Zillmann 5 RoskosEwoldsen, RoskosEwoldsen, and Carpentier: Media Priming

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Zillmann 5Roskos-Ewoldsen, Roskos-Ewoldsen, and
Carpentier Media Priming
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Priming Definition

• Priming by one event affects how we react to
  another event.
• A variant of psychological conditioning models
  association in time and place between two items
  leads people to associate them psychologically

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Example Case Josephson (1987) p. 98
Trait Aggressiveness
Violent Programming

Frustration
Violence Cue (walkie talkie)
Aggressive Play

The cue primed aggression.
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Multiple Routes to Aggression

• Note, though, that there are multiple routes to
  aggression
• Learning techniques
• Learning when aggression is appropriate
• Encouragement from others
• Dis-inhibition about causing injury
• Arousal due to exciting stimuli
• Success with aggression in the past
• Can all parts be primed?

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Models of Priming

• Network memory models events are stored as nodes
  in association networks. Nodes are activated by
  primes.
• Is this how memory actually works?
• Intensity and recency increase the power of
  primes.
• Effects fade with time.

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Mental Models as an Alternative to Memory Models

• The argument we make sense of details in
  situations by abstracting relationships among the
  details and storing them in a mental model of an
  event.
• Yeah, but what are mental models like?
• Academic courses at RPI (are there sub-types?)
• Riding a bicycle
• Sustaining a long-term relationship with a
  coworker
• Sustaining a long-term relationship with a lover

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Relationship of Mental Models to Priming

• Do new situations require new mental models or
  old ones? Priming may make older models more
  accessible? Yeah? How?
• Priming may access specific features of mental
  models.
• Media may guide formation of mental models.
• Yeah, so what are the mental models like?