Payne B Keith, Brown-Iannuzzi Jazmin L, Loersch Chris
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky.
J Exp Psychol Gen. 2016 Oct;145(10):1269-1279. doi: 10.1037/xge0000201.
[Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported online in on Oct 31 2016 (see record 2016-52334-001). ] The effect of primes (i.e., incidental cues) on human behavior has become controversial. Early studies reported counterintuitive findings, suggesting that primes can shape a wide range of human behaviors. Recently, several studies failed to replicate some earlier priming results, raising doubts about the reliability of those effects. We present a within-subjects procedure for priming behavior, in which participants decide whether to bet or pass on each trial of a gambling game. We report 6 replications (N = 988) showing that primes consistently affected gambling decisions when the decision was uncertain. Decisions were influenced by primes presented visibly, with a warning to ignore the primes (Experiments 1 through 3) and with subliminally presented masked primes (Experiment 4). Using a process dissociation procedure, we found evidence that primes influenced responses through both automatic and controlled processes (Experiments 5 and 6). Results provide evidence that primes can reliably affect behavior, under at least some conditions, without intention. The findings suggest that the psychological question of whether behavior priming effects are real should be separated from methodological issues affecting how easily particular experimental designs will replicate.
[更正通知：本文的一份勘误于2016年10月31日在线发布（见记录2016 - 52334 - 001）。] 启动因素（即偶然线索）对人类行为的影响已引发争议。早期研究报告了一些违反直觉的发现，表明启动因素可塑造广泛的人类行为。最近，一些研究未能重复某些早期的启动效应结果，这引发了对这些效应可靠性的质疑。我们提出了一种用于启动行为的被试内程序，在该程序中，参与者在赌博游戏的每次试验中决定是下注还是放弃。我们报告了6次重复实验（N = 988），结果表明当决策不确定时，启动因素始终会影响赌博决策。决策受到明显呈现的启动因素影响，同时伴有忽略这些启动因素的警告（实验1至3）以及阈下呈现的掩蔽启动因素（实验4）。使用过程分离程序，我们发现有证据表明启动因素通过自动和控制过程影响反应（实验5和6）。结果提供了证据，表明启动因素至少在某些条件下可以在无意识的情况下可靠地影响行为。这些发现表明，行为启动效应是否真实这一心理学问题应与影响特定实验设计复制难易程度的方法学问题区分开来。
