If a subject is presented with a "prime" word such as doctor and then a "target" word such as nurse, if the subject has a faster-than-usual response time to nurse then the experimenter may assume that word nurse in the brain had already been accessed when the word doctor was accessed.
如果呈現給受試者一個“促發”字，如醫生 ，然後一個“目標”字，如護士 ，如果有快於平常的反應時間，實驗者可以假設在大腦中出現醫生 時，護士 也會被汲取。