Structural priming

Structural priming is a form of positive priming, in that it induces a tendency to repeat or more easily process a current sentence that is similar in structure to a previously presented prime. It is a phenomenon studied in the field of psycholinguistics. J. Kathryn Bock introduced it in 1986,. Several paradigms exist to elicit structural priming. Structural priming persists cross-linguistically. One specific form of structural priming is syntactic priming. Structural priming is a form of positive priming, in that it induces a tendency to repeat or more easily process a current sentence that is similar in structure to a previously presented prime. It is a phenomenon studied in the field of psycholinguistics. J. Kathryn Bock introduced it in 1986,. Several paradigms exist to elicit structural priming. Structural priming persists cross-linguistically. One specific form of structural priming is syntactic priming. Bock introduced a picture description task to investigate this phenomenon. In the study phase, at their own pace, participants read a list of sentences and observe a set of pictures. All these pictures describe events including an agent, patient, and theme. Half of the agents pictured are humans and the other half inanimate objects. This phase of the experiment was performed in an attempt to establish a 'recognition memory' cover story. In the test phase, participants are asked to read a sentence expressing one of four conditions: