Abstract
The concept of activation is a critical component of many models of cognition. A key characteristic of activation is that recent experience with a concept or stimulus increases the accessibility of the corresponding representation. The extent to which increases in accessibility occur as a result of experiences outside of laboratory settings has not been extensively explored. In the present study, we presented lexical stimuli associated with different holidays and festivities over the course of a year in a lexical decision task. When stimulus meaning and time of testing were congruent (e.g., leprechaun in March), response times were faster and accuracy greater than when meaning and time of test were incongruent (e.g., leprechaun in November). Congruency also benefited performance on a surprise free recall task of the items presented earlier in the lexical decision task. The discussion focuses on potential theoretical accounts of this heightened accessibility of time-of-the-year-relevant concepts.
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The experiment reported here was conducted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the doctoral degree from Washington University in Saint Louis for J.H.C., who was supported by a Dean’s Dissertation Fellowship. Funding was also provided by NIA Training Grant AG00030.
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Coane, J.H., Balota, D.A. Priming the holiday spirit: Persistent activation due to extraexperimental experiences. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 16, 1124–1128 (2009). https://doi.org/10.3758/PBR.16.6.1124
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/PBR.16.6.1124