Encoded Exposure and Aided Versus Unaided Awareness

Most available theory as to how information affects cognition and health behavior involves the notion of exposure. Many accounts suggest that a person who is influenced by information (in the form of a persuasive message or a news story or a movie image) usually is thought to come into contact with the information, just as physical exposure to a virus is a precursor to a person being infected. Exactly what constitutes information exposure nonetheless remains unclearly defined in much communication and public health research. The notion of encoded exposure is a theoretical remedy to that ambiguity. Campaign evaluation researchers, for example, have invoked the idea of encoded exposure as a specific label for what it is that recognition-based self-report measures assess.