By: tom

tom — Thu, 21 Apr 2005 09:24:18 +0000

Alex
Yes, this is all about implicit memory. Most tests of subliminal effects rely on behaviour (ie implicit) tests rather than explict tests (ie “yes, i saw that, and now i want a mars bar”). How the implicit relates to our conscious, deliberate behaviour (to the extent that any of our behaviour is deliberate) is a tricky one. Likewise this issue of the cognitive unconscious. Is the unconscious smart or dumb? Freud said smart, Cognitive psychology says pretty dumb. The stuff on stereotype priming (in the book, amongst other places), says that a dumb, but complex, unconscious can produce pretty smart (or seemingly smart) responses…

By: Alex Fradera

Alex Fradera — Sun, 17 Apr 2005 22:52:35 +0000

But aren’t priming and responses to marked stimuli examples of situations where information cannot be yielded consciously but is still ‘there’ in some sense, able to be detected via tests of implicit memory, or measures of biological change (from GSR to eye-movement to EEG)? Also, Paul Broks talks (in Into the Silent Land) about the neuropsychological implications of the rich internal landscape we encounter when we dream, and how this has the capacity to constantly surprise us, and argues a case for a much smarter unconscious than we currently address. It’s a bit speculative, but follows a nice neuropsych path and I found it quite convincing… which is not to say anything per se regarding subliminal messages in recordings, of course.

Comments on: subbliminal messages in music 2

By: tom

By: Alex Fradera