THE EFFECTS OF ACCULTURATION ON THE COGNITIVE STRUCTURE OF FOREIGN-BORN U.S. HISPANICS

Abstract (of my dissertation)

The prevailing view among U.S. corporations and Hispanic advertising agencies is that Spanish is the “best” way to market to U.S. Hispanic consumers. This dissertation contends that this is an oversimplification. This paper applies two theories of bilingual memory—the Revised Hierarchical Model and the Conceptual Feature Model—to help examine the cognitive structure of the foreign-born U.S. Hispanic population. Cognitive structure refers to a mental framework or schema that organizes and retains learned facts. This study proposes that the cognitive structure of foreign-born U.S. Hispanics changes based on the level of acculturation. Specifically, three propositions were tested: (1) Highly-acculturated Hispanics, who tend to prefer to speak in English, are likely to have an “English-dominant” cognitive structure; (2) Moderately-acculturated (bilingual) Hispanics, who tend to be fluent in two languages (English and Spanish), are likely to possess dual cognitive structures; and (3) Low-acculturated Hispanics, who tend to be proficient in Spanish, are likely to have a “Spanish-dominant” cognitive structure. The dissertation found statistically significant differences in the cognitive structures of foreign-born U.S Hispanics across three levels of acculturation (low, moderate and high), suggesting that Spanish is not the optimal way to reach all U.S. Hispanics. These results challenge the commonly held view that foreign-born U.S. Hispanics are a monolithic group and that Spanish is the “best” way to reach them. This study has the potential to influence how organizations develop segmentation and communication strategies for the U.S. Hispanic population in the future.