Similar to traditional advertising, product placement plays important roles in consumer purchasing behaviors through the AIDA model (e.g., Ghirvu，2013) of which attention is the very first stage. While there is an established literature on brand recall and recognition as methods of product placement evaluation, the role of attention, which is an important topic in traditional advertising research, has been sparsely studied in the context of product placement. This paper proposes that attention is a psychological state which affects information selection and processing. Captured attention reflects audience’s selective attention to editorial content including placements, while sustained attention (or processing) requires allocated attentional capacity to process information captured from the placement. When available attentional capacity is insufficient, product placements cannot be adequately processed to form accurate memory (Lee & Faber, 2007). Accordingly, this paper aims to investigate the pathway of ‘placement characteristics –audience attention – audience memory’ in order to reinterpret the relationship between placement characteristics and audience memory through the lens of attention. We do this by answering two pertinent questions: 1) how placement characteristics (e.g., exposure duration, frequency, location and size) influence captured attention; and, 2) how captured attention and sustained attention affect audience memory. To do so, we draw on psychology literature, especially the feature integration theory (Treisman & Gelade, 1980), in establishing the theoretical connections between placement features, captured attention, sustained attention and memory. By a theatre methodology, we found sustained attention mediated between captured attention and audience memory, while more prominent placement characteristics had stronger relationships with captured attention. Furthermore, audience’s levels of involvement in the media content and familiarity with the placed brand moderated the relationship between sustained attention and audience memory.

본 연구는 인쇄신문과 인터넷 신문에서 사진이 이용자의 재인기억과 회상기 억에 미치는 영향을 실험을 통해 살펴보았다. 총 135명의 대학생으로 구 성된 4개의 피험자 집단은 각기 다르게 처치된 조선일보 뉴스 기사에 노출되었으 며, 노출 직후 설문에 응답하였다. 설문조사를 분석한 결과, 인쇄신문 이용자가 인터넷 신문 이용자보다 재인기억, 보조회상기억, 자유회상기억을 더 잘하는 것으로 나타났다. 그리고 사진이 없는 신 문 이용자가 사진이 있는 신문 이용자보다 재인기억을 더 잘하는 것으로 나타났으 며, 사진이 보조회상기억과 자유회상기억에 미치는 영향은 발견되지 않았다. 신문 매체에서 사진이 이용자의 기억에 미치는 영향에 관한 기존의 연구들이 인 쇄신문을 중심으로 이루어지고 있었으며, 서로 상반된 결과들을 제시하고 있는 상 황에서, 본 연구에서는 신문 사진의 이용자 효과 연구를 인터넷 신문으로 그 영역 을 확대하여 추가적으로 검증하였다는 점에서 연구의 의의를 찾고자 한다.