Prime The Mind: Test Taking Strategy

Professor of psychology and author of the book Kluge: The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind, Gary Marcus describes an interesting experiment.

A former colleague of his at New York University, John Baragh, asked undergrad students to unscramble a set of words related to a common theme. In one case the theme was related to the elderly. Students unscrambled words such as old, forgetful, wise, and Florida. While students were able to manage the task, the real experiment began after the task as students were videotaped walking back down the hall to the elevators. Those who unscrambled words related to the theme of elderly, such as retired or Florida, walked more slowly than those who hadn’t

Gary describes how another lab studied people as they played a trivia game. Some of the players were primed with words like intelligent or professor. Others were primed with words such as stupid or soccer hooligans. The predictable result was that those who were primed with words from the theme of intelligence were more successful.

So I wonder, in this world of high stakes testing if students might be primed for success in a similar way. For example, students could be given a word search in which they looked for words like, smart, intelligent, successful, insightful, mathematical, problem solver, writer, brilliant, clever, etc. Or maybe students could be given a word sort that contains similarly themed words. The result of the task not being as important as the priming of the mind prior to taking a test, teachers could choose words centered around the theme of intelligence or success. In the world of NCLB, API, and AYP, we need every edge we can get. Maybe priming the mind is a one way to improve our student’s chances of maximizing their abilities.