Does Priming Improve Performance?—An Evaluation Based on a Simulation Game

Abstract

This study focuses on the priming effect on performance in a simulation game. It took place during the regular course programme at the European Business School (Germany). Two groups of students were chosen randomly to play a business game (Szyperski & Klandt, 1988) that simulated the start-up and early development phase of a software company including a large variety of decisions. By means of the study design the amount of cognitive involvement before the game was varied. Thus, one of the groups received a strategy questionnaire while the other did not. It contained questions about production, supply, personnel, advertising, etc. The intention was to prime the students towards the use of strategies. According to former experiments by Higgins, Rholes and Jones (1977) priming influences cognition and memory and leads to a faster retrieval of information. This should be transferred to the performance in a simulation game.