Investigating the relationship between need for cognition and priming : an fMRI study

• Main Author: Teo, Kelvin Kai Shin
• Other Authors: Gianluca Esposito
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences::Psychology
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/76853
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Many studies have focused on how an individual’s Need for Cognition (NFC) affects the processing of information in different situations, such as when an individual is primed. However, a large portion of existing research on the relationship between NFC and priming is based on behavioral and self-report data, with a limited focus on the underlying neural mechanisms associated with the differences between high and low NFC individuals. Thus, the current research aims to bridge this gap by using a neuroimaging approach to study NFC and priming instead. By using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data from a contextual priming experimental task, the effects of priming (in terms of activated or deactivated brain areas) were identified and analyzed in relation to NFC scores. NFC was found to moderate the effects of priming on a neural level to a small extent, and was significantly and negatively correlated with a decrease in activation in the left middle occipital gyrus (BA 18; visual association area) in one of the primed conditions, meaning that high NFC individuals showed a larger decrease in activation (larger effect of priming) as compared to low NFC individuals. The current research provides the first evidence that NFC may be associated with differences in visual processing, possibly due to NFC-related differences in voluntary and involuntary attentional resource allocation.