Cognitive Learning, Cognitive Response to Persuasion, and Attitude Change1

It is a common assumption that the effectiveness of a persuasive communication is, at least in part, a function of the extent to which its content is learned and retained by its audience. This assumed learning-persuasion relation is based on a reasonable analogy between the persuasive communication and an informational communication such as a classroom lecture. In the lecture, it is by definition of the educational situation that retention of content is taken as a measure of effectiveness. In the persuasion situation, however, the essential criterion of effectiveness is acceptance of content. It remains an empirical question to determine whether acceptance of a persuasive communication is related to retention of its content. The hypothesis that acceptance of a communication is, in some part, a function of learning or retention of its content has received explicit endorsement by a number of attitude researchers and theorists (e.g., Hovland, Janis, & Kelley, 1953; McGuire, this volume; Miller