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Pages 107-119

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From page 107...
... 6Subliminal Self-Help Building Self-Confidence is the title of an audio cassette tape manufactured and marketed by the Gateways Institute of Ojai, California. When the tape is played at a comfortable listening volume, all one hears is the rhythmic ebb and flow of a tropical ocean surf and the faint cry of gulls circling the shoreline.
From page 108...
... Simply play the tapes while you work, play, drive, read, exercise, relax, watch TV, or even as you sleep. No concentration is required for the tapes to be effective.
From page 109...
... better bowler. Though this partial listing provides a sense of the remarkably broad range of problems and issues that are allegedly amenable to hidden messages, it does not capture the subtle yet seemingly crucial differences that exist among the various subliminal programs· For example, Potentials Unlimited offers two programs, Divorce -- Yes ("If you seek the divorce, this tape can free you from the other person.")
From page 110...
... SUBJECTIVELY PERCEPTIBLE VERSUS OBJECTIVELY DETECTABLE STIMULI The question of effectiveness in principle has been addressed by Merikle (1988)
From page 111...
... The critical difference among the conditions was the duration of the interval separating onset of the prime from onset of the mask: a constant 300 milliseconds (msec) in the suprathreshold condition, an average of 56 msec in the subjectivethreshold condition, and an average of 30 msec in the objective-threshold condition.
From page 112...
... we have no confidence that sufficient stimulus information was perceived to guide response selection. Thus, according to this view, subliminal perception occurs whenever we can objectively discriminate among possible stimulus states but have no subjective confidence as to the correctness of our decisions.
From page 113...
... indicating that these cassettes do not contain any embedded signals whatsoever that can be detected under controlled conditions. Given that consistent empirical support for subliminal perception has only been found under conditions that allow stimulus detection, these subliminal audio cassettes do not satisfy the most minimal conditions for demonstrating subliminal perception.
From page 114...
... therapy, the commitment expressed through the purchase and use of a subliminal product is obviously much less. After all, such products are designed to work "so you don't have to," and its therapeutic potential is correspondingly much more modest in principle.
From page 115...
... do a test of subliminal persuasion (although the content of the message was not revealed)
From page 116...
... CONCLUSIONS There are some well-documented psychological reasons that subliminal self-help products may appear to work, even if they contain no detectable embedded messages and thus fail to satisfy the "minimum stimulus condition" set by Merikle (1988) for demonstrating subliminal perception.
From page 117...
... NOTES 1. In the interests of brevity and in keeping with our current focus on subliminal perception as a commercial means of promoting self-improvement, neither the history nor the current status of subliminal perception as a scientific concept is discussed in detail here.
From page 118...
... Greenwald, A.G., E.R. Spangenberg, A.R.
From page 119...
... Reingold, E.M., and P.M. Merikle 1988 Using direct and indirect measures to study perception without awareness.

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