cognitive priming and scripts Flashcards
what is cognitive priming
When you see or hear a stimulus (the ‘prime’) this effects your response to a later stimulus (you usually process the later stimulus faster)
true or false
we are fully aware when cognitive priming occurs
false
it occurs below your level of awareness
so you do not know your response has been influenced.
what is repetition priming ?
When you encounter the prime, you process it more quickly when you see or hear it again later than you otherwise would have done.
give an example of repetition priming
imagine you overhear the word avocado in a conversation. This word is the prime. If you hear it later that same day (or see the word or see an avocado) you notice (process) it more quickly than you would have done if you had not been primed earlier.
what is semantic priming ?
semantic’ refers to two stimuli meaning the same thing or having similar features. You process a stimulus faster because you earlier encountered a prime that was similar in meaning
give an example of semantic priming
if you see or hear the word computer, it is easier to recognise the word laptop later- you process laptop faster because its meaning is similar to the prime (computer).
what is associative priming ?
the prime and the later stimulus are associated but not semantically, they may be usually paired together in everyday experiences.
give an example of associative priming
what do you think of when I say fish?
There is a good chance you think of chips. The two are often paired in our culture that they are closely associated in memory. If you are exposed to one you are likely to later recognise or recall the other.
what research shows proof of priming ?
Jennifer Harris et al (2009).
explain Jennifer Harris et al (2009). priming research
Evaluated students who watched food adverts promoting snacking as fun to see if the adverts would prime them to eat more snacks than students who did not see the adverts.
what were Jennifer Harris et al (2009) findings on her priming experiment ?
Investigated this and found that students who were primed by adverts ate more snacks than students who were not primed.
what is a strength of priming ?
has practical applications= can help us to understand and prevent cognitive causes of obesity, study by Harris et al showed that advertising can affect how many snacks people eat, once we understand the effects of cognitive priming, we may be able to prevent this influence. Or direct the influence towards healthy eating instead.
what is a strength of priming ?
Research supports= there is research that supports priming, shows how priming may explain a possible link between aggression and video gaming. In a study by Ingrid Moller and Barbara Krache they found playing more violent video games may prime some people to think and behave aggressively supporting the concept of associative priming.
what is a weakness of priming ?
Lack of replication= cognitive priming is very difficult to study, making it difficult to replicate research findings. When researches replicate priming studies they often get different findings decreasing the validity of priming (cannot be confident the theories are correct as replication is a key part of the scientific study)
what is a cognitive script ?
When in a social situation, we recall from memory (without being aware) the relevant script containing the features of the situation, what we can except and how we should behave. (how a social situation will “play out”)
. Knowledge of behaviours, roles, outcomes etc, stored in memory tell us what to excpect in social situations and how to behave.
