The affective regulation of cognitive priming.

Full Abstract

Semantic and affective priming are classic effects observed in cognitive and social psychology, respectively. The authors discovered that affect regulates such priming effects. In Experiment 1, positive and negative moods were induced before one of three priming tasks; evaluation, categorization, or lexical decision. As predicted, positive affect led to both affective priming (evaluation task) and semantic priming (category and lexical decision tasks). However, negative affect inhibited such effects. In Experiment 2, participants in their natural affective state completed the same priming tasks as in Experiment 1. As expected, affective priming (evaluation task) and category priming (categorization and lexical decision tasks) were observed in such resting affective states. Hence, the authors conclude that negative affect inhibits semantic and affective priming. These results support recent theoretical models, which suggest that positive affect promotes associations among strong and weak concepts, and that negative affect impairs such associations (Clore & Storbeck, 2006; Kuhl, 2000).(Copyright) 2008 APA.

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Author information

Author/s: Storbeck, Justin (J); Clore, Gerald L (GL);

Affiliation: University of Virginia, USA. storbeck(-atsign-)virginia.edu

Grants: MH 50074 (Agency:United States NIMH) ; R01 MH050074-09A1 (Agency:United States NIMH)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

Journal: Emotion (Washington, D.C.) (Emotion), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Apr; vol 8 (issue 2) : pp 208-15

Dates: Created 2008/04/15; Completed 2008/08/22;

PMID: 18410195, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

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