Subliminally Research Articles

Dynamics of priming-effect for subliminally presented ambiguous pictures

ABSTRACT The results of this study confirmed that people react differently to preferred meanings of ambiguous images (to those that will get into consciousness later) and to rejected meanings of ambiguous images (those that will not). We observed a facilitative after-effect of the preferred meaning which was expressed in the positive priming-effect, and the following dynamics of the rejected meaning after-effect: positive priming at small values of SOA (30 ms), negative at bigger SOA values (530 ms) and positive priming at all the following SOA values (1,030, 3,030 and 5,030 ms). These results imply that subliminal perception, as well as supraliminal, is selective. We believe that negative priming for one of the meanings of an ambiguous image presented subliminally might be associated with an unconscious decision as to whether or not a particular stimulus will enter into consciousness, in accordance with the negative choice theory.

Human-Focused Turing Tests: A Framework for Judging Nudging and Techno-Social Engineering of Human Beings

This article makes two major contributions. First, it develops a methodology to investigate techno-social engineering of human beings. Many claim that technology dehumanizes, but this article is the first to develop a systematic approach to identifying when technologies dehumanize. The methodology depends on a fundamental and radical repurposing of the Turing test. The article develops an initial series of human-focused tests to examine different aspects of intelligence and distinguish humans from machines: (a) mathematical computation, (b) random number generation, (c) common sense, and (d) rationality. All four are plausible reverse Turing tests that generally could be used to distinguish humans and machines. Yet the first two do not implicate fundamental notions of what it means to be a human; the third and fourth do. When these latter two tests are passed, we have good reason to question and evaluate the humans and the techno-social environment within which they are situated. Second, this article applies insights from the common sense and rationality tests to evaluate the ongoing behavioral law and economics project of nudging us to become rational humans. Based on decades of findings from cognitive psychologists and behavioral economists, this project has influenced academics across many disciplines and public policies around the world. There are a variety of institutional means for implementing to improve human decision making in contexts where humans tend to act irrationally or contrary to their own welfare. Cass Sunstein defines nudges more narrowly and carefully as low-cost, choice-preserving, behaviorally informed approaches to regulatory problems, including disclosure requirements, default rules, and simplification. These approaches tend to be transparent and more palatable. But there are other approaches, such as covert nudges like subliminal advertising. The underlying logic of nudging is to construct or modify the choice or the environment within which humans make decisions. Yet as Lawrence Lessig made clear long ago, architecture regulates powerfully but subtly, and it can easily run roughshod over values that don’t matter to the architects. Techno-social engineering through (choice) architecture is rampant and will grow in scale and scope in the near future, and it demands close attention because of its subtle influence on both what people do and what people believe to be possible. Accordingly, this article evaluates nudging as a systematic agenda where institutional decisions about particular nudges aggregate and set a path that entails techno-social engineering of humans and society. The article concludes with two true stories that bring these two contributions together. Neither is quite a story of dehumanization where humans become indistinguishable from machines. Rather, each is an example of an incremental step in that direction. The first concerns techno-social engineering of children’s preferences. It is the story of a simple nudge, implemented through the use of a wearable technology distributed in an elementary school for the purpose of encouraging fitness. The second concerns techno-social engineering of human emotions — the Facebook Emotional Contagion Experiment. It is not (yet) a conventional nudge, but it relies on the underlying logic of nudging. Both can be seen as steps along the same path.

Hermeneutics of Religious Symbolism in the Opera Giovanna d’Arco – Giuseppe Verdi.

Hermeneutics of Religious Symbolism in the Opera Giovanna d’Arco – Giuseppe Verdi. Edith Georgiana ADETU Abstract This study proposes a distinct approach to Italian lyrical theater, by means of an analysis of musical hermeneutics, which correlatively debates on the religious symbols identified in the music of the opera „Giovanna d‟Arco‟ and the socio-political setting in which this opera was written. Inspired by Friedrich Schiller‟s tragedy, Verdi will incorporate the topic of the opera within the music in such a manner as to reflect the drama of the contemporary man of the19th-century Italian society. In full swing of the revolution, the Italian society of that time, more and more eager to find spiritual identity, is turning to the old religious legends. Joan of Arc, this religious symbol, will come to life in the pages of Verdi‟s opera, revealing numerous musical moments of sheer beauty, characteristic of the Italian style of the first half of the 19thcentury. At the same time, this opera brings together a series of religious symbols (divine apparitions), whose subliminal messages we will elucidate in this study. Full Text: PDF DOI: 10.15640/ijmpa.v8n2a2

Improving the accuracy and speed of choice in human-computer interactions via a subliminal priming effect

With the development of information processes, the interaction between humans and computers is everywhere in our daily life. As the level of human-computer interaction continues to rise, the cognitive load in human-computer interaction is also increasing, and thus, the operational error rate is rising. Subliminal communication technology refers to the use of appropriate methods to provide subliminal cues to convey supplementary information in an unconscious way. This method does not increase the burden on cognitive channels, but it improves people's abilities to recognise and make decisions. Therefore, we conducted a series of experiments on the subliminal priming effect to observe the feasibility of this idea. We used experimental psychophysical methods to demonstrate that the subliminal stimuli had a considerable impact on various cognitive processes and decision-making.

Improving the accuracy and speed of choice in human-computer interactions via a subliminal priming effect

With the development of information processes, the interaction between humans and computers is everywhere in our daily life. As the level of human-computer interaction continues to rise, the cognitive load in human-computer interaction is also increasing, and thus, the operational error rate is rising. Subliminal communication technology refers to the use of appropriate methods to provide subliminal cues to convey supplementary information in an unconscious way. This method does not increase the burden on cognitive channels, but it improves people's abilities to recognise and make decisions. Therefore, we conducted a series of experiments on the subliminal priming effect to observe the feasibility of this idea. We used experimental psychophysical methods to demonstrate that the subliminal stimuli had a considerable impact on various cognitive processes and decision-making.

Can You Lead a Horse to Water and Make Him Drink? Utility of Subliminal Audio Messages for At-Risk Minority Students

Can You Lead a Horse to Water and Make Him Drink? Utility of Subliminal Audio Messages for At-Risk Minority Students

Conceptually Examine Subliminal Perception in Marketing and Strategy Terms

Subliminal audio perception, additionally known as subliminal audio information. are actually information, either graphic or even acoustic, that are presented merely beyond the limit of human understanding. A subliminal audio viewpoint might certainly not be actually distinct good enough that the aware mind may enroll it however be actually discernible good enough for the subconsciousness mind. The very same applies to a subliminal audio graphic. The utmost measure of just how effective a company's marketing technique is exactly how effectively the information provided through industrying embed the minds of buyers as well as influences them to purchase the product or services of the organisation. As opposed to preferred technique, marketing technique is not taken out of lean sky. At least it should not be actually. A marketing strategy should outgrow the business's market value proposition. The worth proposal often provides the crucial notification for all advertising and marketing One strategy that marketers are generally thinking about is subliminal audio understanding. This causing is subliminal audio perception. The resulting kind of advertising and marketing is known as subliminal audio advertising and marketing.

The effect of emotional information from eyes on empathy for pain: A subliminal ERP study.

Facial expressions are deeply tied to empathy, which plays an important role during social communication. The eye region is effective at conveying facial expressions, especially fear and sadness emotions. Further, it was proved that subliminal stimuli could impact human behavior. This research aimed to explore the effect of subliminal sad, fearful and neutral emotions conveyed by the eye region on a viewer's empathy for pain using event-related potentials (ERP). The experiment used an emotional priming paradigm of 3 (prime: subliminal neutral, sad, fear eye region information) × 2 (target: painful, nonpainful pictures) within-subject design. Participants were told to judge whether the targets were in pain or not. Results showed that the subliminal sad eye stimulus elicited a larger P2 amplitude than the subliminal fearful eye stimulus when assessing pain. For P3 and late positive component (LPC), the amplitude elicited by the painful pictures was larger than the amplitude elicited by the nonpainful pictures. The behavioral results demonstrated that people reacted to targets depicting pain more slowly after the sad emotion priming. Moreover, the subjective ratings of Personal Distress (PD) (one of the dimensions in Chinese version of Interpersonal Reactivity Index scale) predicted the pain effect in empathic neural responses in the N1 and N2 time window. The current study showed that subliminal eye emotion affected the viewer's empathy for pain. Compared with the subliminal fearful eye stimulus, the subliminal sad eye stimulus had a greater impact on empathy for pain. The perceptual level of pain was deeper in the late controlled processing stage.

Fear of Cigarette Smoke and the Brain Reaction on Nicotine

Nicotine addiction is categorized as severe addiction immediately behind heroin. The third place on the list is cocaine addiction, followed by alcohol, etc. Nicotine is a powerful psychoactive substance that disrupts bio-cell processes and changes behavior. It causes dependence on smokers, but tar is a highly potent killing substance. Therefore, in 1965 the US Congress passed a law on mandatory health warning stickers on tobacco packs. Numerous studies have shown that the health warning does not affect the reduction in the number of cigarettes smoked, contrary to this warning motivates smokers to light-up a new cigarette. What actually happens in the smoker's heads and why? s the health warning a subtly designed subliminal message, or is its opposite effect a consequence of the brain filtration mechanism, or is it simply a synergy of the above-mentioned phenomena?

Processes of subliminal stimulation in audiovisual integration

Processes of subliminal stimulation in audiovisual integration

Probing the limits of activity-silent non-conscious working memory

Two types of working memory (WM) have recently been proposed: (i) active WM, relying on sustained neural firing, and (ii) activity-silent WM, for which firing returns to baseline, yet memories may be retained by short-term synaptic changes. Activity-silent WM in particular might also underlie the recently discovered phenomenon of non-conscious WM, which permits even subliminal stimuli to be stored for several seconds. However, whether both states support identical forms of information processing is unknown. Theory predicts that activity-silent states are confined to passive storage and cannot operate on stored information. To determine whether an explicit reactivation is required before the manipulation of information in WM, we evaluated whether participants could mentally rotate brief visual stimuli of variable subjective visibility. Behaviorally, even for unseen targets, subjects reported the rotated location above chance after several seconds. As predicted, however, at the time of mental rotation, such blindsight performance was accompanied by (i) neural signatures of consciousness in the form of a sustained desynchronization in alpha/beta frequency and (ii) a reactivation of the memorized information as indicated by decodable representations of participants' guess and response. Our findings challenge the concept of genuine non-conscious "working" memory, argue that activity-silent states merely support passive short-term memory, and provide a cautionary note for purely behavioral studies of non-conscious information processing.

Investigating the validity of muscle response testing: Blinding the patient using subliminal visual stimuli

Research objectiveTo determine if Muscle Response Testing (MRT) can be used to distinguish lies from truths using blind test patients. DesignA prospective study of diagnostic test accuracy was carried out using MRT to distinguish lies from truth. MethodsTwenty practitioners who routinely practised MRT were paired with 20 blind test patients (TPs). TPs were asked to speak simple true and false statements about visual stimuli presented subliminally (at 20 ms). In the subliminal phase, pairs performed 20 MRTs and 20 Intuitive Guesses (IG), consisting of 2 blocks of 10 statements each. In the Supraliminal Phase, the same picture-statement pairs were repeated. The order of stimuli presentation was randomly assigned so that each pair was presented with a unique series of stimuli. ResultsIn the Subliminal Phase, MRT accuracy (as percent correct) was found to be 48.5% (95% CI 42.8–54.2), which was no different from IG accuracy (47.8%; 95% CI 43.2–52.3; p = 0.68) or chance (50.0%; p = 0.59), and no different from MRT accuracy during the supraliminal phase (59.0%; 95% CI 50.4–67.6; p = 0.05). However, supraliminal MRT accuracy was significantly different from chance (p = 0.04), indicating that the pairs could perform MRT proficiently. ConclusionThe main reason for finding no effect is suspected to be due to an inadequate subliminal methodology, a process which is quite complex. Other explanations of results include: (1) MRT is not a valid test when the TP is blind, (2) Blinding TPs during MRT will produce ambiguous or unpredictable results, or (3) Nonconscious beliefs cannot be elicited using subliminal stimuli. Future research may wish to focus on exploring these possibilities. More specifically, subsequent studies may wish to use different methods to blind TPs, and establish whether MRT can be used to detect nonconscious processes, a generally held consensus among MRT practitioners.

Obesity, subliminal perception and inhibition: Neuromodulation of the prefrontal cortex

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) plays a central role in food choice, and may be partly dysfunctional in obesity – a condition linked to altered attention and inhibition processes, particularly in response to food-related stimuli. We investigated the role of the PFC in subliminal visual processing and response inhibition to food pictures using anodal, cathodal, or sham transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in a sample of 53 normal weight, overweight, or obese participants. Subliminal processing was measured with a breaking continuous flash suppression task (bCFS), and inhibition with a Go/No-Go task. BMI was included in the analyses as a continuous predictor. Higher BMI was associated with prolonged subliminal processing for both food and nonfood pictures in the bCFS task, and with longer RTs in food Go trials in the Go/No-Go task. Therefore, higher BMI was associated with an attentional bias for food images during supraliminal, but not subliminal visual processing. Moreover, anodal tDCS resulted in shorter detection times in the bCFS task, especially in participants with higher BMI. We conclude that anodal tDCS affects subliminal perception and attentional processes, and speculate that these effects may explain previous reports of reduced craving and food intake after anodal tDCS.

Classic Stroop Color Words Produce No Stroop Effect When the Display Characteristics Are Based Upon Emotional Stroop Studies With Subliminal Presentations.

Two forms of the Stroop task have produced contradictory findings regarding unconscious perceptual processing. Emotional Stroop task studies with prime words presented at an objective threshold (i.e., subliminal) produce Stroop-like effects, but comparable studies conducted with classic Stroop stimuli do not produce Stroop effects. We tested the possibility that differences in the display appearance might explain this discrepancy. Color word prime stimuli from the traditional Stroop task were used with display characteristics based upon the emotional Stroop studies. There was a Stroop effect for the relatively long prime stimulus durations (59, 87, or 108 milliseconds) but not for the brief durations (18, 24, or 38 milliseconds). Accordingly, the discrepancy in research findings cannot be attributed to simple differences in display methodology. The failure to find strong evidence of unconscious perceptual processing is consistent with the negative findings from some emotional Stroop studies that use subliminal stimulus presentations.

How the Brain Transitions from Conscious to Subliminal Perception

We study the transition in the functional networks that characterize the human brains’ conscious-state to an unconscious subliminal state of perception by using k-core percolation. We find that the most inner core (i.e., the most connected kernel) of the conscious-state functional network corresponds to areas which remain functionally active when the brain transitions from the conscious-state to the subliminal-state. That is, the inner core of the conscious network coincides with the subliminal-state. Mathematical modeling allows to interpret the conscious to subliminal transition as driven by k-core percolation, through which the conscious state is lost by the inactivation of the peripheral k-shells of the conscious functional network. Thus, the inner core and most robust component of the conscious brain corresponds to the unconscious subliminal state. This finding imposes constraints to theoretical models of consciousness, in that the location of the core of the functional brain network is in the unconscious part of the brain rather than in the conscious state as previously thought.

Development of Online Integrative Medicine Research Curriculum

To determine if Muscle Response Testing (MRT) can be used to distinguish lies from truths using blind test patients.A prospective study of diagnostic test accuracy was carried out using MRT to distinguish lies from truth.Twenty practitioners who routinely practised MRT were paired with 20 blind test patients (TPs). TPs were asked to speak simple true and false statements about visual stimuli presented subliminally (at 20 ms). In the subliminal phase, pairs performed 20 MRTs and 20 Intuitive Guesses (IG), consisting of 2 blocks of 10 statements each. In the Supraliminal Phase, the same picture-statement pairs were repeated. The order of stimuli presentation was randomly assigned so that each pair was presented with a unique series of stimuli.In the Subliminal Phase, MRT accuracy (as percent correct) was found to be 48.5% (95% CI 42.8–54.2), which was no different from IG accuracy (47.8%; 95% CI 43.2–52.3; p = 0.68) or chance (50.0%; p = 0.59), and no different from MRT accuracy during the supraliminal phase (59.0%; 95% CI 50.4–67.6; p = 0.05). However, supraliminal MRT accuracy was significantly different from chance (p = 0.04), indicating that the pairs could perform MRT proficiently.The main reason for finding no effect is suspected to be due to an inadequate subliminal methodology, a process which is quite complex. Other explanations of results include: (1) MRT is not a valid test when the TP is blind, (2) Blinding TPs during MRT will produce ambiguous or unpredictable results, or (3) Nonconscious beliefs cannot be elicited using subliminal stimuli. Future research may wish to focus on exploring these possibilities. More specifically, subsequent studies may wish to use different methods to blind TPs, and establish whether MRT can be used to detect nonconscious processes, a generally held consensus among MRT practitioners.

Methodological Background and Foundations of the Non-Material Theory of the Psyche

In this paper, a number of outdated but still prevailing medical doctrines are critically reviewed, in particular, Hippocrates’s hypothesis of the brain as a repository of all mental processes; I.M. Sechenov’s hypothesis of the psyche as a derivate of the brain reflexes; I.P. Pavlov’s hypothesis of the higher nervous activity as an equivalent of the psyche. In his research, the author refers to studies of feral children, studies of memory and subliminal perception, discovery of mirror neurons and contemporary views of the academic science on information. The author proves the non-materiality of the psyche and the role of the brain as a biological interface between the ideal and the real. The new approach would require changing the traditional paradigm as well as all our approaches to studying the psyche and treating mental disorders.

The role of response readiness in subliminal visuomotor processes.

The present study aims to examine the impact of response readiness on visuomotor processes triggered by subliminal stimuli using a mixed paradigm involving the masked prime paradigm and a foreperiod paradigm. Experiment 1 ensured that response readiness was successfully manipulated in the mixed paradigm. Importantly, Experiment 2 found that the negative compatibility effect (NCE; a behavioral indicator of subliminal visuomotor processes) disappeared and that response time lost its power to modulate the compatibility effect (CE) with reduced response readiness (due to temporal uncertainty). These results of CEs both independent of response latency and across different levels of response latency indicate that response readiness is a prerequisite for obtaining the NCE. The findings suggest that automatic processing of subliminal stimuli is susceptible to top-down control for reducing the interference of irrelevant information, which ensures a high degree of adaptability and flexibility of our cognitive system in interactions with the changing environment.

Noheda’dan Bir Mozaiğin Yeniden İncelenmesi (Cuenca, İspanya)

In the Roman villa of Noheda (Villar de Domingo García, Cuenca), the most distinguished of the structures excavated, is the so-called tri-apsidal (triconch) room, belonging to the residential part of a 4th and 5th century villa, with its 290.64 m2 dimensions and its extraordinary figured mosaics. Many of the mythological themes represented are connected with loving partners: Pelops and Hippodameia, the story of Paris and Helen, the Triumph of Bacchus in the company of Ariadne. The scenes related are also represented to the mime “the jealous husband”, and Venus is evoked trough mythological characters associated with her which appears next to the fishing scenes. The interpretative analysis of the ensemble mosaics found in Noheda is based on the mythological and allegorical scenes depicting certain characters. For instance the Erotes or the typical dextrarum iunctio gesture by lovers, Dionysus and Ariadne’s hierogamia as the divine couple manifest the allegory of the exaltation of love, of the union of divine and human. Together with decorative elements, such as garlands and gardens, related with Venus, goddess of love, leads to an alone interpretation in allegorical lines as the subliminal messages are revolving around the triumph of love. So far, the mosaic in the triclinium of Noheda can be proclaimed as a great exponent of love; of lawful and unlawful relationships, of happy endings with couples’ weddings or punishment inflicted on adulterous characters. It all of it presided over by the spirit of Venus as inspirer of love.

How the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Controls Affective Processing in Absence of Visual Awareness - Insights From a Combined EEG-rTMS Study.

The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) plays a key role in the modulation of affective processing. However, its specific role in the regulation of neurocognitive processes underlying the interplay of affective perception and visual awareness has remained largely unclear. Using a mixed factorial design, this study investigated effects of inhibitory continuous theta-burst stimulation (cTBS) of the right DLPFC (rDLPFC) compared to an Active Control condition on behavioral (N = 48) and electroencephalographic (N = 38) correlates of affective processing in healthy Chinese participants. Event-related potentials (ERPs) in response to passively viewed subliminal and supraliminal negative and neutral natural scenes were recorded before and after cTBS application. We applied minimum-norm approaches to estimate the corresponding neuronal sources. On a behavioral level, we found evidence for reduced emotional interference by, and less negative and aroused ratings of negative supraliminal stimuli following rDLPFC inhibition. We found no evidence for stimulation effects on self-reported mood or the behavioral discrimination of subliminal stimuli. On a neurophysiological level, rDLPFC inhibition relatively enhanced occipito-parietal brain activity for both subliminal and supraliminal negative compared to neutral images (112–268 ms; 320–380 ms). The early onset and localization of these effects suggests that rDLPFC inhibition boosts automatic processes of “emotional attention” independently of visual awareness. Further, our study reveals the first available evidence for a differential influence of rDLPFC inhibition on subliminal versus supraliminal neural emotion processing. Explicitly, our findings indicate that rDLPFC inhibition selectively enhances late (292–360 ms) activity in response to supraliminal negative images. We tentatively suggest that this differential frontal activity likely reflects enhanced awareness-dependent down-regulation of negative scene processing, eventually leading to facilitated disengagement from and less negative and aroused evaluations of negative supraliminal stimuli.