Thinking, Fast and Slow · chapter 4 · id thinking-fast-and-slow-c4-04-cognitive-and-perceptual-primi

“Cognitive and perceptual priming -- seeing 'DOCTOR' speeds recognition of 'NURSE' -- demonstrates that associative activation is a real and automatic cognitive process.”

holdsconfidence: high✓ ZHP-verified + red-teamed

Receipts

Meyer & Schvaneveldt (1971); reviewed in Neely (1991), Psychological ReviewDOI registry: valid

Semantic priming effects (faster lexical decisions for related words) are among the most replicated findings in cognitive psychology, with effect sizes of 20-40ms consistently observed.

Bargh (2014), Trends in Cognitive Sciences 18(8)DOI registry: valid

Cognitive/perceptual priming (spreading activation in semantic networks) remains well-established. The controversy is about social/behavioral priming -- whether subtle word cues change complex behaviors.

This claim is a stable, citable object. If you can falsify a verdict, tell us — corrections are loud here.