Subliminal Priming—State of the Art and Future Perspectives

The influence of subliminal priming (behavior outside of awareness) in humans is an interesting phenomenon and its understanding is crucial as it can impact behavior, choices, and actions. Given this, research about the impact of priming continues to be an area of investigative interest, and this paper provides a technical overview of research design strengths and issues in subliminal priming research. Efficient experiments and protocols, as well as associated electroencephalographic and eye movement data analyses, are discussed in detail. We highlight the strengths and weaknesses of different priming experiments that have measured affective (emotional) and cognitive responses. Finally, very recent approaches and findings are described to summarize and emphasize state-of-the-art methods and potential future directions in research marketing and other commercial applications.

[1]  Ralf Schmälzle,et al.  Visual noise effects on emotion perception: brain potentials and stimulus identification , 2008, Neuroreport.

[2]  D. Besner.  Visual Pattern Recognition: Size Preprocessing Re-Examined , 1983, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology.

[3]  C. Frith,et al.  Inattentional blindness versus inattentional amnesia for fixated but ignored words. , 1999, Science.

[4]  B. Newell,et al.  Priming Intelligent Behavior: An Elusive Phenomenon , 2013, PloS one.

[5]  O. Neumann,et al.  Motor activation without conscious discrimination in metacontrast masking. , 1999 .

[6]  Matthew W. Crocker,et al.  The influence of recent scene events on spoken comprehension: Evidence from eye movements , 2007 .

[7]  J. Hyönä,et al.  Eye movement assessment of selective attentional capture by emotional pictures. , 2006, Emotion.

[8]  Markus Kiefer,et al.  Repetition-priming Modulates Category-related Effects on Event-related Potentials: Further Evidence for Multiple Cortical Semantic Systems , 2005, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[9]  Stefanie I. Becker,et al.  Sensorimotor supremacy: Investigating conscious and unconscious vision by masked priming , 2008, Advances in cognitive psychology.

[10]  U. Mattler.  Flanker effects on motor output and the late-level response activation hypothesis , 2005, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology.

[11]  M. Bradley,et al.  Fleeting images: a new look at early emotion discrimination. , 2001, Psychophysiology.

[12]  W. Montague,et al.  Category norms of verbal items in 56 categories A replication and extension of the Connecticut category norms , 1969 .

[13]  B. Verkuil,et al.  Decreasing pain tolerance outside of awareness. , 2011, Journal of psychosomatic research.

[14]  J. H. Neely.  Semantic priming effects in visual word recognition: A selective review of current findings and theories. , 1991 .

[15]  O. Gillath,et al.  Attachment security priming as a potential intervention for depressive symptoms , 2018 .

[16]  M. Heil,et al.  Automatic Semantic Activation Is No Myth , 2004, Psychological science.

[17]  Chi-yue Chiu,et al.  Mere exposure affects perceived descriptive norms: Implications for personal preferences and trust , 2015 .

[18]  Sonja A. Kotz,et al.  Concreteness in emotional words: ERP evidence from a hemifield study , 2007, Brain Research.

[19]  S. Kosslyn.  Aspects of a cognitive neuroscience of mental imagery. , 1988, Science.

[20]  D. Kemmerer.  Cognitive Neuroscience of Language , 2014 .

[21]  V. Sinha,et al.  Event-related potential: An overview , 2009, Industrial psychiatry journal.

[22]  The psychological effects of the contextual activation of security-enhancing mental representations in adulthood , 2015 .

[23]  M. Erdelyi.  A new look at the new look: perceptual defense and vigilance. , 1974, Psychological review.

[24]  W. Stroebe,et al.  Beyond Vicary's fantasies: The impact of subliminal priming and brand choice , 2006 .

[25]  Boris New,et al.  SEMANTIC AND ASSOCIATIVE PRIMING IN THE MENTAL LEXICON , 2003 .

[26]  S. Tipper,et al.  Negative priming between pictures and words in a selective attention task: Evidence for semantic processing of ignored stimuli , 1988, Memory & cognition.

[27]  Kara D. Federmeier,et al.  Electrophysiology reveals semantic memory use in language comprehension , 2000, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[28]  Pia Knoeferle,et al.  Constituent order and semantic parallelism in online comprehension: Eye-tracking evidence from German , 2009, Quarterly journal of experimental psychology.

[29]  Markus Kiefer,et al.  Attentional Modulation of Unconscious Automatic Processes: Evidence from Event-related Potentials in a Masked Priming Paradigm , 2006, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[30]  Dhanya Menoth Mohan,et al.  Effect of Subliminal Lexical Priming on the Subjective Perception of Images: A Machine Learning Approach , 2016, PloS one.

[31]  A. D. Groot,et al.  Primed Lexical Decision: Combined Effects of the Proportion of Related Prime-Target Pairs and the Stimulus-Onset Asynchrony of Prime and Target , 1984 .

[32]  D. Palermo.  Norms of Word Association. , 1971 .

[33]  W Klotz,et al.  The effect of a masked stimulus on the response to the masking stimulus , 1995, Psychological research.

[34]  M. Erdelyi,et al.  Subliminal perception and its cognates: Theory, indeterminacy, and time , 2004, Consciousness and Cognition.

[35]  S. C. Wheeler,et al.  Contextual priming: Where people vote affects how they vote , 2008, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[36]  I. Biederman,et al.  Evidence for Complete Translational and Reflectional Invariance in Visual Object Priming , 1991, Perception.

[37]  J. Schwarzbach,et al.  Different time courses for visual perception and action priming , 2003, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[38]  Thomas Schmidt,et al.  Processing of natural images is feedforward: A simple behavioral test , 2009, Attention, perception & psychophysics.

[39]  C. C. Wood,et al.  Event-related potentials, lexical decision and semantic priming. , 1985, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[40]  C. Bundesen,et al.  Visual transformation of size. , 1975, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[41]  A. Larsen,et al.  Pattern matching: Effects of size ratio, angular difference in orientation, and familiarity , 1985, Perception & psychophysics.

[42]  J. M. Olson,et al.  An expectancy-attribution model of the effects of placebos. , 1981, Psychological review.

[43]  K. Rayner,et al.  Eye Movement Control during Reading: Evidence for Direct Control , 1981, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology.

[44]  Chuanji Gao,et al.  Processing fluency hinders subsequent recollection: an electrophysiological study , 2015, Front. Psychol..

[45]  J. G. Snodgrass,et al.  Conceptual versus Perceptual Priming in Incomplete Picture Identification , 2005, Journal of psycholinguistic research.

[46]  W. Stroebe,et al.  Warning: you are being primed! The effect of a warning on the impact of subliminal ads , 2013 .

[47]  Hartmut Leuthold,et al.  Mechanisms of Priming by Masked Stimuli: Inferences From Event-Related Brain Potentials , 1998 .

[48]  I. Biederman,et al.  Subliminal visual priming , 1997, Neuroscience Letters.

[49]  J. Theeuwes,et al.  Eye cannot see it: The interference of subliminal distractors on saccade metrics , 2009, Vision Research.

[50]  M. van Elk,et al.  Short-term action intentions overrule long-term semantic knowledge , 2009, Cognition.

[51]  Patric Bach,et al.  Communicating hands: ERPs elicited by meaningful symbolic hand postures , 2004, Neuroscience Letters.

[52]  Alan S. Brown,et al.  Information Processing and Cognition: The Loyola Symposium , 1976 .

[53]  N. Fox,et al.  Affective primes suppress attention bias to threat in socially anxious individuals. , 2008, Behaviour research and therapy.

[54]  Emily Balcetis,et al.  See what you want to see: motivational influences on visual perception. , 2006, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[55]  S. Dehaene,et al.  The unique role of the visual word form area in reading , 2011, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[56]  Marianna D. Eddy,et al.  Masked repetition priming and event-related brain potentials: a new approach for tracking the time-course of object perception. , 2006, Psychophysiology.

[57]  D. Stuss,et al.  Cognitive neuroscience. , 1993, Current opinion in neurobiology.

[58]  Julie C. Sedivy,et al.  Subject Terms: Linguistics Language Eyes & eyesight Cognition & reasoning , 1995 .

[59]  Walter Schneider,et al.  Controlled and Automatic Human Information Processing: 1. Detection, Search, and Attention. , 1977 .

[60]  S. Blumstein,et al.  Theories of spoken word recognition deficits in Aphasia: Evidence from eye-tracking and computational modeling , 2011, Brain and Language.

[61]  G. Bodenhausen,et al.  Happiness and stereotypic thinking in social judgment. , 1994 .

[62]  E. Bernat,et al.  Event-related brain potentials differentiate positive and negative mood adjectives during both supraliminal and subliminal visual processing. , 2001, International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology.

[63]  D. A. Kenny,et al.  The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. , 1986, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[64]  K. Stanovich,et al.  On priming by a sentence context. , 1983, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[65]  Tracy A. Dennis,et al.  Emotional Face Processing and Emotion Regulation in Children: An ERP Study , 2009, Developmental neuropsychology.

[66]  Avishai Henik,et al.  Capacity demands of automatic processes in semantic priming , 1994, Memory & cognition.

[67]  Ming-tiem Tsai,et al.  The Effects of Subliminal Advertising on Consumer Attitudes and Buying Intentions , 2007 .

[68]  H. Gibbons.  Evaluative priming from subliminal emotional words: Insights from event-related potentials and individual differences related to anxiety , 2009, Consciousness and Cognition.

[69]  T. Schmidt.  The Finger in Flight: Real-Time Motor Control by Visually Masked Color Stimuli , 2002, Psychological science.

[70]  Abhishek Agrawal,et al.  On the effect of subliminal priming on subjective perception of images: A machine learning approach , 2014, 2014 36th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society.

[71]  B. Kopp,et al.  N2, P3 and the lateralized readiness potential in a nogo task involving selective response priming. , 1996, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[72]  Lauren G. Block,et al.  The Cool Scent of Power: Effects of Ambient Scent on Consumer Preferences and Choice Behavior , 2015 .

[73]  Ken A. Paller,et al.  Finding meaning in novel geometric shapes influences electrophysiological correlates of repetition and dissociates perceptual and conceptual priming , 2010, NeuroImage.

[74]  Subliminal self-help audiotapes: a search for placebo effects. , 1992, The Journal of applied psychology.

[75]  Dave Bartram,et al.  The role of visual and semantic codes in object naming , 1974 .

[76]  M. Bradley,et al.  Affective picture processing: the late positive potential is modulated by motivational relevance. , 2000, Psychophysiology.

[77]  M. Posner,et al.  Cognitive and emotional influences in anterior cingulate cortex , 2000, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[78]  R Roschmann,et al.  Topographic brain mapping of emotion-related hemisphere asymmetries. , 1992, The International journal of neuroscience.

[79]  W. Neill,et al.  Persistence of negative priming: II. Evidence for episodic trace retrieval. , 1992, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[80]  Stella F. Lourenco,et al.  A general magnitude system in human adults: Evidence from a subliminal priming paradigm , 2016, Cortex.

[81]  C. B. Cave.  Very Long-Lasting Priming in Picture Naming , 1997 .

[82]  P. Jolicoeur.  A size-congruency effect in memory for visual shape , 1987, Memory & cognition.

[83]  T. Stafford,et al.  Memory Enhances the Mere Exposure Effect , 2012 .

[84]  T. Schmidt,et al.  Tracing sequential waves of rapid visuomotor activation in lateralized readiness potentials , 2007, Neuroscience.

[85]  M. Ross.  Relation of Implicit Theories to the Construction of Personal Histories , 1989 .

[86]  Markus Kiefer,et al.  The semantic origin of unconscious priming: Behavioral and event-related potential evidence during category congruency priming from strongly and weakly related masked words , 2016, Cognition.

[87]  Leslie G. Ungerleider,et al.  Visual awareness and the detection of fearful faces. , 2005, Emotion.

[88]  G W Humphreys,et al.  Varieties of Object Constancy , 1989, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology.

[89]  M. Zanna,et al.  Subliminal Priming and Persuasion: How Motivation Affects the Activation of Goals and the Persuasiveness of Messages. , 2005 .

[90]  Elliot Aronson,et al.  Age of propaganda: The everyday use and abuse of persuasion. , 2007 .

[91]  Matthew W. Crocker,et al.  The influence of the immediate visual context on incremental thematic role-assignment: evidence from eye-movements in depicted events , 2005, Cognition.

[92]  Tatsuto Takeuchi,et al.  Pupil Response and the Subliminal Mere Exposure Effect , 2014, PloS one.

[93]  K. Rayner.  Eye movements in reading and information processing: 20 years of research. , 1998, Psychological bulletin.

[94]  H. Aarts,et al.  On the psychology of drinking: being thirsty and perceptually ready. , 2001, British journal of psychology.

[95]  S. Ullman.  Aligning pictorial descriptions: An approach to object recognition , 1989, Cognition.

[96]  M. Nagai,et al.  When You Become a Superman: Subliminal Exposure to Death-Related Stimuli Enhances Men’s Physical Force , 2018, Front. Psychol..

[97]  D. Westen,et al.  RATS, We Should Have Used Clinton: Subliminal Priming in Political Campaigns , 2008 .

[98]  Marko Turpeinen,et al.  Psychologically targeted persuasive advertising and product information in e-commerce , 2004, ICEC '04.

[99]  L Frazier,et al.  Processing Coordinate Structures , 2000, Journal of psycholinguistic research.

[100]  Gráinne M. Fitzsimons,et al.  Automatic Effects of Brand Exposure on Motivated Behavior: How Apple Makes You "Think Different" , 2008 .

[101]  Ming Lui,et al.  The application of subliminal priming in lie detection: scenario for identification of members of a terrorist ring. , 2009, Psychophysiology.

[102]  J. Grainger,et al.  Exploring the temporal dynamics of visual word recognition in the masked repetition priming paradigm using event-related potentials , 2007, Brain Research.

[103]  Manuel Perea,et al.  The Effects of Associative and Semantic Priming in the Lexical Decision Task , 2022 .

[104]  Uwe Mattler,et al.  Delayed flanker effects on lateralized readiness potentials , 2003, Experimental Brain Research.

[105]  David Alan Grier,et al.  Hidden Persuaders , 2015, Computer.

[106]  Brad Wyble,et al.  Detecting meaning in RSVP at 13 ms per picture , 2013, Attention, perception & psychophysics.

[107]  Jaideep Sengupta,et al.  Two Roads to Updating Brand Personality Impressions: Trait versus Evaluative Inferencing , 2005 .

[108]  G. Dijksterhuis,et al.  Smelly primes – when olfactory primes do or do not work , 2014, Front. Psychol..

[109]  J. G. Snodgrass,et al.  A standardized set of 260 pictures: norms for name agreement, image agreement, familiarity, and visual complexity. , 1980, Journal of experimental psychology. Human learning and memory.

[110]  Initial Orienting Towards Sexually Relevant Stimuli: Preliminary Evidence from Eye Movement Measures , 2011, Archives of sexual behavior.

[111]  Matthew W. Crocker,et al.  The Coordinated Interplay of Scene, Utterance, and World Knowledge: Evidence From Eye Tracking , 2006, Cogn. Sci..

[112]  G McCarthy,et al.  Modulation of semantic processing by spatial selective attention. , 1993, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[113]  J. Whelan,et al.  Pictures , 2006, The 1903 Lowell Lectures.

[114]  Claude Frasson,et al.  Showing the Positive Influence of Subliminal Cues on Learner's Performance and Intuition: An ERP Study , 2010, Intelligent Tutoring Systems.

[115]  J. Nacht.  Cognition Exploring The Science Of The Mind , 2016 .

[116]  J. Shelton,et al.  How semantic is automatic semantic priming? , 1992, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[117]  F. Manes,et al.  Applauding with Closed Hands: Neural Signature of Action-Sentence Compatibility Effects , 2010, PloS one.

[118]  R. Zajonc,et al.  Affect, cognition, and awareness: affective priming with optimal and suboptimal stimulus exposures. , 1993, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[119]  Thomas Schmidt,et al.  Criteria for unconscious cognition: Three types of dissociation , 2006, Perception & psychophysics.

[120]  C. Eriksen,et al.  Pre- and poststimulus activation of response channels: a psychophysiological analysis. , 1988, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[121]  I. Biederman,et al.  Size invariance in visual object priming , 1992 .

[122]  P C Castle,et al.  The effect of odour priming on cortical EEG and visual ERP responses. , 2000, International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology.

[123]  M. Kiefer,et al.  Increased unconscious semantic activation in schizophrenia patients with formal thought disorder , 2009, Schizophrenia Research.

[124]  Michael P. Kaschak,et al.  Grounding language in action , 2002, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[125]  S. Dehaene,et al.  Imaging unconscious semantic priming , 1998, Nature.

[126]  M. Eimer,et al.  Effects of masked stimuli on motor activation: behavioral and electrophysiological evidence. , 1998, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[127]  Paul D. Allopenna,et al.  Tracking the Time Course of Spoken Word Recognition Using Eye Movements: Evidence for Continuous Mapping Models , 1998 .

[128]  Nicholas J. Wade,et al.  Did Javal measure eye movements during reading , 2009 .

[129]  A. Ibanez,et al.  N400 deficits from semantic matching of pictures in probands and first-degree relatives from multiplex schizophrenia families , 2009, Brain and Cognition.

[130]  P. Michie,et al.  Modulation of Event-Related Potentials by Semantic Priming: Effects of Color-Cued Selective Attention , 1996, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[131]  J. Qiu,et al.  Neural mechanisms of subliminal priming for traumatic episodic memory: An ERP study , 2011, Neuroscience Letters.

[132]  M. Bradley,et al.  Brain potentials in affective picture processing: covariation with autonomic arousal and affective report , 2000, Biological Psychology.

[133]  Michael A. Olson,et al.  Implicit measures in social cognition. research: their meaning and use. , 2003, Annual review of psychology.

[134]  Daniel C. Richardson,et al.  Representation, space and Hollywood Squares: looking at things that aren't there anymore , 2000, Cognition.

[135]  O. Neumann,et al.  Manual and Verbal Responses to Completely Masked (Unreportable) Stimuli: Exploring Some Conditions for the Metacontrast Dissociation , 1998, Perception.

[136]  M. Eimer,et al.  Response facilitation and inhibition in subliminal priming , 2003, Biological Psychology.

[137]  Michael Conway,et al.  Getting what you want by revising what you had. , 1984 .

[138]  Adam P. Morris,et al.  Amygdala Responses to Fearful and Happy Facial Expressions under Conditions of Binocular Suppression , 2004, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[139]  C. Clifton,et al.  Parallel structure: A source of facilitation in sentence comprehension , 1984, Memory & cognition.

[140]  A. Buchner,et al.  Negative Priming as a Memory Phenomenon , 2007 .

[141]  D. Deacon,et al.  Event-related potential indices of semantic priming using masked and unmasked words: evidence that the N400 does not reflect a post-lexical process. , 2000, Brain research. Cognitive brain research.

[142]  Natalia Trujillo,et al.  Gesture influences the processing of figurative language in non-native speakers: ERP evidence , 2010, Neuroscience Letters.

[143]  M. Milders,et al.  Minimum presentation time for masked facial expression discrimination , 2008 .

[144]  Leo Postman,et al.  Emotional selectivity in perception and reaction. , 1947 .

[145]  M. Kiefer,et al.  Attentional sensitization of unconscious cognition: task sets modulate subsequent masked semantic priming. , 2010, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[146]  Jolien C. Francken,et al.  Immediate and long-term priming effects are independent of prime awareness , 2011, Consciousness and Cognition.

[147]  J. Cacioppo,et al.  Bioelectrical echoes from evaluative categorization: II. A late positive brain potential that varies as a function of attitude registration rather than attitude report. , 1995, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[148]  Applying Social Cognition to Consumer-Focused Strategy , 2005 .

[149]  Wen Li,et al.  Neural and Behavioral Evidence for Affective Priming from Unconsciously Perceived Emotional Facial Expressions and the Influence of Trait Anxiety , 2008, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[150]  S. Becker,et al.  Long-term semantic priming: a computational account and empirical evidence. , 1997, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[151]  J A Yesavage,et al.  Dissociation between two forms of conceptual priming in Alzheimer's disease. , 1999, Neuropsychology.

[152]  A. Greenwald,et al.  Double-Blind Tests of Subliminal Self-Help Audiotapes , 1991, Psychological Science.

[153]  A. Stancák,et al.  Simultaneous odour-face presentation strengthens hedonic evaluations and event-related potential responses influenced by unpleasant odour , 2018, Neuroscience Letters.

[154]  Harald T. Schupp,et al.  Emotional Facilitation of Sensory Processing in the Visual Cortex , 2003, Psychological science.

[155]  A. Pruyn,et al.  You are what you wear: Brand personality influences on consumer impression formation , 2007 .

[156]  C. M. Yee,et al.  Affective valence and information processing. , 1987, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology. Supplement.

[157]  A. L. Yarbus,et al.  Eye Movements and Vision , 1967, Springer US.

[158]  A. Stancák,et al.  Pleasant and Unpleasant Odors Influence Hedonic Evaluations of Human Faces: An Event-Related Potential Study , 2015, Front. Hum. Neurosci..

[159]  Mark P. Zanna,et al.  Subliminal priming and persuasion: Striking while the iron is hot , 2002 .

[160]  P Jolicoeur,et al.  Additivity and interaction between size ratio and response category in the comparison of size-discrepant shapes. , 1987, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[161]  Richard L. Abrams,et al.  Three Cognitive Markers of Unconscious Semantic Activation , 1996, Science.

[162]  T. Chartrand,et al.  Linking automatic evaluation to mood and information processing style: consequences for experienced affect, impression formation, and stereotyping. , 2006, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[163]  V. Marian,et al.  Constraints on parallel activation in bilingual spoken language processing: Examining proficiency and lexical status using eye-tracking , 2007 .

[164]  C. Nelson,et al.  Event-related potentials to emotional and neutral stimuli. , 1990, Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology.

[165]  M. Banaji,et al.  Mood and heuristics: the influence of happy and sad states on sensitivity and bias in stereotyping. , 2000, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[166]  J. D. de Fockert,et al.  Unconscious priming of a no-go response. , 2009, Psychophysiology.

[167]  Charles Spence,et al.  Multisensory enhancement elicited by unconscious visual stimuli , 2017, Experimental Brain Research.

[168]  Thomas Schmidt,et al.  Primes and targets in rapid chases: tracing sequential waves of motor activation. , 2006, Behavioral neuroscience.

[169]  Anthony G. Greenwald,et al.  Recent perspectives on unconscious processing: Still no marketing applications , 1988 .