Conceptual priming

What is conceptual priming?

Conceptual priming concerns how prior processing of meaning affects later processing of related information. It is important to specify the task, timing, and outcome: “priming” covers several different research procedures.

Conceptual priming example and evidence

Word decisions

Meyer and Schvaneveldt (1971) found faster word decisions for associated word pairs than for unrelated pairs. Doctor and nurse illustrate a pair related in meaning. Their original procedure presented the word pairs together.

Complex behavior

Claims that activating broad concepts changes complex behavior require separate evidence. Shanks and colleagues (2013) did not reproduce intelligence-related behavioral priming in a series of experiments. This does not erase word-processing findings, but it limits generalization from them.

Conceptual priming in marketing

The idea that French music might influence a wine purchase is a marketing hypothesis, not a conclusion supplied by the word experiment. A word-recognition result does not establish that background music changes purchases through an unconscious mechanism. Such an application needs its own experimental evidence and an assessment of alternative explanations.