Research on application of the priming effect in drug packaging in medicine for self-aid and mutual-aid

Key words: 
• priming effect /
• reaction time /
• pharmaceutical packing

Abstract: Objective To investigate the psychological measurement index for the effectiveness and discrimination of drug packaging (color code) in the medicine for self-aid and mutual-aid. Methods The classical priming paradigm was used to investigate whether there were influences on the recognition accuracy (ACC) and reaction time (RT) by memorizing the characteristics of three series of color code, with a 2 (relevant or irrelevant priming)×3 (color code categories) within subject experimental design. Results ① The recognition (RT) of the relevant-priming group was 1 387.18 ms, compared with the irrelevant-priming group 1 475.12 ms. The independent two-sample t-test showed statistically significant difference between the relevant-priming and irrelevant-priming groups (t=2.264,P=0.02). ② The analysis of variance of factorial design showed a significant difference among the three series in the recognition (RT) (F=9.945,P<0.001). The priming effect was significant in color code 1 and 3, while not significant in color code 2. ③ The recognition (RT) in color code 2 was different by the judgment task: using directivesP value for the priming effect was 0.03,0.21 and 0.7 in the judgment task for using directives, class-1 categorical attributes and class-2 categorical attributes. The priming effect was significant in using directives, while not significant in class-1 categorical attributes and class-2 categorical attributes. Conclusion The priming effect of the characteristic of the color code is significant, and the characteristic of the color code can promote the process of memorization of the medicine for self-aid and mutual-aid.