Audio and Visual Distractions and Implicit Brand Memory: A Study of Video Game Players

Utilizing a computerized racing game, the experiment investigates the influence of sensory distractions on implicit brand memory. The results suggest that auditory distraction inhibits retrieval of implicit brand memory, but visual distraction causes no significant effect. The effects of the character's sensory distractions appear only for familiar brands, probably because relatively less attention enhances the interference on implicit memory. Comparatively, novel unfamiliar brands attract more attention, which nulls the character's sensory distraction. Therefore, relatively higher distraction effects on implicit memory occur for familiar brands.