Priming
In psychology, priming is a technique in which the introduction of one stimulus influences how people respond to a subsequent stimulus. This phenomenon occurs without our conscious awareness, yet it can have a major impact on numerous aspects of our everyday lives.
There are many different examples of how this priming works. Exposing someone to the word “yellow” will evoke a faster response to the word “banana” than it would to unrelated words like “television”. Because yellow and banana are more closely linked in memory, people respond faster when the second word is presented.
There are several different types of priming, each one works in a specific way and may have different effects. Positive and negative priming, Semantic priming, Associative priming, Repetition priming, Perceptual priming, Conceptual priming, and Masked priming.
I’ve been wondering how much of a role priming plays in how we interact with any form of art. A common technique used in music, for example, is to use a ‘happy’instrumental as the backing track where the lyrics are ’sad’. As such, you’re more likely to associate the song with positive feelings, even though upon closer inspection, you might be put off by the lyrics.
Have you got any examples of where you’ve used, or been influenced by, the art of priming?
If you can
Rudyard Kipling is most known for writing ’The Jungle Book’, but his most important and timeless contribution might be the poem ‘If’. Written from the perspective of a father advising a son, this has been a constant in my life through various ups and downs, and well worth passing on to future generations.
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!