In a Study by Mario Mikulincer and Colleagues (2000), Participants

question 13

Multiple Choice

In a study by Mario Mikulincer and colleagues (2000) , participants viewed "prime" words, some of which were threatening (e.g., "failure') , and some neutral (e.g., "chair") . After each prime word, a "target" string of letters was displayed; the participant's task was to decide as quickly as possible whether the string was a word or not. Some target strings were words with close relationship themes (e.g., "love") , some were neutral words, and others were not words at all. The study was designed to test a hypothesis derived from attachment theory. What results did the researchers predict?

• A) Participants would respond to the target words with close relationship themes faster than those with neutral themes.
• B) Participants would spend a longer time looking at the target words with close relationship themes, so would respond more slowly than to words with neutral themes.
• C) Participants would detect target words with close relationship themes faster after seeing a threatening prime than after a neutral prime.
• D) Participants would make more errors in distinguishing words from non-words after the threatening prime than after the neutral prime.

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