priming

Meaning: Priming is the influence of an earlier stimulus (the prime) on how a later stimulus (the target) is processed, usually without awareness or intent. It is a form of implicit (nondeclarative) memory. The standard explanation is spreading activation: the prime activates its node in a semantic network, and activation spreads to related nodes, so related concepts are retrieved faster.

On the MCAT: A typical passage uses a lexical decision task. After seeing "doctor," participants decide whether a letter string is a real word and respond faster to "nurse" than to "bread." Another setup is word-stem completion: a word seen earlier is produced more often than by controls, even when the person does not remember seeing it. You are asked to predict faster or slower responses, or to identify the control group. Social versions prime a concept or stereotype and then measure behavior or judgment.

Common confusion: Priming is not conscious recall of the earlier item, so people with poor explicit memory can still show it. It is also not classical conditioning: priming uses associations that already exist, while conditioning builds a new association by pairing stimuli.