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Tags: psychology

Priming

Whenever I’m so excited about a new pair of shoes I want to get, I become obsessive at spotting them.

We’ve all felt this with a car we particularly like, a breed of dog that we adore and now suddenly we are seeing it everywhere.

This isn’t just coincidence, it if the fact that your brain has primed yourself to recognize this information. The effects can be even more alarming, (see The Florida Effect). It goes to show some of the power we have at naturally working to reinforce things because of reverse priming also exists. I imagine we can get into loops because of this, but also it is incredibly useful in learning. Like in Spaced repetition systems, the information is re-introduced before it is forgotten.

Reference

Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman The Florida Effect