Priming Effects Upon Memory for Double Entendre Words (Report‪)‬

Introduction This paper reports a study that examines the effect of priming upon memory for double entendre (DE) words. There is significant literature demonstrating that emotional stimuli are better remembered than are nonemotional stimuli (Kensinger & Corkin, 2003). It has been argued that this effect serves an adaptive function. That is, the ability to more clearly remember emotional stimuli helps to prepare the individual for similar and likely important future experiences (Nielson & Powless, 2007). As an alternative explanation Talmi & Moscovitch (2004) suggest that organizational processes such as found in categories of words (for example, emotional) facilitate memory enhancement.