Influence of Expectations on Perception

In a laboratory setting, researchers conducted an experiment to investigate how expectations influence perception. Participants were shown a series of ambiguous images that could be interpreted in multiple ways. Prior to viewing the images, one group was primed with a specific expectation (e.g., they were told that the images would depict animal shapes), while another group received no such priming. The results showed that the primed group was significantly more likely to identify the ambiguous images as depicting animals compared to the control group.

This experiment highlights the interaction between cognitive processes and sensory information in shaping perception. Given this context, which of the following concepts best describes the cognitive bias observed in the primed participants?