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better predicts whether an individual follows through with the vote choice compared to
actually asking respondents how certain they are of whom they are going to vote (Bassili
1993).
If individuals hold attitudes along a continuum, how do weak attitudes become
more accessible? Attitude rehearsal is a crucial component of research on accessibility.
For Fazio, rehearsal effects influence accessibility of attitudes because the “more
individuals note and rehearse the object-evaluation association, the stronger it becomes”
(1995, 252). In the psychology lab, a rehearsal effect may be engendered by having
subjects repeat the attitudinal expression by assigning the subjects tasks. Or generally
speaking, “anything that calls one’s attention to the associated evaluation will serve as an
additional trial of associative learning and strengthen the association” (Fazio 1995, 252).
That is to say, the more an individual expresses the attitude (their like or dislike for a
politician or policy), the more accessible it becomes.
Where should we see this in the political world? Campaigns seem to be a natural
environment for strengthening political attitudes. Campaigns provide an influx of
political information. Voters learn about candidates and issues, as well as shape
opinions, from political transmissions and deliberation during campaigns (Gelman and
King 1993; Lodge, Steenbergen, and Brau 1995; Huckfeldt, Johnson, and Sprague 2004;
Popkin 1991; Kahn and Kenney 1999; Gronke 2000; Romer et al 2006; Brady, Johnston,
and Sides 2006). With the transmission of information during campaigns, political
attitudes are rehearsed and practiced. In the campaign context, rehearsal effects are any
stimuli that induce citizens to practice associations of their partisanship, issue positions
and candidate evaluations. Individuals who otherwise may rarely ponder their political
Convention