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

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.