Priming is the implicit memory effect in which exposure to a stimulus influences response to a subsequent stimulus. It can occur following perceptual, semantic, or conceptual stimulus repetition. It happens, for example, if a person reads a list of words including the word table, and is later asked to complete a word starting with tab, the probability is that they will answer table is greater than if not so primed. Another example is when people see an incomplete sketch that they are unable to identify: they are shown more of the sketch until they recognize the picture. Later they will identify the sketch at an earlier stage than was possible for them the first time.
The effects of priming can be very salient and long lasting, even more so than simple recognition memory[2]. Unconscious priming effects can effect word choice on aword-stem completion test long after the words have been consciously forgotten.
Priming works best when the two stimuli are in the same modality. For example visual priming works best with visual cues and verbal priming works best with verbal cues. But priming also occurs between modalities, or between semantically related words such as doctor and nurse.