Patterns of Goal-Contingency Learning in Preference Formation

The study investigates learning patterns during goal-directed preference formation. A longitudinal experiment examines formation of attribute importance judgments in the context of contingency relations between a stable consumer goal and alternative product attributes. The results suggest the learning curve in consumers’ attribute importance judgments can be analyzed using nested models to reveal different associative learning systems. Investigating the characteristics of the learning curve, we find that the learning pattern is best represented not by a single learning system, but by a combination of associative learning processes. This combination provides a descriptive basis for modeling representation of goal-directed preference learning.