What follows is a response to a recent article in ScienceNews on the replicability of priming effects in social psychology. [Also relevant is a new article in Nature online by Ed Yong concerning the ...

New research provides evidence that the repetitive thoughts occupying a person’s mind can directly influence the spontaneous memories they experience later. This phenomenon, termed “preoccupation ...

Response priming refers to the phenomenon where an initial, often subliminal, stimulus (the prime) modulates the speed and accuracy of responses to a subsequent stimulus (the target). This modulation ...

Social priming is the field of research about how thinking about or interacting with something (like warm coffee, or old age) can affect later, vaguely related behaviour. (Rolf Zwaan has a useful ...

Three years ago, a team of psychologists challenged 180 students with a spatial puzzle. The students could ask for a hint if they got stuck. But before the test, the researchers introduced some subtle ...