Smith T B
Brigham Young University.
Percept Mot Skills. 1993 Dec;77(3 Pt 1):899-904. doi: 10.2466/pms.1993.77.3.899.
Researchers in cognitive psychology generally accept that information, including emotions, may be processed outside of awareness. Some have postulated that anxiety may be induced by stimuli presented below the level of detection, a process called implicit perception; however, conflicting findings as to the validity of subliminal stimuli in influencing anxiety have been reported over the past decade. In the present study, 39 subjects were exposed to either positive, negative, or neutral subliminal stimuli, and half the subjects were informed as to the type of stimuli they received. All subjects were monitored for frontalis muscle tension, a physiological indicator of anxiety, on an electromyograph (EMG). No significant effects of the exposure upon EMG recordings were noted. Awareness of the type of stimuli presented had a small but insignificant effect. These results, although tentative, when replicated would question the validity of subliminal visual presentation in altering emotive states.
认知心理学领域的研究人员普遍认为，包括情感在内的信息可能在意识之外得到处理。一些人推测，焦虑可能由低于觉察水平呈现的刺激诱发，这一过程称为内隐知觉；然而，在过去十年中，关于阈下刺激影响焦虑的有效性，已有相互矛盾的研究结果被报道。在本研究中，39名受试者被暴露于正性、负性或中性阈下刺激，且一半受试者被告知他们所接受刺激的类型。使用肌电图仪（EMG）对所有受试者的额肌紧张度进行监测，额肌紧张度是焦虑的一种生理指标。未观察到暴露对EMG记录有显著影响。对所呈现刺激类型的知晓有微小但不显著的影响。这些结果尽管具有尝试性，但如果能被重复验证，将对阈下视觉呈现改变情绪状态的有效性提出质疑。
