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List-context effects in evaluative priming
K C Klauer1, C Rossnagel, J Musch
1Psychological Institute, University of Heidelberg, Germany. christoph.klauer@uni-bonn.de
Summary
Evaluative priming effects depend on timing and context. This study found priming occurred at short stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) but not long ones, challenging existing theories.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Social Psychology
Background:
- Evaluative priming effects are commonly observed in evaluative decision tasks.
- These effects involve judging the affective connotation of target words based on preceding primes.
- The study investigates whether evaluative and semantic priming adhere to the same underlying principles.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine list-context effects on evaluative priming.
- To determine if evaluative and semantic priming follow identical regulatory laws.
- To investigate the influence of stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) and prime-target relatedness proportion on evaluative priming.
Main Methods:
- Two experiments were conducted using an evaluative decision task.
- Experiment 1 manipulated stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) across various intervals (e.g., 0 ms, 100 ms, 1,200 ms).
- Experiment 2 manipulated SOA and the proportion of evaluatively related prime-target pairs (25%, 50%, 75%).
Main Results:
- Evaluative priming was observed at short SOAs (0 ms and 100 ms) in Experiment 1, but diminished at longer SOAs.
- Experiment 2 revealed an effect of consistency proportion at short to medium SOAs (0 ms for reaction time, 200 ms for accuracy), contrary to typical findings.
- Priming effects were not significant at the longest SOA (1,200 ms) in Experiment 2.
Conclusions:
- Evaluative priming effects are sensitive to the timing between primes and targets.
- The influence of contextual consistency on evaluative priming differs from predictions based on semantic priming.
- Findings suggest distinct mechanisms may underlie evaluative and semantic priming, particularly concerning temporal dynamics and contextual influences.