1/1/2024 0 Comments Subliminal images![]() Sorin Pojoga, a member of Valentin Dragoi’s lab, set out to determine the neural underpinnings of subliminal images and how this brain activity changes our behavior. Though the behavioral change has been established through multiple publications, we still don’t know how the brain processes subliminal images. However, there is evidence dating all the way back all the way to the 1960’s, which suggests that showing subliminal images improves behavioral performance. Importantly, and thankfully, subliminal messaging is not capable of brainwashing. So, does subliminal messaging actually affect us? Although the results were later proved fraudulent, the researcher, James Vicary, claimed that presenting these suggestive messages increased concession sales. To test if subliminal messages could sway behavior, short messages stating, “Drink Coca-Cola” and “Hungry? Eat Popcorn” were played in a movie theater during a film. ![]() One of the most famous examples of subliminal messaging was conducted in the 1950’s. On the other hand, supraliminal messages are presented for longer periods of time, such that we can consciously see them. Usually we think of short frames cut into a video feed, where the subliminal message appears so quickly (usually less than one tenth of a second!) that our minds do not register their appearance. What does subliminal messaging entail? Subliminal messages are words or images presented below our conscious awareness. New research from Valentin Dragoi’s lab at the University of Texas at Houston suggests that subliminal images can change our brain activity and behavior. The research team also included Corey Pliver of the Yale School of Public Health, Martin Slade of the Yale School of Medicine, and Pil Chung of the University of California, Berkeley.Subliminal messaging – we’ve all heard about it. The research was supported by grants from the National Institute on Aging National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the Patrick and Catherine Weldon Donaghue Medical Research Foundation. ![]() The study’s effect on physical function surpassed a previous study by others that involved a six-month-exercise intervention’s effect with participants of similar ages. The study found that the intervention influenced physical function through a cascade of positive effects: It first strengthened the subjects’ positive age stereotypes, which then strengthened their positive self-perceptions, which then improved their physical function. While it has been previously shown by Levy that negative age stereotypes can weaken an older individual’s physical functioning, this is the first time that subliminal activation of positive age stereotypes was found to improve outcomes over time. “The study’s successful outcome suggests the potential of directing subliminal processes toward the enhancement of physical function.” “The challenge we had in this study was to enable the participants to overcome the negative age stereotypes which they acquire from society, as in everyday conversations and television comedies,” said lead researcher Becca Levy, associate professor and director of the Social and Behavioral Science Division. Also, during the same period, positive age stereotypes and positive self-perceptions of aging were strengthened, and negative age stereotypes and negative self-perceptions of aging were weakened. They benefited from improved physical function, such as physical balance, which continued for three weeks after the intervention ended. Individuals exposed to the positive messaging exhibited a range of psychological and physical improvements that were not found in control subjects. Some of the participants were subjected to positive age stereotypes on a computer screen that flashed words such as “spry” and “creative” at speeds that were too fast to allow for conscious awareness. The study, to be published in an upcoming online issue of the journal Psychological Science, consisted of 100 older individuals (average age 81 years) who live in the greater New Haven, Connecticut area. Researchers used a novel intervention method to examine for the first time whether exposure to positive age stereotypes could weaken negative age stereotypes and their effects over time, and lead to healthier outcomes. Older individuals who are subliminally exposed to positive stereotypes about aging showed improved physical functioning that can last for several weeks, a new study led by the Yale School of Public Health has found.
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