Lecture 7 (last 1 for Test 1)
2/11/04

Could 1/30 th of a second really influence impressions of
Al Gore?

• Minimum stimulation necessary to detect a particular stimulus
– Normal senses can
• smell one drop of perfume in a 3-room apartment
• See a candle 30 miles away
• Hear a watch ticking 30 feet away
• What about stimuli below the absolute threshold?
– Can they influence us?

Subliminal = stimuli that sensory system responds to , but due to short duration or subtle form , don’t reach threshold of cognition
– Can’t report the info was perceived
– “Awareness” of info about environment depends on variety of cortical areas
– Many studies demonstrate perception without awareness… Many call them hoaxes…

1. Do you think you are influenced by subliminal messages in advertising?
2. Do you think you are influenced by everyday advertisements that you perceive consciously (e.g. laundry detergent, beverages)?

3. Suppose you had a choice to listen to one of two speeches that argued against a position you believe in, such as whether marijuana should be legalized. In speech A, the person presents arguments against your position; in speech B, all arguments are presented subliminally.
Which speech would you rather listen to?

1. 80% college students preferred not to receive a subliminal message b/c they thought it might influence them in an undesirable way.
2. 28% preferred not to receive a regular ad b/c it might influence them undesirably.
3. 69% chose speech A; 31% chose B
(subliminal)
• Why are people afraid? Should you be?

• New Jersey, 1957:
– Over 6 weeks, 45,699 ppl
– “Eat Popcorn” – 57.5%
– “Drink Coke” – 18.1%
• “Minds have been broken and entered”

• 2 teenage boys committed suicide after listening to
Judas Priest…
– Lyrics promoted Satanism and suicide
• Rock music w/ satanic messages when played backwards
– Beatles, The White Album: “John is dead now, miss him, miss him, miss him.”
– Led Zeppelin, Stairway to Heaven
• “Human brains are capable of receiving, scanning, deciphering, storing and later reacting to subliminal or subconscious messages”

• "I sing because I live with Satan. The Lord turns me off. There's no escaping it. Here's to my sweet Satan. Whose power is
Satan. He will give you 666. I live for
Satan."
• Examples: Madonna , Backstreet , Metallica

• Sexual imagery in ads
– Wilson Bryan Key: “sex” in ice cubes, nude figures in images from butter to icing in cake mix ads.
– Even if images aren’t consciously perceived, they put us in good mood and pay more attention to ad

• Recorded sentences
• Backmasked
• What did you perceive?
– Gender (m – f)
– Type (? - statement)
– Meaning similarity, meaning vs. nonsense…
• Behavioral influence?
– Homonym task (“Climbing a mountain…”)

• Perhaps listeners can “hear” a “message” that actually isn’t there
• Jabberwocky and Psalm 23
– “I saw a girl with a weasel in her mouth”
– When instructed to listen
• 90% hear
• Yes, messages are there, but are not effective

• Subliminal self-help tapes - $50 million
– Relax, you are good, you are capable, calm
• Utah’s South Pt. Prison
• Texas Rangers’ Pitching Staff
• Department Store Music

• Greenwald, et al. 1991
– Fill out self esteem scales; memory tests
– Self-help tapes: Improve memory or boost self-esteem
– Every day for 5 wks.
• Hear classical musical…
• The Catch

MEMORY TAPE SELF ESTEEM TAPE
ACTUAL
M label SE label M label SE label
Expectation
ACTUAL ?
?
?
PERCEIVED ?
?
?
?
?

MEMORY TAPE SELF ESTEEM TAPE
ACTUAL
M label SE label M label SE label
Expectation
ACTUAL ~ ~ ~ ~
PERCEIVED * memory improved
*
SE improved
* memory improved
*
SE improved

• Flashed
– Kitten & romantic couples VS.
– Werewolf & dead body
• Pictures of people
– Perceived a flash of light, BUT
– Rated people associated with kittens & couples more positively

• How much do you like these Chinese ideographs?
1
Not at all
2 3 4 5 6 7
A lot

• Word search puzzle
– Hidden primes: Neutral vs. achievement words
• Buzzer stops P’s at 3 minutes
• Hidden cameras detect who keeps working
– 57% achievement condition

• Subliminal cues in a controlled lab setting
– Simple judgments & actions
– Short term effects
• Conscious perception
– influences long term purchases
– Health
• Although we can perceive subliminal cues, won’t persuade us to take action unless already motivated or expecting…

What about perception with NO physical stimulus?
clip

An ability to perceive in absence of ordinary sensory info
– 57% Americans believe in ESP
• 3 types:
– Telepathy-
– Clairvoyance-
– Precognition-

• Rhine, 1934
• Special ESP deck
• Guess symbol on each card
– Telepathy- sender looked, P read mind
– Clairvoyance- cards placed face down
– Precognition- predicted before deck shuffled
• 100,000 responses
– Using 25 cards, P’s averaged 7.1 correct!

• Methodological problems
• Hoaxes
• Live stage psychics have associates circulating through crowd, spying on conversations…
• Uri Geller- bend metal without touching it
• James Randi- same stunts through trickery
– “Mind sees what it expects to see.”
• PERCEPTUAL SETS

James Randi Educational Foundation offers
$1 million “to anyone who can show, under proper observing conditions, evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult power or event.”

• Bem & Honorton, 1994
• All sensory information reduced
• “receiver” in reclining chair in sound proof chamber with ping-pong balls, red light, earphones, white noise
»In Separate room, “sender” concentrates on visual stimuli
»32% hit rate > chance!

• Illusions of Connection
– PPl mistakenly attribute coincidences to Psi as false alarms
– Perceptual system creates patterns and connections that do NOT exist
• Illusions of Control
– PPl mistakenly feel in control of what are really chance events
• Illusions of memory
– Selective memory makes coincidences appear to occur more frequently than they actually do

• Lectures 1-7 & Chapters 1-5
• Focus on ideas, not facts
– Understand, don’t memorize
• Apply studies discussed to overall themes
– What’s the point?
• Focus on important diagrams & terms, not minor details
• Study together