We propose that two distinct regulatory dynamics may produce social psychological priming effects, but under very different conditions. When engaged in structured regulation, people process information in light of their valued goals, responding to salient situational cues only to the extent that those cues are goal-relevant. By contrast, when engaged in unstructured regulation, people are more tuned to the demands of the present, tailoring their responses to the unique circumstances of the immediate context and evincing a greater openness to responding to salient cues in a cueconsistent manner. We explore construal level as one factor that dictates when people engage in one dynamic versus the other. We also discuss the distinction between traditional priming and mindset priming.Priming represents one of the most studied judgmental and behavioral phenomena in social cognition research. "Priming effects" refer to the cognitive, motivational, affective, and behavioral consequences of subtly enhancing the accessibility of a given construct independent of either available cognitive resources, awareness of this influence, or control over this influence (see Molden, 2014, this issue). Accessibility is the ease and speed with which a cognitive construct or process is activated and comes to mind (e.g., Bruner, 1957;Higgins, 1996). Determinants of accessibility include the frequency and recency of activation as well as the goals and motives of the individual (Bruner, 1957). Priming research is based on the