Journal of Applied Psychology

Vol. 43, No. 6, 1959

AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF
SUBLIMINAL PERCEPTION
JOHN M. CHAMPION
Georgia State College of Business

AND WELD W TURNER

General Motors Institute

Increasing interest is being directed to the serve as an experimental stimulus and the other as
possibility that subliminal presentation may a control stimulus. Slide A, the experimental stimu-
lus, was an original drawing of a spoon of rice with
be useful, or effective, in such activities as the words "Wonder Rice" printed below on a black
advertising, attitude modification, or persua- background Slide B, the control stimulus, merely
sion. Several recent evaluations (McConnell, consisted of four lines placed in a nonsensical man-
Cutler, & McNeil, 1958; Naylor & Lawshe, ner on a black background. Slide A was prepared
to be presented to the experimental group and Slide B
1958) of available scientific evidence suggest to the control group. Slide B was intended to be
that further experimentation is necessary to nonsensical in nature and used purely for the purpose
demonstrate the validity of claims that be- of reproducing conditions experienced in the experi-
havior can be influenced by subliminal stimu- mental group as nearly as possible with the excep-
tion of the actual meaningful stimulus
lation.
Subjects. Two groups of Ss enrolled in a sales
The following experiment was designed and and advertising class at Purdue University were used
conducted to determine if a visual stimulus as a control group and an experimental group. The
presented subliminally to a group of 5s would administration of the experiment took place during
influence recognition or association responses. two consecutive class periods on the same day.
Method. For the purposes of this study sublimi-
These responses were obtained immediately
nal perception was defined as the presentation of a
after the presentation of the stimulus. If re- stimulus visible under constant exposure at such a
sponses were found to be related to the stimu- speed as to bring it below the threshold of con-
lus presentation, then "subliminal perception" scious awareness There were three variables to be
could operationally be said to have been dem- coordinated in the presentation of the slide stimulus
in order to achieve subliminal perception The vari-
onstrated. By defining subliminal perception ables were exposure time, aperture opening, and slide
in this manner, interpretations would not be construction.
extrapolated beyond the data collected. A lens capable of shutter speeds of .01 sec. was
If the phenomenon of subliminal perception attached to the turret of the slide projector. The
slide projector lens was set at a speed of .01 sec.
actually occurs, its effects should appear in
and the aperture opening reduced gradually until the
the relatively simple responses of recognition slide was no longer visible when flashed on the screen
and association. Investigations of the effect while the film was being shown. In order to prevent
of subliminal perception on more complex be- the film from masking the stimulus (figures from the
havior, such as learning, persuasion, and atti- slides) it was necessary to ensure that the stimulus
was visible under constant exposure when superim-
tude change, would be more legitimate after posed on the film being presented. It was found
demonstrating its effect on less complex re- that this requirement could be achieved when slides
sponses. with white background and black figures were super-
imposed on the film by adjusting exposure time and
•aperture opening. However, a white flicker on the
Procedure film was detectable when this type of slide was pre-
Apparatus. A 16 mm film projector was used to sented at the relatively slow speed of .01 sec. The
project a 30-min. film based on a sales administra- flicker was eliminated by redesigning the slides so
tion textbook entitled The Bettger Story. A slide that the background was black and the figures were
white. Thus it was assured that n stimulus projected
projector capable of projecting slides of 3" X 5" was
at the set aperture opening was being reflected from
used to flash slide figures on the screen during the the screen with subliminal presentation resulting as
showing of the film by means of an attached lens a function of shutter speed.
with a shutter. The shutter permitted discrete ad-
justments for speed and continuous adjustments for The slides presented to their appropriate groups
aperture opening. Two slides were prepared, one to were projected for a duration of .01 sec. at 10-sec
382
 Investigation of Subliminal Perception
Table 1
Tabulations of Questionnaire Responses
Monarch Wonder Total
Control group responses
Yes 7 2 9 drawn from a population having proportion-
No 13 3 16
Total 20 5 25
Experimental group
responses
Yes 4 1 5 compare the experimental and control groups
No 10 4 14
Total 14 5 19
intervals during the 30-min. film. At the conclusion
of the film a questionnaire was given the 5s for the
purpose of determining the effect of the subliminal
presentation. The questionnaire consisted of a repro-
duction of the illustration used in Slide A, that of
the spoon of rice, but this time the words "Wonder
Rice" were omitted. The following was also in-
cluded on the questionnaire:
At one time you may have seen the above adver-
tisement illustration used to promote the sale of
rice. Check below according to your recognition
of this advertisement.
YES
No
Regardless of whether you recognize the illustra-
tion check the brand from the following list when
you believe to be most likely associated with the
illustration.
MONARCH
WONDEE
The first questionnaire response was designed to
indicate whether the 5s recognized the stimulus fig-
ure. The second response was designed to indicate
whether the 5s associated the hypothetical figure
with the brand name. The brand names used were
selected on the basis of brands believed to be some-
what common to the 5s but not predominant.
The 5s had no knowledge that an experiment was
being conducted. They were only told that a film
related to their course in sales and advertising was
being presented. In an attempt not to arouse sus-
picions regarding the questionnaire, the 5s were told
that the questionnaire was being presented as a corol-
lary to other requirements of their course work.
Results
Answers to the questionnaire items were
tabulated for the control and experimental
groups. These tabulations are shown in
383
Table 1. The chi-square technique was used
to evaluate the differences between the ex-
perimental and control groups according to
their recognition of the stimulus figure.
Table 2 shows the results of the test of the
hypothesis that the experimental group was
ately the same frequency breakdown as the
control group. The resulting chi-square value
was not significant.
The chi-square technique was again used to
according to their association of brand names
with the stimulus figures and the results are
given in Table 3. Not only were the answers
to the items not significantly different for the
two groups, but responses for both items were
in the "wrong" direction. For example, in
the experimental group significantly more peo-
ple (at the .05 level) checked the incorrect
brand name than would have been expected
to do so by chance. This indicated that a
pre-experimental bias may have existed and
illustrates the necessity for using a control
group rather than merely testing for signifi-
cant deviations from chance expectancies.
The chi-square values reported in Tables 2
and 3 were not corrected for lack of continuity
in the discrete frequencies as is usually done
for chi-square tests with only one dj. A cor-
rection for continuity would merely reduce
the chi-square values which are already too
small to be significant.
Conclusions
The results of this study indicate that sub-
liminal presentation had no effect on the re-
sponses of the Ss in recognizing the stimulus
figure or of associating the brand name with
the stimulus figure. It was felt that sublimi-
Table 2
Control Group vs. Experimental Group on
Recognition of Stimulus Figure
Response
No Yes Total
Observed (experimental) 14 5 19
Expected (control) 12.16 684 19
X* (uncorrected) = .773; p > .30
384 John M. Champion and Weld W. Turner
Table 3
Control Group vs. Experimental Group on Association
of Brand with Stimulus Figure
Response
Monarch Wonder Total
Observed (experimental) 14 5 19
Expected (control) 15.2 3.8 19
X1 (unconnected^1 = .474;p > .30
nal perception should be demonstrated at this
level of response before investigating the ef-
fects of subliminal presentation on more com-
plex behavior, such as buying specific prod-
ucts or influencing public opinion.
Although responses to the questionnaire
deviated significantly from a chance distribu-
tion, the responses were in the opposite direc-
tion from what would be expected if sublimi-
nal perception existed, and the experimental
group responses did not differ significantly
from the control group responses.
There may be subliminal "thresholds" of
perception, similar to the conventional thresh-
old or limen for the awareness of sensations.
Failures to produce evidence of subliminal
perceptions could be attributed to stimulus
presentations at levels below the subliminal
"threshold." Limitations in the flexibility of
available equipment prevented the present au-
thors from searching for thresholds of sub-
liminal impressions.
If subliminal perception occurred, it did not
affect questionnaire responses. Subliminal per-
ception could conceivably be demonstrated
with a method similar to that used here by
presenting the stimulus more frequently or
by simplifying the design of the stimulus.
However, in view of the results of this study,
it appears that the burden of proof is placed
on those who insist that subliminal perception
is capable of influencing behavior.
Received February 9, 1959.
REFERENCES
MCCONNELL, J. V., CUTLER, R. L., & MCNEIL, E. B
Subliminal stimulation: An overview. Amer. Psy-
chologist, 19S8, 13, 229-242.
NAYLOR, J. C, & LAWSHE, C. H. An analytical re-
view of the experimental basis of subception. J.
Psychol., 19S8, 46, 75-96.