Post-Thanksgiving Consumers Are Already Separated into Distinct Groups: Those Who

question 81

Multiple Choice

Post-Thanksgiving consumers are already separated into distinct groups: those who shop on Black Friday and those who do not shop on Black Friday. A carnival of capitalism, Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving, when retailers across the country dangle deep discounts to lure customers out of bed. Black Friday is also the official beginning of the holiday-buying frenzy. As retailers battled to draw customers into their stores on Black Friday, online merchants were plotting a cunning ambush-offering an arsenal of mobile-only deals intended to pick off shoppers as they wait in line. In 2011, with a record-breaking Black Friday-shoppers spent $816 million online, 26 percent more than in 2010. Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving, might have started as a made-up occasion to give underdog e-commerce sites a day of their own, but it has become an undeniably real thing-surprising even to the people who invented it.
Source: "Times Topics: Black Friday," New York Times, http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/r/retail_stores_and_trade/black_friday/index.html, November 28, 2011.
The excerpt indicates that Cyber Monday and online sales:

• A) discourage the violent Black Friday behavior that has become more prevalent in recent years.
• B) encourage shopper loyalty to brand leaders who can offer lower prices than their in-store rivals can.
• C) split shoppers into two groups: those who like to shop on Fridays and those who like to shop on Mondays.
• D) further separate Black Friday shoppers into two distinct groups: those who like to find deals in person and those willing to get better deals online.
• E) sorts shoppers into groups that like to shop during work hours and those who like to shop during the holiday atmosphere provided by Black Friday.

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Definitions:

Spontaneous Recovery

The reappearance of a previously extinguished conditioned response after a period of time without exposure to the conditioned stimulus.

Mental Representation

An internal image or concept of an external reality or abstract idea.

Extinct Conditioned Responses

The process by which a conditioned response becomes weaker or disappears after the conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented without the unconditioned stimulus.

Cognitive Psychologists

Specialists in the field of psychology who study mental processes such as perception, memory, thought, and problem-solving.