Long-lasting effects of subliminal affective priming from facial expressions

Sweeny, Timothy D., Grabowecky, Marcia, Suzuki, Satoru, Paller, Ken A. · Consciousness and Cognition · 2009 · cognitive-psychology · 10.1016/j.concog.2009.07.011 · record sweeny2009-long-lasting
tag layer · index · concepts · authors · עברית

Where this record's text came from. cited by the priming manuscript; metadata resolved from Crossref. NOT tagged: full text not held, so no grounded tags are asserted. faceted 2026-08 by reading the locally held text (xml); every evidence string verified as an exact substring of that text before merging. The replicates and extends relations share one verbatim sentence because the paper states both in the same breath ('replicate and extend'). Replication status is 'untested' for the paper's own novel claim (that the bias survives 24 hours); the short-term priming component is separately described as replicating Li et al. (2008), which the claim relations capture. Note the effect was confined to 15 of 43 participants (the Strictly-Subliminal group), a scope restriction the facet vocabulary has no slot for; the paper reports it as a design feature rather than framing it as a limitation, so it is not listed under limitations. 2026-08-18 and 2026-08-25 schema-0.3 passes: every quote verified as an exact substring of the staged text and anchored at merge time; concept terms verified present; every edge endpoint an existing node. Update, 16 September 2026: SUPERSEDED SENTENCE, MARKED NOT DELETED: the sentence above beginning "NOT tagged: full text not held" DESCRIBES THIS RECORD AS IT WAS IN AUGUST 2026 AND NO LONGER DESCRIBES IT. This record now carries 66 live grounded quote fields, each verified against the locally held text named in the faceting pass that follows it in this same note. The August sentence is kept because it is a true record of that dated pass and deleting it would destroy the provenance trail; it is marked here as superseded because a reader meets both sentences in one paragraph and the earlier one is the stale half. NOTHING ABOUT THE QUOTES CHANGED - only the note now says which of its own sentences is current.

How to read this page. The article itself is not reproduced here — this paper is not cleared for redistribution, so what follows is the tag layer alone. The evidence sentences are withheld with the article. The table at the foot lists every tag the record carries; each row names the facet it belongs to, and the whose words column says whether the tag records the paper's own wording or the tagger's sentence about the paper. Every tag links to each other paper in the corpus carrying it. The machine-readable edition of the same thing is the TEI file beside this one, where the tags live in standOff, and the article is at its publisher via the link below. When we have changed our mind. Some entries in the table begin with a word in capitals and the reason for it. EVIDENCE CORRECTED — the finding still stands, but we had quoted the wrong sentence from the paper, and the quotation has been replaced with the right one. RETRACTED — the entry itself was wrong; it stays on the page, marked, with the reason, rather than being deleted. WITHDRAWN AND REPLACED — the entry was wrong, and a corrected version of it appears in the entries below. Each mark carries its own reason, in brackets, because the reasons differ from one entry to the next. An entry we have WITHDRAWN is removed from this page and kept in the record, with its reason. A line reading Audit and a date is a later re-reading of the entry against its whole sentence: DOUBTFUL means it was kept, and the reason says what is loose about it. Quotation marks inside the tagger's sentence. Where a tag is the tagger's own sentence, a phrase in quotation marks inside it is borrowed from the paper — the tagger's wording around it is not. The paper's own sentence is the evidence quote for that row; on this page it is withheld with the article, and the article is at its publisher. Nothing inside quotation marks anywhere on this page is ours: if it is quoted, it is the paper's. Whose words a concept carries. A concept entry records a term the paper itself uses, so the term, the sense given for it, and its evidence are the paper's own words, quoted where the paper fixes them. This is the opposite of a sense entry in the tag table, which is the tagger's sentence about how the paper uses a term. Where a concept entry could not be grounded in the paper's words, the entry says so on its own row.

Other fields define these differently the same word, defined another way in another discipline
memory 23 fields · standard deviation 3 fields · emotional expression 2 fields

Tags on this paper

Every tag the record carries, each linking to every other paper in the corpus that carries it. A tag appears here whether or not its words occur in the article — the spans below are only the ones a sentence in this paper licenses. Of the 9 concept tags on this paper, all 9 are grounded in a quoted sentence. All carry the tagger's gloss of what the term means in this paper, which is not something the article can license.

subliminal affective priming transient long-lasting surprise faces subliminal priming affective evaluation memory valence recognition memory Unconsciously processed happy primes are proposed to shift attention toward the global configuration of the following face, which improves encoding and hence next-day recognition. The prime's expression is proposed to alter encoding and/or later rehearsal of the target face, rather than the memory difference arising from the conscious affective judgment the participant made about that face. Affect elicited by a masked stimulus is assumed to be diffuse and therefore to spill over onto whatever stimulus follows it in time, producing assimilation of prime valence into the target judgment. Strictly-Subliminal (SS) group Not-Strictly Subliminal (NSS) group magnitude of affective priming memory score emotional expression prime duration recognition confidence valence ratings t-test separate contrasts within each group as planned comparisons ANOVA main effects ... interaction between group and prime expression chi-squared correlation was not associated with regression a regression analysis, in which we computed the slope for the linear correlation standard deviation median split a median split made separately for each participant p-value behavioural-experiment

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relation to other work	`claim_relations`	how this paper stands to another: agrees, contradicts, extends, qualifies
claim type	`claim_type`	the shape of the claim: existence, mechanism, method, critique, prediction, null
concept edge	`concept_edges`	an asserted relation between two concepts, with the sentence asserting it
concept	`concepts`	an idea the paper works with, quoted where the paper uses it
content tag	`content_tags`	a finding, definition, quantity, statistic or variable named in the paper
control	`controls`	an experiment run to eliminate a rival explanation
limitation	`limitations`	what the paper says its evidence cannot support
mechanism	`mechanisms`	how the reported effect is said to come about
method	`method`	how the paper produced its evidence
phenomenon	`phenomenon`	the effect or regularity under study
sense	`senses`	a distinct use of a term, quoted where the paper fixes it

The paper

The full text is not reproduced here. This article is not cleared for redistribution, so the page carries the tag layer only. Its evidence sentences are withheld; the grounding status remains with each tag, and the article itself is at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2009.07.011. The reading view exists for the papers whose licence permits it.

Every tag on this page

claim_relations 3 · claim_type 1 · concept_edges 3 · concepts 9 · content_tags 32 · controls 2 · limitations 4 · mechanisms 3 · method 1 · phenomenon 1 · senses 4

Relations on this page carry a quotation for the claim. Where a relation was separately evidenced — and so tested against the vocabulary for its type — the row says so; none of 3 relations here carry that mark. The rest are the tagger’s reading of the sentence quoted beside them.

facet	tag	field	conf.	whose words
claim_type	existence Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.	`claim_type`		the paper's words
phenomenon	subliminal affective priming from facial expressions Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.	`phenomenon`		the paper's words
method	behavioural-experiment Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: behavioural-experiment	`method`		the paper's words
mechanisms	mechanisms Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: Unconsciously processed happy primes are proposed to shift attention toward the global configuration of the following face, which improves encoding and hence next-day recognition.	`mechanisms[0]`		the tagger's words
mechanisms	mechanisms Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: The prime's expression is proposed to alter encoding and/or later rehearsal of the target face, rather than the memory difference arising from the conscious affective judgment the participant made about that face.	`mechanisms[1]`		the tagger's words
mechanisms	mechanisms Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: Affect elicited by a masked stimulus is assumed to be diffuse and therefore to spill over onto whatever stimulus follows it in time, producing assimilation of prime valence into the target judgment.	`mechanisms[2]`		the tagger's words
limitations	Prime awareness may have gone undetected, so the strictly-subliminal grouping is not certain. Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.	`limitations[0]`		the tagger's words
limitations	The objective awareness check may have had too few trials per participant to estimate discrimination ability well. Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.	`limitations[1]`		the tagger's words
limitations	The 24-hour gap before the subjective awareness questions may have affected the answers given. Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.	`limitations[2]`		the tagger's words
limitations	A single study cannot cover the range of effects that different facial expressions have on behaviour and cognition. Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.	`limitations[3]`		the tagger's words
controls	an OSCILLOSCOPE was used to check that primes really were on screen for 30 ms and that the software log matched Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. eliminates: that the prime was actually visible - a subliminal effect claimed on a duration the software reported but the hardware never delivered · outcome (stated by the tagger, no quotation): held	`controls[0]`	0.95	the tagger's words
controls	each face cropped with an elliptical stencil that removes the hair Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. eliminates: that participants respond to hair or head outline rather than to the emotionally relevant facial features · outcome (stated by the tagger, no quotation): held	`controls[1]`	0.95	the tagger's words
concepts	subliminal affective priming Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: subliminal affective priming	`concepts[0]`	0.95	the paper's words
concepts	transient Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: transient	`concepts[1]`	0.95	the paper's words
concepts	long-lasting Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: long-lasting	`concepts[2]`	0.95	the paper's words
concepts	surprise faces Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: surprise faces	`concepts[3]`	0.95	the paper's words
concepts	subliminal priming Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: subliminal priming	`concepts[4]`	0.95	the paper's words
concepts	affective evaluation Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: affective evaluation	`concepts[5]`	0.95	the paper's words
concepts	memory Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: memory	`concepts[6]`	0.95	the paper's words
concepts	valence Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: valence	`concepts[7]`	0.95	the paper's words
concepts	recognition memory Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: recognition memory	`concepts[8]`	0.95	the paper's words
senses	A TACIT ASSUMPTION NAMED AND TESTED - that subliminal affective priming is `a transient phenomenon manifested only in fleeting perceptual changes`. The paper does not dispute that the effect exists; it disputes how long it is entitled to last, and it says the short-lived reading was never argued for, only assumed. Second record this sitting whose target is a belief its field holds without evidence Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.	`senses[0]`	0.95	the tagger's words
senses	`long-lasting` OPERATIONALISED AS AN INTERVAL, not as a rhetorical claim: memory for the primed faces is tested 24 HOURS LATER, with the 30-ms primes absent at test and the target faces intermixed with new ones. The conclusion is stated as a floor - biases `are not ephemeral, but rather can last at least 24 hours` - which is the honest form for a study that measured one interval Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.	`senses[1]`	0.95	the tagger's words
senses	A TARGET CHOSEN FOR ITS AMBIGUITY, with the reasoning written out: surprise `derives its affective valence primarily through CONTEXT` - the same expression reads positive at a surprise birthday party and negative in a horror film. Because the target has no fixed value on the measured dimension, any value it takes can be attributed to the prime. The stimulus choice is doing the work a control usually does Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.	`senses[2]`	0.95	the tagger's words
senses	the awareness split, and it runs OPPOSITE to Van-den-Bussche2013: participants `likely to have processed primes supraliminally did not respond differentially as a function of expression`. The effect belongs to the unaware group and vanishes in the aware one - whereas Van den Bussche, holding signal strength constant, found conscious trials strongest. Two records, opposite orderings, and the designs differ in exactly the way that matters Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.	`senses[3]`	0.95	the tagger's words
claim_relations	replicates → Li, Zinbarg, Boehm, & Paller (2008) Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.	`claim_relations[0]`		the tagger's words
claim_relations	extends → Li, Zinbarg, Boehm, & Paller (2008) Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.	`claim_relations[1]`		the tagger's words
claim_relations	contradicts → Charles, Mather, & Carstensen (2003) Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.	`claim_relations[2]`		the tagger's words
concept_edges	long-lasting —contrasted-with→ transient Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. differs in: HOW LONG THE EFFECT IS ENTITLED TO OUTLIVE ITS PRIME - the transient reading limits it to fleeting perceptual changes; this paper shows a bias surviving 24 hours with the prime absent at test. The whole dispute is a duration · strength of the relation: 0.95 · note: THE PAPER'S ARGUMENT IN ONE EDGE, and the fifth time this sitting that a priming effect's status turns on its time course rather than its size - also in: long-lasting · transient	`concept_edges[0]`	0.95	the tagger's words
concept_edges	subliminal priming —causes→ affective evaluation Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. direction on the measure: increases · strength of the relation: 0.9 · note: The immediate half of the result. Grounded on the sentence that explains WHY the target can move at all - an expression whose valence comes from context is one a prime can supply context for. Audit 2026-09-28: DOUBTFUL - read against its full span and kept, but the span says priming 'had consequences for' affective evaluation; the direction is not stated. also in: subliminal priming · affective evaluation	`concept_edges[1]`	0.95	the tagger's words
concept_edges	subliminal priming —causes→ memory Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. direction on the measure: increases · strength of the relation: 0.9 · note: THE LONG-LASTING HALF, and the span deliberately carries the awareness split with it: the same sentence pair reports the effect AND that it did not appear in participants likely to have seen the primes. Quoting the result without that qualifier would overstate it. Audit 2026-09-28: DOUBTFUL - read against its full span and kept, but the span says priming 'had consequences for' later memory; the direction is not stated. also in: subliminal priming · memory	`concept_edges[2]`	0.95	the tagger's words
content_tags	t-test Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: t-test	`content_tags.statistics[0]`		the tagger's words
content_tags	ANOVA Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: ANOVA	`content_tags.statistics[1]`		the tagger's words
content_tags	chi-squared Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: chi-squared	`content_tags.statistics[2]`		the tagger's words
content_tags	correlation Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: correlation	`content_tags.statistics[3]`		the tagger's words
content_tags	regression Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: regression	`content_tags.statistics[4]`		the tagger's words
content_tags	standard deviation Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: standard deviation	`content_tags.statistics[5]`		the tagger's words
content_tags	median split Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: median split	`content_tags.statistics[6]`		the tagger's words
content_tags	p-value Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: p-value	`content_tags.statistics[7]`		the tagger's words
content_tags	Surprise faces preceded by masked happy primes were rated more positively than those preceded by fearful primes, but only among participants classified as strictly subliminal. Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.	`content_tags.findings[0]`		the tagger's words
content_tags	A day later, recognition of the same surprise faces was better for those that had been happy-primed than for fearful- or neutral-primed faces, with no fearful-versus-neutral difference. Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.	`content_tags.findings[1]`		the tagger's words
content_tags	Independently of priming, faces a participant had rated more negatively on Day 1 were better recognised on Day 2. Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.	`content_tags.findings[2]`		the tagger's words
content_tags	The awareness grouping moderated the memory effect: prime expression changed recognition in the strictly subliminal group but not in the not-strictly-subliminal group. Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.	`content_tags.findings[3]`		the tagger's words
content_tags	Affective priming was reliable only in the first half of the priming phase, weakening across blocks. Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.	`content_tags.findings[4]`		the tagger's words
content_tags	How strongly a participant was primed was unrelated to how well that participant could objectively discriminate the prime expressions. Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.	`content_tags.findings[5]`		the tagger's words
content_tags	The authors conclude that subliminal affective priming is not a transient perceptual effect but persists for at least a day. Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.	`content_tags.findings[6]`		the tagger's words
content_tags	Strictly-Subliminal (SS) group Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: Strictly-Subliminal (SS) group	`content_tags.definitions[0]`		the tagger's words
content_tags	Not-Strictly Subliminal (NSS) group Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: Not-Strictly Subliminal (NSS) group	`content_tags.definitions[1]`		the tagger's words
content_tags	magnitude of affective priming Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: magnitude of affective priming	`content_tags.definitions[2]`		the tagger's words
content_tags	memory score Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: memory score	`content_tags.definitions[3]`		the tagger's words
content_tags	emotional expression Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: emotional expression	`content_tags.variables[0]`		the tagger's words
content_tags	prime duration Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: prime duration	`content_tags.variables[1]`		the tagger's words
content_tags	valence Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: valence	`content_tags.variables[2]`		the tagger's words
content_tags	recognition confidence Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: recognition confidence	`content_tags.variables[3]`		the tagger's words
content_tags	valence ratings Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: valence ratings	`content_tags.variables[6]`		the tagger's words
content_tags	Forty-three — number of participants tested Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.	`content_tags.quantities[0]`		the tagger's words
content_tags	15 of the 43 — size of the strictly subliminal subgroup, the only group showing both key effects Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.	`content_tags.quantities[1]`		the tagger's words
content_tags	30 ms — duration of the affective prime face before backward masking by the surprise face Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.	`content_tags.quantities[2]`		the tagger's words
content_tags	21-27 hrs (mean = 23.9 hrs) — delay between the priming session and the surprise memory test Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.	`content_tags.quantities[3]`		the tagger's words
content_tags	2.64, 2.87, and 2.70 — mean confidence-weighted memory scores in the strictly subliminal group for fearful-, happy- and neutral-primed faces Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.	`content_tags.quantities[4]`		the tagger's words
content_tags	M = 0.24, SD = 0.31, t (14) = 2.99, p < .01 — size of the happy-minus-fearful rating difference over the first three blocks Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.	`content_tags.quantities[5]`		the tagger's words
content_tags	M = -0.22, SD = 0.30, t (42) = 4.88, p < .01 — mean per-participant regression slope relating affective rating to memory score, negative meaning better memory for more negatively rated faces Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.	`content_tags.quantities[6]`		the tagger's words
content_tags	23 participants — number showing above-chance objective discrimination of the prime expressions Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above.	`content_tags.quantities[7]`		the tagger's words

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