Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2025
Three experimental paradigms are introduced that display a form of working memory known in the psychological literature as priming. This form of memory does not involve containers, but rather embodies memory in the sense that current cognitive states are influenced by past stimuli and responses. In three detailed accounts, semantic priming, motor/perceptual priming, and negative priming are all shown to display an activation dynamic where activation decays over 2 or 3 seconds. It is concluded that priming forms of memory might be quite general and might be able to explain the phase transition in time-based grouping. A general template based on activation overlap is proposed to underlie proximity constraints in both priming and Gestalt.
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