Cognitive Priming

• What are two examples of cognitive priming?

  • Different types of priming
  • Cognitive scripts
• What is cognitive priming?

  When you see or hear one stimulus (prime), this affects your response to a later stimulus (faster)
• What happens in cognitive priming?

  The prime triggers a network of related concpets in memory, so that when the second stimulus occurs, activation is quicker
• What are the three types of cognitive priming?

  • Repetition priming
  • Semantic priming
  • Associative priming
• What is repetition priming?

  We process a stimulus more quickly because we encountered it earlier
• What is semantic priming?

  We process a stimulus more quickly because we encountered a stimulus related to it in meaning
• What is associative priming?

  We process a stimulus more quickly because we earlier encountered a stimulus that is often paired with it
• What is an example of repetiton priming?

  If you overhear the word avocado (prime) and if you hear it later in the same day you process it more quickly
• What is an example of semantic priming?

  If you see or hear a 'computer' (prime), it is easier to recognise or recall the word 'laptop' later
• What is an example of associative priming?

  If you hear someone say 'fish' you are more likely to later recognise or recall 'chips'
• What is a strength of cognitive priming?

  Research shows how priming may explain a possible link between video gaming and aggression
• Who completed a study on the link with aggression and video gaming about cognitive priming?

  Ingrid and Barbara (2009)
• What did Ingrid and Barbara study about?

  Students read a scenario in which someone is accidently pushed so they spill their drink. Students who frequently played violent video games were much more likely than other students to intepret the push as deliberate. They were also more likely to choose physcial aggression as a suitable response
• Who studied the link between aggression and violent video games by researching about interpreting a accidental push?

  Ingrid and Barbara (2009)
• What is one weakness of cognitive priming?

  It is very difficult to study
• One weakness of cognitive priming is that it is very difficult to replicate the research findings because it is very difficult to study
• Why is studying cognitive priming very difficult?

  It is very difficult to replicate
• When researchers replicate priming studies, they often get different findings
• What does it mean if investigating priming is very difficult to replicate?

  This suggests that the concept of priming is not scientific which means we cannot be confident that the theories are correct