Professor of Psychology
A. B., (English) Middlebury College; M. A., (Experimental Psychology) Brown University; Ph.D. (Experimental Psychology) Tufts University.

Specialty Areas

 Visitor studies, consumer psychology, and the nature of affect.

I am interested in the area of visitor studies (particularly museum visitors), the nature of visitors, and the nature of their visit. The museum visitor is, of course, a particular type of consumer and I am also interested in the psychology of the consumer. In this field, I am currently researching the role of classical conditioning in advertising. All advertising is essentially based on classical conditioning, but if that is true, then it suggests that many ads are less effective than they could be because they violate the rules of classical conditioning. I am looking at a number of these variables.

Affect in advertising also relates to a third area of interest, affect as the core of emotion, and I am thus interested in studies that explore this relationship of affect to emotion and cognition. Specifically, it is important to show that affect is a subcortical appraisal, while emotion is cortical. The literature suggests that affect can trigger response even without awareness of the presence of the stimulus, but more studies demonstrating this, and its considerable implications, are needed.

Selected Publications

Webb, R. C. (1994). The relevance of the consumer behavior literature. In D. Thompson, A. Benefield, & S. Bitgood (Eds.), Visitor studies: Vol. 6. Theory, research and practice (pp. 7-19). Jacksonville, AL: The Visitor Studies Association.

Webb, R. C. (1997). Comparing high-involved and low-involved visitors: A review of the consumer behavior literature. In R. Loomis (Ed.), Visitor studies: Vol. 9. Theory, research, and practice (pp. 276-287). Jacksonville, AL: The Visitor Studies Association.

Webb, R. C. (1999). The psychology of the consumer and its development: An introduction. New York: Plenum.

Webb, R. C. (2001). The nature, role, and measurement of affect. Journal of Interpretation Research, 5(2), 15-30.