Neutral Priming Condition Research Articles

Humility attenuates negative attitudes and behaviors toward religious out-group members

Humility is marked by the regulation of selfish impulses for the sake of others, including holding a modest view of one’s beliefs (and their relative strengths and weaknesses). In three studies, we evaluated the extent to which humility attenuates negative attitudes, behavioral intentions, and behaviors toward religious out-group members. In Study 1 (N = 159), humility regarding religious beliefs was associated with positive attitudes toward religiously different individuals. In Study 2 (N = 149), relational and intellectual humility were associated with less aggressive behavioral intentions in a hypothetical situation in which their cherished beliefs were criticized. In Study 3 (N = 62), participants implicitly primed with humility administered significantly less hot sauce (a behavioral measure of aggression) to a religious out-group member who criticized their cherished views relative to participants in the neutral prime condition. We highlight the importance of humility in promoting positive attitudes and behaviors toward religious out-group members.

Semantic priming in anomic aphasia: a focused investigation using cross-modal methodology

Background: Semantic priming in individuals with anomic aphasia has never been the primary focus of an investigation. To date, one study investigated the effects of semantic priming in individuals with fluent aphasia (including anomic aphasia), revealing an inconsistency in semantic priming in the anomic group. Parallels from Broca’s aphasia and Wernicke’s aphasia literature may be drawn. However, due to the heterogeneity of anomic aphasia, a focused investigation was necessary.Aims: Semantic priming effects were investigated using a cross-modal pairwise paradigm. It was hypothesised that participants with anomic aphasia would demonstrate priming patterns at a stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) of 500 ms with slower overall reaction times (RTs) than the control participants. It was further hypothesised that the participants with anomic aphasia might show less inhibition effects than the control participants.Methods & Procedures: Participants with anomic aphasia (n = 11) and healthy control participants (n = 16) completed a lexical decision task where prime–target pairs were present in equal proportions (related, unrelated, and nonwords). A neutral prime condition was also incorporated. Using a cross-modal pairwise paradigm, participants heard a spoken word 500 ms later, a written word appeared on screen (for 4000 ms). Participants were required to make a decision as to whether the written word was real, and RTs were recorded.Outcomes & Results: Linear mixed model analysis was undertaken and revealed no significant two-way interaction effect, indicating both groups showed priming patterns. A main effect of group was evident, showing faster RTs by the control participant group, confirming our hypothesis that people with anomic aphasia primed at an SOA of 500 ms in a similar manner to the control participants, with slower RTs.Conclusions: Semantic priming effects were present in anomic aphasia at relatively short SOAs and may be contributed to by automatic processes. Several parameters are proposed that should be adopted for further investigation into semantic priming in anomic aphasia including electrophysiological measures and manipulation of SOAs and relatedness proportions (RPs) to more precisely measure the effects of controlled versus automatic processes. Such investigation has the potential to inform new assessment and management techniques.

Close replication attempts of the heat priming-hostile perception effect

DeWall and Bushman (2009; Experiment 2) reported a study in which participants were exposed to heat-related, cold-related, or neutral (i.e., non-temperature-related) primes prior to reading an ambiguously aggressive vignette. Participants exposed to the heat-related primes judged the vignette's protagonist as more hostile than participants in the cold-priming condition (d=0.67) or neutral-priming condition (d=0.63). This suggests that people mentally associate heat-related constructs with aggression-related constructs. To test the reliability of the effect and to estimate a more precise effect size, the current studies closely replicated DeWall and Bushman in two independent samples, each of which was more than two and a half times greater than the samples in the original study (total N=688). These replication attempts failed to find any evidence that exposure to heat primes affected hostile perceptions relative to the cold primes (ds<−0.06) or neutral primes (ds<0.00). Further, a meta-analysis estimated that the difference in hostile perceptions between those in a heat priming condition and those in a neutral condition was about one-fifth of a standard deviation and not significantly different from zero, d=0.18, 95% CI[−0.09, 0.44]. Thus, I conclude that priming individuals with heat-related constructs does not reliably affect hostile perceptions.

A Meaning-Based Approach to Humility: Relationship Affirmation Reduces Worldview Defense

Humans are notoriously resistant to changing their longstanding beliefs and often act defensively when they encounter individuals holding divergent beliefs. We introduce a meaning-based approach to humility (e.g., reduced defensiveness) with the claim that the desire for meaning motivates individuals to ardently defend their central beliefs. We propose that affirming meaning prior to encountering attitudinally-dissimilar individuals should reduce defensiveness (e.g., less negative attitudes toward those who challenge their beliefs). Christian undergraduates (N = 79) were randomly assigned to a relationship affirmation, self-affirmation, or neutral priming condition, and then received negative feedback from an ostensibly antireligious individual (i.e., outgroup member) after writing an essay explicating their beliefs about an important social or cultural topic. Relationship affirmation reduced defensiveness via more positive ratings of the individual who derogated their beliefs, providing initial evidence for our theoretical approach. Implications for a meaning-based approach to humility are discussed.

Motivational priming as a strategy for maximising exercise outcomes: effects on exercise goals and engagement

Using a scrambled sentence priming protocol, the first aim of this study was to investigate whether differences in novel exercise-related goals existed between participants primed with motivational or non-motivational material (i.e. autonomous, controlled or neutral primes). The second aim was to explore whether an indirect effect was present between priming condition and the goal-related exercise sessions that individuals performed over the week following administration of the prime. No effects were observed across priming conditions with respect to subjective vitality, goal concordance and the frequency with which participants planned to exercise. However, autonomy-primed individuals set goals for their exercise sessions that were significantly longer in intended duration (M = 57.72 min, SD = 37.42) than those set by their counterparts in both the controlled-prime condition (M = 44.12 min, SD = 27.78) and the neutral-prime condition (M = 37.10 min, SD = 20.47). Bootstrapped analyses also revealed a significant indirect relationship between prime and exercise behaviour, with the autonomy prime predicting longer goal-based exercise sessions, via the effect on the duration of participants’ intended exercise sessions. These findings highlight the potential influence that priming autonomous motivation may have on individuals’ exercise aspirations, as well as the way in which primes may indirectly shape exercise engagement.

The Influence of Positive Emotion on the Degree Effect in Self-referential Processes: Evidence from ERPs

Self-reference effect refers to the accelerated process and better memorization by the individual when the information is involved with self-concept. However, previous studies have focused only on categorical differences, considering self-relevant effects as behavioral or neural activation differences between self-relevant and non-self-relevant stimuli. Thus, they failed to take into account the degree of self-relevance. In real-life situations, different correlations usually lead to various personal meanings, as the process of highly self-relevant stimulus has a more significant physical and social meaning than that of the minimally one. In addition, there are researches showing that self-relevant information is associated with positive emotional valence, that the individual inclines to attribute positive results and traits to personal characteristics and accounts the negative results or traits unrelated with their own personal characteristics. Therefore, investigating the influence of positive emotion on self-reference process is of great value. We adopted picture-priming paradigm, presented emotional pictures and self-reference stimulus with participants. To be specific, each trial was initiated by a cross appearing at the centre of the screen for 200ms followed by a blank screen whose duration varied randomly from 500 ms to 1000 ms. Then a picture from one of the two emotional pictures categories was presented for 500 ms along with black screen lasting randomly for 150~300 ms in sequence. Afterwards, 500 ms self-reference stimulus and 1000 ms black screen emerged. Subjects were instructed to identify the color of self-referential stimulus as fast and accurate as possible. If the color is blue, press the "1" key; if it is green, press the "2" key. Stimulus words would disappear after a keypress or automatically disappear after 1000ms. After the exercise experiment, the formal experiment concluded 360 trials divided into 3 blocks. Results of ERP showed that under positive emotional priming condition, the target stimulus elicited smaller P2 amplitudes than neutral condition, and highly self-relevant stimulus elicited a shorter P2 latency than any other stimulus. Furthermore, highly self-relevant names elicited larger N2 amplitude than moderately and non-self-relevant names, and under neutral priming condition, the target stimulus elicited longer N2 latency than positive emotional priming condition in frontal sites; highly self-relevant stimulus elicited longer N2 latency than any other stimulus conditions in the frontal and parietal sites. In the average amplitude of P3, highly self-relevant names elicited larger P3 amplitude than moderately and non-self-relevant names, and moderately self-relevant names elicited larger P3 amplitude than non-self-relevant names. Our results indicate human brain might not be sensitive on the processing of positive emotional stimulus. Self-referential processing demonstrates stability characteristics no matter whether in positive or neutral condition. Moreover, highly self-referential stimuli receive a more thorough and elaborate procession, with a representation of degree effect of self-referential processing.

The Effect of Prosocial Priming in the Presence of Bystanders

ABSTRACT This study investigated the influence of priming and bystander apathy on helping behavior. After priming prosociality through a scrambled sentences test, participants encountered a woman who dropped the books she was carrying. Helping behavior in bystander and no-bystander conditions was tested. The results showed that people in a prosocial-prime condition were more likely to help than people in a neutral-prime condition, and that the effect of priming persists even in the presence of bystanders.

How Subjective Well-Being Affects Emotional Processing: the Role of Event-related Potentials

Using the emotion-priming paradigm, we examined the neural mechanisms underlying the relationship between subjective well-being (SWB) and the processing of emotional stimuli by recording event-related potentials relevant to emotion probe words. The positive words were classified faster and more accurately by both low- and high-level SWB (very happy and not very happy) groups. Late positive potential (LPP) amplitudes elicited by emotional words were compared with words elicited in the neutral priming condition, and we found LPPs significantly reduced under the fear-inducing priming condition. This priming effect was more prominent in the group of participants who were not very happy, showing that, compared to the very happy group, these participants were more sensitive and subject to the influence of external stimuli (particularly negative emotional stimuli). The findings provide electrophysiological evidence for the relationship between SWB and emotion processing.

The influence of affective priming effect on implicit and explicit memory in mood congruency memory of university students

Objective To investigate the different effect of positive and negative emotion induced by film clips on explicit and implicit memory,and whether there is mood congruency effect. Methods Thirty participants who were randomly assigned to three experimental groups were investigated. They were exposed in different film clips and then worked on memory task. After each emotional condition,the 5-point Self Assessment Scale was registered , Buchner's processing dissociation corrected model was employed to separate explicit and implicit memory. Results (1) The emotion arousal level of different films is significantly different, the scores of negative film and positive film were more than that of neutral film( (3.24 ± 1.02),(2.85 ± 1.35),(1.12 ± 1.42) , P＜0.01) ; the scores of emotional valence of positive,negative and neutral priming condition were (4. 10 ±0. 20), (3. 60 ± 0.22) and (3.20 ±0. 97), and there was a significant difference between emotion priming conditions (F(2,27) = 46.81, P＜ 0. 01). (2) There was a significant difference among different emotion priming conditions in R (F(2,87) = 30.129, P＜0.05) .and there was no significant difference among different emotion priming conditions in A. (3) In R,there was a main effect in emotional words(F(2,81) = 10.516, P＜0.05) ,the R scores of neutral words were significantly higher than those of negative words(P＜0.01) ,there was a main effect in emotion priming conditions(F (2,81) =10.516, P＜0.05) ,the R scores of positive emotion priming group and neutral emotion priming group were significantly higher than those of negative emotion priming group (P＜0.05). There was an interaction of emotional words and emotion priming conditions(F(4,81) = 10.640, P ＜ 0.01). Under positive emotion priming condition, the R scores of positive and neutral words were significantly higher than those of negative words (P＜0.05);under negative emotion priming condition, the R scores of negative words were significantly higher than those of positive words (P ＜0.05); under neutral emotion priming condition, the R scores of positive and neutral words were significantly higher than those of negative words (P＜0.05). (4) In A, the main effect of emotion priming conditions and emotional words and interaction effect between them were not significant(P＞0.05). Conclusions Explicit memory showed mood congruency memory effect,but implicit memory,neither the positive emotion priming group nor the negative emotion priming group exhibited mood congruency memory effect. Key words: Emotion priming; Explicit memory; Implicit memory; Mood congruency memory

Observing or producing a motor action improves later perception of biological motion: Evidence for a gender effect

Two experiments are presented addressing the issue of whether observing (visual priming) or producing (motor priming) a running activity during a very short period (30 s) facilitates the perception of the direction of a point-light runner embedded in a dense dynamical mask. Experiment 1 showed that perceptual judgements improved and response time increased in the visual priming compared to the neutral priming condition (video of a moving car) in which judgements were at random. Because this effect was observed for male participants only, we performed a second experiment with the aim of evaluating the role of gender congruency in the visual priming condition. Results confirmed the facilitation effect and demonstrated that this effect was strictly dependent on the gender congruency between the perceiver and the priming information. Moreover, we found that actually producing a motor activity similar to the one presented in the video sequence improved to the same extent participants’ judgement of the direction of the point-light runner, without any gender effect. As a whole, these findings argue in favour of common representation for the perception and the production of human movement and showed that the perception of biological motion can be improved by prior motor activity either performed or observed. However, the gender-dependent effect of visual priming suggested that motor repertoire differed in males and females.

Cognitive Bias to Symptom and Obsessive Belief Threat Cues in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

The current study examined the extent to which patients with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) demonstrate cognitive biases to OCD symptom or inflated responsibility threat cues. Participants with either primary contamination-washing or doubting/harming-checking OCD, non-OCD anxiety disorders, and student controls completed a primed lexical decision task. Following either neutral or OCD-threat priming conditions, participants made lexical decisions regarding different sets of word stimuli: nonwords, OCD symptoms, OCD inflated responsibility, and depression. Following the OCD primes, the primary contamination-washing symptom subgroup showed increased interference on OCD symptom words compared with the harming symptom and student groups. The primary contamination-washing subgroup also showed increased interference on responsibility words compared with the harming, non-OCD anxious and student groups. However, subsidiary analyses comparing patients with contamination obsessions with and without associated fears of harming others through the spreading of contaminants, demonstrated that it was the latter group that evidenced cognitive biases to responsibility threat cues. These results are considered in relation to cognitive models of OCD.

Experimentally Induced Security Influences Responses to Psychological Pain

We tested the hypothesis that experimentally induced security changes people's response to psychological pain (operationalized in terms of hurt feelings) in ways that depend on their attachment style. Seventy undergraduates were randomly assigned to receive (a) security-enhancing subliminal primes (the words love, secure, affection) or (b) neutral subliminal primes (lamp, staple, building). As expected, interactions emerged between priming condition and attachment style. In the neutral priming condition, avoidant attachment was associated with a tendency to dismiss hurtful events, inhibit expressions of distress, and react hostilely; as expected, security priming caused avoidance to be associated with greater openness to the pain of a hurtful experience. A significant interaction also emerged between attachment anxiety and security priming. In the neutral priming condition, attachment anxiety was associated with less constructive reactions and more intense feelings of rejection, more crying, and more nega...

Dispositional Optimism and Thoughts of Well-Being Determine Sensitivity to an Experimental Pain Task

Prior studies with patient samples have found dispositional optimism to be associated with less pain. We examined the relationship between optimism and experimental pain. It was hypothesized that optimists generally cope with a painful stimulus by mentally disengaging from the pain. However, if optimists are prompted to think about health and well-being prior to the painful event, they are more responsive to the pain. Optimists and pessimists were primed with words related to health or with neutral words prior to the cold pressor task. Pain, distress, and cardiovascular reactivity to the cold pressor task were assessed. Dispositional optimism was associated with lower pain sensitivity, distress, and cardiovascular reactivity in the neutral prime condition. In the health prime condition, optimists and pessimists did not differ on any of the dependent measures. Dispositional optimism is associated with reduced pain for healthy adults encountering a brief pain stimulus. This relationship is eliminated, however, when individuals are primed with thoughts of health and well-being. The results are interpreted as evidence for the use of differential coping strategies by optimists in response to pain.

Hostility ratings by parents at risk for child abuse: Impact of chronic and temporary schema activation

Objective Two studies examined whether accessibility of hostility-related schema influenced ratings of ambiguous child pictures. Based on the social information processing model of child physical abuse (CPA), it was expected that CPA risk status would serve as a proxy for chronic accessibility of hostile schema, while priming procedures were used to manipulate temporary accessibility of hostility-related schema. Methods Participants included 108 parents (79 low and 29 high CPA risk) in Experiment 1 and 88 parents (43 low and 45 high CPA risk) in Experiment 2. Parents were randomly assigned to either hostile or neutral priming conditions. Following the priming procedures, all parents rated pictures that depicted children who appeared ambiguous with regard to the extent to which they were being hostile/cooperative. Results In both experiments, high, compared to low, CPA risk parents rated the ambiguous child pictures as more hostile. Further, both supraliminal (Experiment 1) and subliminal (Experiment 2) exposure to hostility-related words independently increased hostility ratings. In both experiments, the influence of chronic and temporary activation of hostile schema was additive and not interactive. Conclusion Findings from these experiments are consistent with the proposition that high CPA risk parents are more likely to infer hostility in response to ambiguous child cues. Further, accessibility of hostility-related schema in parents increases the likelihood of hostile inferences, which in turn may increase attributions of hostile intent and aggressive parenting behaviors.

Masculinity causes speeding in young men

The goal of this study was to examine if masculinity is causally responsible for speeding in young men. Participants (83 males) were randomly assigned to a masculine, feminine, or neutral priming condition. Priming consisted in active listening to either masculine, feminine, or neutral words coming from the car radio while driving in a high-end driving simulator. Results showed that when the concept of masculinity was activated by priming, participants’ driving speed increased significantly from the beginning to the end of the driving simulation as compared to the neutral and the feminine condition. Results are discussed with respect to real life health implications.

Priming the trait category “hostility”: The moderating role of trait anxiety

Recent studies on affective priming with the naming task have revealed an influence of trait anxiety on the direction of affective priming effects (e.g., Berner & Maier, 2004). This moderating role of trait anxiety was further investigated in a study employing a conceptual priming task. After masked presentation of either hostile or neutral primes, participants performed a person judgment task. As expected, the direction of the hostility rating difference score, defined as the difference between hostility ratings of a target person in the hostility priming condition and in the neutral priming condition, changed from positive to negative with increasing levels of self-reported trait anxiety. The findings are interpreted in terms of salience-dependent overcorrection processes (Glaser & Banaji, 1999). Implications for our understanding of the cognitive functioning in high trait anxiety are discussed.

Human attachment security is mediated by the amygdala: Evidence from combined fMRI and psychophysiological measures

The neural basis of human attachment security remains unexamined. Using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and simultaneous recordings of skin conductance levels, we measured neural and autonomic responses in healthy adult individuals during a semantic conceptual priming task measuring human attachment security "by proxy". Performance during a stress but not a neutral prime condition was associated with response in bilateral amygdalae. Furthermore, levels of activity within bilateral amygdalae were highly positively correlated with attachment insecurity and autonomic response during the stress prime condition. We thereby demonstrate a key role of the amygdala in mediating autonomic activity associated with human attachment insecurity.

Attentional bias for negative self-words in young women The role of thin ideal priming and body shape dissatisfaction

Previous research suggests that body dissatisfied women are particularly susceptible to negative affect following exposure to thin media images, whereas body satisfied women may even respond positively to such images. It was thus hypothesised that negative self-referent information would be more accessible in body dissatisfied women than in women satisfied with their bodies after viewing thin ideal images. Such activation of negative self-schemata was expected to be reflected through delayed colour-naming of negative self-referent words on the emotional Stroop task. Eighty-seven young women were randomised either to a thin ideal priming condition or a neutral priming condition, before undergoing an emotional Stroop task with performance-related and interpersonal-related threat words. There was a significant interaction between body dissatisfaction and thin ideal priming on attentional bias for performance words. This effect was most clearly seen in the body satisfied group, who were faster to colour-name performance words after priming. Further, this group showed an increase in self-esteem after testing. These findings may suggest that body satisfied women responded positively to thin ideal images. Alternatively, the facilitation effect of negative performance words may have been indicative of strategic avoidant processing serving to protect against negative impact of thin ideal exposure.

Moderation of Automatic Achievement Goals by Conscious Monitoring

The aim of this study was to test the assumption that nonconscious goal pursuit guides behavior more efficiently and produces better performance, only when the conscious monitoring of the task is low. Some studies have documented that goals can be activated and guide behaviors outside of awareness. 66 students, 22 men and 44 women with a mean age of 18.3 yr. (SD=0.9) years, were randomly assigned to Achievement Goal Priming or Neutral Priming conditions. In the Achievement Goal Priming condition, concepts associated with high performance were activated outside of their awareness via a scrambled sentence task. All participants were then given a calculation task to complete. To manipulate conscious monitoring, half of the participants were presented the task as a fun filler task, and the rest were presented the task as a measure of ability and were encouraged to monitor their performance on the task consciously. Analysis showed, among participants who were presented the task as a fun filler task, the Achievement Goal Priming group completed more tasks relative to the Neutral Priming group. Those who were encouraged to monitor their performance consciously did not benefit from Achievement Goal priming. The results implied that consciously monitored behavior might be counterproductive.

Priming of AIDS and Reactions to Infidelity: Are Sex Differences in Jealousy Context-Dependent?

Abstract: Context effects on men's and women's reactions to infidelity were studied in a laboratory experiment. University students (71 male, 54 female) were randomly assigned to either a neutral-priming control condition or a condition where AIDS was primed unobtrusively. Then they reported whether emotional or sexual infidelity of their partner would distress them more, and rated their degree of distress for each type of infidelity. Men (vs. women) reported greater distress in response to sexual (vs. emotional) infidelity in the neutral-priming condition, whereas no sex differences were observed in the AIDS-priming condition. Most participants were unaware of the priming. The results are discussed in relation to evolutionary and socio-cultural explanations of sex differences in jealousy.