Priming in the autobiographical memory system: implications and future directions

Studies examining priming in autobiographical memory are fewer in number (some two dozen) compared to other areas (e.g., semantic memory priming), which have seen hundreds of studies. Nevertheless, autobiographical memory priming studies have utilised quite a number of different experimental paradigms, with many having interesting ecological implications. This paper reviews the bulk of these studies. It discusses the various theoretical implications of these studies, past and present. It suggests numerous future directions in this area, as the study of priming in autobiographical memory has had significant implications, despite the small number of studies, and it offers enormous future potential.