PSYC 215 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Unconscious Mind, Life Satisfaction, Spreading Activation

• School: McGill University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 215
• Professor: Mark Baldwin

Document Summary

Experiment: james vicary announced, 58 years ago, that he had done some research and had a major breakthrough in marketing called subliminal stimuli. Reported the results of a 6 week test in which he used a high speed projector to flash words on the screen of a movie theater. Subliminal messages flashed on the screen (for one three thousandth of a second), words like. Stimulus that is subliminal, so fast you are not aware that it is happening. Claimed results: popcorn sales went up 57%. , and coke sales were up 18%. Amazing that something so minimal can have such a massive effect on people"s behaviour. You have no knowledge that you are being shown words. However, the researcher later admitted he had lied, and had never done this study! Raises the possibility: can we be influenced in our thoughts and actions by stimulus that we are not even actually aware of.