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PRIMING
Priming has received a great deal of attention recently with the publication of Malcolm Galdwel's best selling Blink. Priming is the influencing of meaning, attitude, polarity, emotion or expectation of a conscious thought, feeling or attitude by a subliminally presented word or phrase just before or simultaneous with the conscious process. Remember priming words and phrases (or visual if that is being used) will affect the ongoing conscious thought process, if it is relevant. The priming must be related to the ongoing process to influence it. If you are thinking of something entirely different from the priming tape you may not receive any benefit. So stay on the topic, visualize goals relevant to the tape to which you are listening. Do not let your mind wander off the topic too much.
Priming Research. It may surprise you to know that this area of research has seen more publications then any other in psychology. In the last 6 years there has been a resurgence of positive outcomes as researchers recovered from the shock of several highly publicized negative outcome studies done in the early 90s. Those few studies, one at the University of Washington and another one or two at a university in Canada nearly collapsed the entire commercial subliminal tape industry. Because the term “subliminal” had been given such a bad name, a new term “priming” was born so that respectable researchers could study the phenomenon again.
At this time (early 1999) there are numerous studies looking at every possible nuance of below awareness processing (look under “priming” in the PsycINFO). For example, a 3D PET study (Beauregard et al. (1998) showed that the right, but not the left, hippocampus was activated by word priming. The activation of the brain by priming stimuli is now routinely seen as change in the ERP (evoked response profile) which is a way of letting the brain tell you if something is happening even if the subject is not consciously aware of it.(Swick, 1998).
Can priming change behavior? Yes, it can. Carter et al. (1998) showed how drinking behavior in college students was influenced by pro-con drinking priming. Other studies in Israel and the US indicated that priming allowed an increase in performance of students on exams.
Do all priming (subliminal) tapes work? Under what conditions do they appear to be effective? The answer to the first question is yes, generally, but not all the time. The reasons are still being examined, however, some findings appear to be worthy of consideration. As noted above, the right side of the brain seems to be more involved with priming process even when it involves words as contrasted to visual images. Well, if the right brain is the chief processor of priming material, what sort of language does this half of the brain understand? To answer this we looked in the aphasia literature. Aphasia is the disorder that exists after certain left brain strokes or other left brain injuries after which the patient has difficulty speaking or cannot speak at all. Many studies with this condition have shown that the remaining healthy part of the brain – the right side – is capable of understanding certain spoken words if they are spoken slowly, clearly, and particularly with voice inflection. This is because voice intonation contours are processed primarily in the right brain. The words have to be simple and concrete and in common, everyday usage. Abstract concepts, little used words, long sentences, and sentences with negatives will probably not be understood by the right brain. Consequently, the wording and voice inflection used in our tapes is in keeping with these findings. But there is more . . .
Do different left/right dual tracks work better? We believe so, although this research has yet to be carried out. Our left/right tracks are different in that the left track (which is heard primarily by the right brain) is simpler in wording and more voice inflected. The right track messaging, which will go to the left brain, can be of higher abstraction level and does not need to be voice-intonated as much.
How Far Down Below Threshold Does the Message Have to Be? Studies over the years indicate that a level of 18 – 25 db below threshold seems to work best. Higher than that, or lower than the –25 db may not register. However, different users will have different hearing thresholds and so our tapes use a “scalloping” or “porpoising” technique wherein the priming phrases are moved slowly up and down with regard to foreground level, whether ocean, mountain stream or music. So once in a while some of you will hear a faint voice part of the time as it comes closer to the surface. Do not be concerned because all the other times when you cannot hear the voice it is programming on the unconscious level
Priming has received a great deal of attention recently with the publication of Malcolm Galdwel's best selling Blink. Priming is the influencing of meaning, attitude, polarity, emotion or expectation of a conscious thought, feeling or attitude by a subliminally presented word or phrase just before or simultaneous with the conscious process. Remember priming words and phrases (or visual if that is being used) will affect the ongoing conscious thought process, if it is relevant. The priming must be related to the ongoing process to influence it. If you are thinking of something entirely different from the priming tape you may not receive any benefit. So stay on the topic, visualize goals relevant to the tape to which you are listening. Do not let your mind wander off the topic too much.
Priming Research. It may surprise you to know that this area of research has seen more publications then any other in psychology. In the last 6 years there has been a resurgence of positive outcomes as researchers recovered from the shock of several highly publicized negative outcome studies done in the early 90s. Those few studies, one at the University of Washington and another one or two at a university in Canada nearly collapsed the entire commercial subliminal tape industry. Because the term “subliminal” had been given such a bad name, a new term “priming” was born so that respectable researchers could study the phenomenon again.
At this time (early 1999) there are numerous studies looking at every possible nuance of below awareness processing (look under “priming” in the PsycINFO). For example, a 3D PET study (Beauregard et al. (1998) showed that the right, but not the left, hippocampus was activated by word priming. The activation of the brain by priming stimuli is now routinely seen as change in the ERP (evoked response profile) which is a way of letting the brain tell you if something is happening even if the subject is not consciously aware of it.(Swick, 1998).
Can priming change behavior? Yes, it can. Carter et al. (1998) showed how drinking behavior in college students was influenced by pro-con drinking priming. Other studies in Israel and the US indicated that priming allowed an increase in performance of students on exams.
Do all priming (subliminal) tapes work? Under what conditions do they appear to be effective? The answer to the first question is yes, generally, but not all the time. The reasons are still being examined, however, some findings appear to be worthy of consideration. As noted above, the right side of the brain seems to be more involved with priming process even when it involves words as contrasted to visual images. Well, if the right brain is the chief processor of priming material, what sort of language does this half of the brain understand? To answer this we looked in the aphasia literature. Aphasia is the disorder that exists after certain left brain strokes or other left brain injuries after which the patient has difficulty speaking or cannot speak at all. Many studies with this condition have shown that the remaining healthy part of the brain – the right side – is capable of understanding certain spoken words if they are spoken slowly, clearly, and particularly with voice inflection. This is because voice intonation contours are processed primarily in the right brain. The words have to be simple and concrete and in common, everyday usage. Abstract concepts, little used words, long sentences, and sentences with negatives will probably not be understood by the right brain. Consequently, the wording and voice inflection used in our tapes is in keeping with these findings. But there is more . . .
Do different left/right dual tracks work better? We believe so, although this research has yet to be carried out. Our left/right tracks are different in that the left track (which is heard primarily by the right brain) is simpler in wording and more voice inflected. The right track messaging, which will go to the left brain, can be of higher abstraction level and does not need to be voice-intonated as much.
How Far Down Below Threshold Does the Message Have to Be? Studies over the years indicate that a level of 18 – 25 db below threshold seems to work best. Higher than that, or lower than the –25 db may not register. However, different users will have different hearing thresholds and so our tapes use a “scalloping” or “porpoising” technique wherein the priming phrases are moved slowly up and down with regard to foreground level, whether ocean, mountain stream or music. So once in a while some of you will hear a faint voice part of the time as it comes closer to the surface. Do not be concerned because all the other times when you cannot hear the voice it is programming on the unconscious level