memory influenced a person at the time, determines how a person will react when their memory of that experience is triggered.  As discussed earlier, Gary Numan's song, made me nostalgic for the times that I went to Covent Garden with my mother and siblings, to purchase Dr Marten's boots.  Indeed, nostalgia can be described as bitter sweet.  This oxymoron depicts the sweet idea of the memory as well as, the bitterness of longing and missing the experience.