Pearson BTEC National Applied Psychology: Revision Guide

AO1 Description Phoenix saw a vlog on fishing. At the supermarket later, going past the freezers, they suddenly thought, ‘I fancy chips for tea.’ 1. State which type of cognitive priming is demonstrated in this scenario. (1 mark) 2. Explain how this type of cognitive priming can be used to understand Phoenix’s behaviour in the supermarket. (3 marks) Rafi overheard some colleagues talking about their holiday plans. Later on, scrolling through Insta, Rafi immediately noticed someone had posted a video of their holiday in Lanzarote. 3. Explain, using your knowledge of cognitive priming, why Rafi noticed the video so quickly. (3 marks) Coco ordered a coffee at a local café. When she got home, her partner was singing a song. ‘I recognise that. It’s ‘Coffee Shop’ by Red Hot Chilli Peppers.’ Coco’s partner replied, ‘You never normally remember song titles.’ 4. Identify the type of priming experienced by Coco and explain how it accounts for her being able to recall the song title. (4 marks) Apply it These two go together like… SPEC SPOTLIGHT Cognitive priming, including the role of cognitive scripts and different types of priming (repetition, semantic and associative). Key concept 4: Cognitive priming A1: Cognitive approach What is cognitive priming? Priming means ‘preparing’ Seeing or hearing one stimulus (the ‘prime’) affects your response to a later related stimulus (you process it faster). The prime triggers related concepts in memory, so activation is quicker when the second stimulus occurs (examples below). You do not know your response is influenced because priming occurs below your level of awareness. Types of cognitive priming Repetition priming You see/hear the prime. When you see/hear it again later you process it more quickly than you would have done. E.g. you overhear ‘avocado’ (the prime). You are now ‘primed’ to notice (process) it more quickly if you hear/see the word again later (or see an actual avocado). Semantic priming You see/hear the prime. When you later see/hear a stimulus similar in meaning you process the later stimulus faster. E.g. you see/hear ‘computer’ (the prime). You are now primed to notice (recognise or recall) semantically similar words (e.g. you process ‘laptop’ faster because it has a similar meaning). Associative priming You see/hear the prime. When you later see/hear a stimulus that is often associated with the prime, you process the later stimulus faster. E.g. you hear the word ‘fish’. You are now primed to notice (recognise or recall) anything usually paired with this in memory. In our culture this is likely to be ‘chips’. An example of how cognitive priming works Cognitive priming is ‘mentally setting you up in advance to behave in a certain way’, which could explain the influence of adverts. E.g. you watch a TV advert that shows snacking as fun, which primes you (in advance) to associate snacks with something positive. You then eat a lot of snacks. This was the experimental group in a study by Harris et al. They compared a group of students primed by ‘snacking’ adverts with a group of students who did not see adverts or who saw non-food-related adverts. Students primed by adverts ate more snacks than students not primed by adverts. Unit 1 Psychological approaches and applications Content area A 18 Copyright: Sample material

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