I. Introduction to Subliminal Perception in the Media

A. James Vicary (1957)--Movie Theatre--"Eat Popcorn" and "Drink Coke"

B. Wilson Bryan Key--Subliminal Seduction (1973) and other books

C. Public responds with outrage--calls for governmental action

D. Current examples from the media

E. The Judas Priest Trial (1990)

F. What do psychologists know about subliminal processing?

A. Sidis (1898)--perception of letters and digits when they are degraded

B. Sperling (1960)

1. Partial-report technique

2. Evidence for sensory storage--the icon

C. Moray (1959)--dichotic listening task--attended vs. unattended channel

D. Corteen and Wood (1973)--GSR responses in nonattended channel

E. Blindsight phenomenon

F. Conclusion--lots of information gets "perceived" at some level, much of which is not reported by the perceiver

A. A critical look at Vicary's claims
1. Challenges to the methodology

2. Vicary's confession

B. A critical look at Key's claims

C. Pratkanis, Eskenazi, and Greenwald (1990)

1. Belief in effects of subliminal tapes

2. Effects of labeling

D. CBC study--effect of expectations on beliefs in subliminal effects

E. Merikle--analysis of tapes

F. Conclusion from reviews of the literature on subliminal processes: no evidence for subliminal effects on behavior

G. Difference between presence of subliminal materials and effect of those materials

A. Belief is widespread

B. Media attention

C. Expectations and Hopes--historical factors