Question

Describe the process of priming. Give examples of mood congruence and context effects and describe some common sources of retrieval cues.

Answer 1

*Priming is the process by which exposure to one stimulus influences how they respond to subsequent stimulus. But in priming individual unawares that exposure to first stimulus guides their responses to subsequent stimulus. It occurs unconsciously. For example, exposure to the word 'teacher' would evoke faster responses to the word 'book' than the word 'refrigerator'.Because the word 'book ' is more related to the word 'teacher' than 'refrigerator'. The word refrigerator less likely to be related with teacher.So a faster responses to the second word(book) is obtained as the words 'teacher' and 'book'are related in the memory.

*In mood congruence effect a person tends to remember something happened to him if this consistent with his current mood.

Example,if you are currently happy ,it brings happier memories to your life such as winning a game.So you remember information consistent with your current mood.

If you are sad ,it brings memories related to painful events such as death of your loved ones.

*Context effect involves the context in which an event occurs influence our perception of the event.It is a part of cognitive psychology.

For example, suppose a person rude to you ,it would not be because of he is simply rude.For this you will have to look at on the context. If he is rude to you when he is scolded by someone, you can assume that he is rude to you because of the context rather than his trait.

*Retrieval cues are stimuli associated information stored in memory that help in retrieval.Retrieval cues help in easier recall of information.

Some common sources of retrieval cues are

There are state dependent retrieval cues.Recalling is easier at the same emotional state at which information is encoded into memory.When you are sad it brings easily memories associated with death of your beloved ones.

Context acts as a source of retrieval cues.Retrieval of information is easier in the context at which it was stored in memory than other contexts.

Other sources are when you hear the lullaby through a music player it brings memories with your mother.

When you hear a song that you sang on artfest it brings memories associated with the artfest.