Concept

Subliminal stimuli

Overview

Subliminal stimuli (; sub- literally "below" or "less than") are any sensory stimuli below an individual's threshold or limit for conscious perception, in contrast to supraliminal stimuli (above threshold). Visual stimuli may be quickly flashed before an individual can process them, or flashed and then masked to interrupt processing. Audio stimuli may be played below audible volumes or masked by other stimuli.

In 1957, the American cinematographer James Vicary claimed to have increased the sales of Coca-Cola by inserting in his cinema's movies some frames with "Drink Coca-Cola!" written on it. Five years later, however, he admitted to having inflated his results somewhat by including certain data that were labeled scientifically unreliable. However, Vicary's claim increased scientific interest in subliminal messages.

Subliminal stimulation is now accepted as a legitimate research field in the scientific literature. A 2012 review of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies showed that subliminal stimuli activate specific regions of the brain despite participants' unawareness, a result corroborated in a meta-analysis from 2023 concerning subliminal stimulation in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

Possible passages

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But at the same time even then close combinations can be formed, which at the operation of a sense-impression immediately reproduce the associated sensations of another sense. For example, we often observe in silent reading weak clang-images of the words, to which are joined slight movements of the articulation-organs, or at least indications of such movements. At the sight of a musical instrument we often perceive…
Wilhelm Max Wundt, An Introduction to Psychology Translated from the Second German Edition
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Before considering modern theories, let us look first at consciousness from the standpoint of conventional psychology, since this embodies views which naturally occur when we begin to reflect upon the subject. For this purpose, let us as a preliminary consider different ways of being conscious. First, there is the way of PERCEPTION. We "perceive" tables and chairs, horses and dogs, our friends, traffic passing in…
Bertrand Russell, The Analysis of Mind
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And this is still very mysterious. What is the cause that, among the thousand products of our unconscious activity, some are called to pass the threshold, while others remain below? Is it a simple chance which confers this privilege? Evidently not; among all the stimuli of our senses, for example, only the most intense fix our attention, unless it has been drawn to them by other causes.
Henri Poincaré, The Foundations of Science
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Related ideas

Place in the tradition

Part of Modal logic.

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