scholarly journals Leading Us Unto Temptation? No Evidence for an Asymmetry in Automatic Associations Between Goals and Temptations

2022 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoë Francis ◽  
Aravinth Jebanesan ◽  
Michael Inzlicht
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Lexical Decision Task ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Cognitive Constructs ◽  
Priming Effects ◽  
Level Of Processing ◽  
Automatic Level ◽  
Attempted Replication

The asymmetry hypothesis of counteractive control theory suggests that—at least for successful self-regulators—exposure to temptations facilitates the accessibility of goal-related cognitive constructs, whereas exposure to goals inhibits the accessibility of temptation-related cognitive constructs. Using a lexical decision task, Fishbach et al., 2003 (Study 3) found that this asymmetry existed even at an automatic level of processing. In this attempted replication, 221 students completed a lexical decision task that included goal-related and temptation-related stimuli words preceded by either a goal-related prime, a temptation-related prime, or an irrelevant prime. Unlike the original study, we found only significant priming effects, where temptation-primes facilitated the recognition of goal-related words and goal-primes likewise facilitated the recognition of temptation-related words. We did not replicate the previously reported asymmetry. Additionally, we found no significant moderation of the hypothesized priming asymmetry by any of the traits of self-regulatory success, construal level, temptation strength, or self-control, again failing to replicate prior findings. The same priming patterns were found among participants who completed the study in-lab and those who completed the study online. This replication study suggests that the cognitive associations between goals and temptations are relatively symmetric and faciliatory, at least during the initial, automatic level of cognitive processing.

An examination of L2-L1 noncognate translation priming in the lexical decision task: insights from distributional and frequency-based analyses

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARIKO NAKAYAMA ◽  
STEPHEN J. LUPKER ◽  
YOSHIHIRO ITAGUCHI
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Lexical Decision Task ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Very High Frequency ◽  
Priming Effects ◽  
Target Frequency ◽  
Translation Priming ◽  
Japanese English ◽  
Very High

The main fact that is currently known about the nature of masked L2-L1 noncognate translation priming effects in the lexical decision task is simply that those effects are significant in some studies but not in others. In an effort to better understand these effects, we examined the data pattern for very proficient Japanese–English bilinguals using RT distributional analyses. We also examined the impacts of prime and target frequency on the priming effect. Significant priming was present even on the fastest trials, becoming larger on slower trials. Nonetheless, priming effects were generally constant across prime and target frequency with the only exception being when very high frequency L2 primes were used. In that situation, priming and target frequency were negatively related, a result that essentially produced the observed pattern of increasing priming on slower trials. Implications of these results and potential reasons for the presence/absence of L2-L1 priming effects are discussed.

Priming Effects of Violence on Infrahumanization

2009 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 699-714 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naira Delgado ◽  
Armando Rodríguez-Pérez ◽  
Jeroen Vaes ◽  
Jacques-Philippe Leyens ◽  
Verónica Betancor
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Lexical Decision Task ◽  
The Other ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Human Suffering ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Priming Effects ◽  
Contextual Dependency ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
Effects Of Violence

Two experiments examine whether exposure to generic violence can display infrahumanization towards out-groups. In Study 1, participants had to solve a lexical decision task after viewing animal or human violent scenes. In Study 2, participants were exposed to either human violent or human suffering pictures before doing a lexical decision task. In both studies, the infrahumanization bias appeared after viewing the human violent pictures but not in the other experimental conditions. These two experiments support the idea of contextual dependency of infrahumanization, and suggest that violence can prime an infrahuman perception of the out-group. Theoretical implications for infrahumanization and potential underlying mechanisms are discussed.

scholarly journals The Mechanism Underlying Backward Priming in a Lexical Decision Task: Spreading Activation versus Semantic Matching

1998 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 531-560 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorothee J. Chwilla ◽  
Peter Hagoort ◽  
C.M. Brown
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Lexical Decision Task ◽  
Semantic Priming ◽  
Priming Effect ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Spreading Activation ◽  
Semantic Matching ◽  
Priming Effects ◽  
Manipulation Experiment

Koriat (1981) demonstrated that an association from the target to a preceding prime, in the absence of an association from the prime to the target, facilitates lexical decision and referred to this effect as “backward priming”. Backward priming is of relevance, because it can provide information about the mechanism underlying semantic priming effects. Following Neely (1991), we distinguish three mechanisms of priming: spreading activation, expectancy, and semantic matching/ integration. The goal was to determine which of these mechanisms causes backward priming, by assessing effects of backward priming on a language-relevant ERP component, the N400, and reaction time (RT). Based on previous work, we propose that the N400 priming effect reflects expectancy and semantic matching/ integration, but in contrast with RT does not reflect spreading activation. Experiment 1 shows a backward priming effect that is qualitatively similar for the N400 and RT in a lexical decision task. This effect was not modulated by an ISI manipulation. Experiment 2 clarifies that the N400 backward priming effect reflects genuine changes in N400 amplitude and cannot be ascribed to other factors. We will argue that these backward priming effects cannot be due to expectancy but are best accounted for in terms of semantic matching/integration.

scholarly journals Semantic interpretability does not influence masked priming effects

2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (6) ◽  
pp. 856-867
Author(s):  
Hayley Tseng ◽  
Shane Lindsay ◽  
Colin J Davis
Keyword(s):  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Lexical Decision Task ◽  
Masked Priming ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Priming Effects ◽  
Priming Paradigm

Much of the recent masked nonword priming literature demonstrates no difference in priming between affixed and non-affixed nonword primes (e.g., maskity-MASK vs. maskond-MASK). A possible explanation for the absence of a difference is that studies have used affixed primes which were semantically uninterpretable. Therefore, this explanation indicates semantic interpretability plays a fundamental role in masked priming. To test this account, we conducted an experiment using the masked priming paradigm in the lexical decision task. We compared responses with targets which were preceded by one of four primes types: (1) interpretable affixed nonwords (e.g., maskless-MASK), (2) uninterpretable affixed nonwords (e.g., maskity-MASK), (3) non-affixed nonwords (e.g., maskond-MASK), and (4) unrelated words (e.g., tubeful-MASK). Our results follow the trend of finding no difference between affixed and non-affixed primes. Critically, however, we observed no difference in priming between uninterpretable and interpretable affixed primes. Thus, our results suggest that semantic interpretability does not influence masked priming.

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