Alice goes to see a rerun of Jaws (a movie about a vicious shark) a few days before she takes off to Florida on spring break. On break, she finds that she is now too nervous to spend much time actually in the water, since she is convinced that anything she sees in the water is a shark. Her heightened sensitivity is due to __________.

Question

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Alice's heightened sensitivity is due to priming, which occurs when exposure to one stimulus influences a person's response to a subsequent stimulus. In this case, Alice's viewing of the Jaws movie primed her to be hyperaware of the possibility of encountering a shark in the water, leading to her nervousness and perception of anything in the water as a shark.

Alice Goes to See a Rerun of Jaws (A Movie