Priming is not Priming is not Priming

Abstract

We propose a taxonomy according to which priming studies in social cognition research can be classified. Long-term priming is characterized by a long delay between the prime and test situations (several minutes or more) whereas short-term priming studies investigate short-term consequences (occurring within hundreds of milliseconds) of primes on subsequent target processing and response activation. Within short-term priming, we distinguish between response priming and semantic priming designs, and discuss the underlying mechanisms that mediate priming effects in the different designs. On the basis of these distinctions, we discuss the role of short-term priming research for an understanding of long-term priming effects in social cognition.Broadly speaking, priming research in the social cognition literature can be split into two-and-a-half branches by reference to prototypical designs. The most obvious differentiation (into the two dominant branches) can be made between what we will tentatively term long-term versus short-term priming designs. In long-term priming studies, the goal is almost always to activate some broad knowledge structure (a trait category, a stereotype, a goal, a mindset, an emotion). The aftermath of this activation is then tested in an appropriate context. Studies that aim at exploring what Molden (2014, this issue) generally described as social priming fall into the category of long-term priming, that is, studies that are concerned with effects related to standard categories of everyday behavior that are of evident practical or applied interest. What is most important for the remainder of the text is that longterm priming effects are on a time scale ranging from minutes to hours or even days and weeks.

Understanding Priming Effects in Social Psychology: An Overview and Integration

“…Social psychologists also frequently describe priming as occurring "outside of awareness," but here the term almost always refers to the awareness of the influence of the prime on subsequent responses rather than of the prime itself (Molden, 2014, this issue). Indeed, many, if not most, priming effects involve conscious processing of the relevant stimuli (see in this issue Bargh, 2014;Ferguson & Mann, 2014;Fujita & Trope, 2014;Higgins & Eitam, 2014;Wentura & Rothermund, 2014). Thus, failing to specify the priming mechanisms under investigation can create misunderstandings that lead researchers more familiar with the implicit memory literature (in which conclusive demonstrations of the complete absence of awareness have proven difficult, see in this issue Doyen et al, 2014;Newell & Shanks, 2014) to doubt any claims that are made.…”

40 years of cognitive architectures: core cognitive abilities and practical applications

“…Priming is well studied in psychology and neuroscience [592] and two major theoretical frameworks for modeling priming are found in cognitive architectures: spreading activation (ACT-R [532], Recommendation Architecture [106], Shruti [486], CELTS [147], LIDA [169], ARS/SiMA [467], DUAL [414], NARS [577]) and attractor networks (CLARION [220], Darwinian Neurodynamics [156].). The current consensus in the literature is that spreading activation has greater explanation power, but attractor networks are considered more biologically plausible [325].…”

Stop stereotyping

“…2 Following the presentation of gender-typed occupational contexts, participants were required to report the sex of target faces (i.e., Go trials) unless an auditory tone signalled they should withhold their response (i.e., Stop trials). Sequential priming tasks such as these are commonly used to activate stereotype-related knowledge in memory (Kidder, White, Hinojos, Sandoval, & Crites, 2018;Wentura & Rothermund, 2014). Although it is tempting to presume that stereotypic responses must be difficult to stop (Bargh, 1999;Bartholow et al, 2006), there is good reason to suspect that the opposite may be the casestereotype-consistent responses may be inhibited more effectively than stereotypeinconsistent responses.…”