Semantic priming well established
This is a short letter to a journal, written during the public argument over failures to replicate behavioural priming studies, and its point is a distinction that the argument kept collapsing. Semantic priming, the finding that a word is recognised faster after a related word, has been studied for decades, is robust and is not in question. Behavioural priming, the claim that incidental exposure to a concept changes complex social behaviour, is the contested one. The letter objects to reporting that treats trouble in the second as trouble in the first. This vault holds it alongside the nineteen-language study of semantic priming, which confirms that effect at scale, and alongside the replication reports that did not confirm the behavioural version. Written from the published fragment of the letter rather than a full abstract.
This is a short letter to a journal, written during the public argument over failures to replicate behavioural priming studies, and its point is a distinction that the argument kept collapsing. Semantic priming, the finding that a word is recognised faster after a related word, has been studied for decades, is robust and is not in question. Behavioural priming, the claim that incidental exposure to a concept changes complex social behaviour, is the contested one. The letter objects to reporting that treats trouble in the second as trouble in the first. This vault holds it alongside the nineteen-language study of semantic priming, which confirms that effect at scale, and alongside the replication reports that did not confirm the behavioural version. Written from the published fragment of the letter rather than a full abstract.
Written from the the published fragment of the letter and the literature it concerns.
What our sources record
Reproduced as it was written when this source was checked, figures and all.
Single-authored letter by the co-author of the 1971 founding paper, distinguishing robust semantic priming from the exotic behavioural claims.
Where we use it
- What Forty-One Participants Buys, Why We Look
Reliability of this reference
The link below was matched against the publisher's record on title, first author and year, and all three agree.
The source
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.345.6196.523-b
DOI: 10.1126/science.345.6196.523-b