PSY20006 Cognition and Human Performance

Task:

1. You need to build an argument for the idea that unconscious stimuli may not be processed to the same extent as conscious stimuli, but may still influence our conscious behaviour. 

2. Establishing the method (masked semantic (repetition) priming) to be used to study the topic

3. You need to describe priming and define what is meant by repetition priming. You then need to consider what factors influence semantic activation (processing of word meaning) and whether semantic activation is automatic.

4. Building an argument for the experimental manipulations used in our study

5. You need to find evidence that words with different types of emotional valence might be processed differently than other types of words.

6. You need to find evidence that spare cognitive resources or attention might influence the way we process stimuli.

7. Introducing the notion of individual differences

8. Finally, apart from stimulus type and cognitive load, it might be the case that some people are simply more affected by certain characteristics of stimuli than others. You need to find evidence for this, i.e. that individual differences might predict performance on a cognitive task like ours. 

Generating hypotheses

9. You will complete your introduction with three main hypotheses that relate to our two experimental manipulations (emotional valence of stimuli and cognitive load), and to the notion of individual differences (anxiety and happiness). Your hypotheses will depend on the papers you read.

10. You will need to describe whether the data fit with previous models or require that previous models be rejected or refined in some way.