Cognitive Bases for Framing Effects

The general cognitive model aims to account for the relationship between news frames generally and two categories of outcomes – learning and judgments. The processes of spreading activation and priming increase the accessibility of nodes associated with those directly activated by the story itself. Constructs in the associative network that are semantically related to those activated directly will also tend to be made more accessible, allowing them to be more retrievable in the short run. Retrieval of information depends on what is accessible; that in turn depends on the recency and frequency of activation and chronic accessibility levels. Retrieval and evaluative judgments give feedback to the associative network. They strengthen (and weaken) existing association, add new associations, modify existing evaluative tags, and, in general, alter the patterns of association tying the network together. Framing effects are more subtle than media priming and agenda setting.