cognitive priming

Question 1

what is cognitive priming?

Answer 1

the effect of media cues in prompting aggressive behaviour

Question 2

what are the two forms of cues?

Answer 2

anti-social (eg an aggressive act)
pro-social (Eg helping behaviour)

Question 3

why are we not constantly affected by cues?

Answer 3

the context has to be the same, which it rarely is

Question 4

research on cognitive priming

Answer 4

-murray et al 2007 - fMRI scans, children watching violent/non-violent films, violent films had increased activity in brain areas associated with emotion and personal memories, suggesting memories were formed that could later lead to cues
-Moriarity & McCabe 1977 - children who witnessed sportspeople acting pro-socially performed pro-social acts themselves, but they didn’t imitate behaviours, suggesting cognitive priming isn’t behaviour specific

Question 5

evaluate cognitive priming

Answer 5

-research is mixed on whether its specific or general behaviours that are affected by cognitive priming
-cognitive priming may only affect someone if they have a predisposition to a certain type of behaviour due to their personality
-can be seen as simplistic; motivation, degree of impression and suitable context may all be involved
-hard to establish cause and effect