ABSTRACTWe build on prior theory and research on electronic brainstorming to examine how achievement priming influences individual cognition leading to changes in individual behavior and ultimately team performance. We conducted a repeated measures experiment using electroencephalography with 53 subjects performing two brainstorming tasks. We found that priming altered cognition in the left and right regions of the frontal cortex; that is, achievement priming triggered cognition in areas of the brain related to creative and insightful cognition while the placebo treatment led to cognition in areas related to language production. Thus, priming did not induce “more” cognition, but rather triggered changes in the nature of cognition that led to significantly more ideas and more ideas that were highly novel, workable, and relevant. This study makes two contributions: it shows one theoretical pathway by which achievement priming works; and it show that priming using pictures improves idea generation.