Long-lasting effects of subliminal affective priming from facial expressions

Long-lasting effects of subliminal affective priming from facial expressions Sweeny, Timothy D. Grabowecky, Marcia Suzuki, Satoru Paller, Ken A.

Tag layer of the DHSS Meta-Tagging Project. The article text is reproduced from the staged copy named in sourceDesc and is not altered; the tags are held separately in standOff so that overlapping and nested spans are preserved.

Long-lasting effects of subliminal affective priming from facial expressions 2009 Consciousness and Cognition 10.1016/j.concog.2009.07.011 sweeny2009-long-lasting sweeny2009-long-lasting.txt, the project's staged copy c8d6d00fdd7e79049b733e3a08cdea59834df02d reference-only cognitive-psychology

the paper's own words

the tag layer; a sentence written by the tagger about the paper, always anchored to a quotation but not itself a quotation

0 spans located by searching the stored text for the quote's exact words, allowing any whitespace between them existence Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. subliminal affective priming from facial expressions Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. behavioural-experiment behavioural-experiment Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. mechanisms 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. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. mechanisms 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. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. mechanisms 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. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Prime awareness may have gone undetected, so the strictly-subliminal grouping is not certain. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. The objective awareness check may have had too few trials per participant to estimate discrimination ability well. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. The 24-hour gap before the subjective awareness questions may have affected the answers given. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. A single study cannot cover the range of effects that different facial expressions have on behaviour and cognition. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. an OSCILLOSCOPE was used to check that primes really were on screen for 30 ms and that the software log matched 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 Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. each face cropped with an elliptical stencil that removes the hair 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 Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. subliminal affective priming subliminal affective priming Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. transient transient Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. long-lasting long-lasting Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. surprise faces surprise faces Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. subliminal priming subliminal priming Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. affective evaluation affective evaluation Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. memory memory Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. valence valence Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. recognition memory recognition memory Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. 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 because this record is not cleared for redistribution. `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 because this record is not cleared for redistribution. 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 because this record is not cleared for redistribution. 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 because this record is not cleared for redistribution. replicates → Li, Zinbarg, Boehm, & Paller (2008) Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. extends → Li, Zinbarg, Boehm, & Paller (2008) Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. contradicts → Charles, Mather, & Carstensen (2003) Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. long-lasting —contrasted-with→ transient long-lasting transient 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 - Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. subliminal priming —causes→ affective evaluation subliminal priming affective evaluation 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. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. subliminal priming —causes→ memory subliminal priming memory 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. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. t-test t-test Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. ANOVA ANOVA Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. chi-squared chi-squared Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. correlation correlation Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. regression regression Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. standard deviation standard deviation Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. median split median split Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. p-value p-value Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. 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 because this record is not cleared for redistribution. 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 because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Independently of priming, faces a participant had rated more negatively on Day 1 were better recognised on Day 2. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. 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 because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Affective priming was reliable only in the first half of the priming phase, weakening across blocks. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. How strongly a participant was primed was unrelated to how well that participant could objectively discriminate the prime expressions. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. The authors conclude that subliminal affective priming is not a transient perceptual effect but persists for at least a day. Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Strictly-Subliminal (SS) group Strictly-Subliminal (SS) group Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Not-Strictly Subliminal (NSS) group Not-Strictly Subliminal (NSS) group Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. magnitude of affective priming magnitude of affective priming Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. memory score memory score Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. emotional expression emotional expression Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. prime duration prime duration Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. valence valence Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. recognition confidence recognition confidence Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. valence ratings valence ratings Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. Forty-three — number of participants tested Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. 15 of the 43 — size of the strictly subliminal subgroup, the only group showing both key effects Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. 30 ms — duration of the affective prime face before backward masking by the surprise face Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. 21-27 hrs (mean = 23.9 hrs) — delay between the priming session and the surprise memory test Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution. 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 because this record is not cleared for redistribution. 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 because this record is not cleared for redistribution. 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 because this record is not cleared for redistribution. 23 participants — number showing above-chance objective discrimination of the prime expressions Quotation withheld because this record is not cleared for redistribution.

The full text of this article is not redistributable, so it is not included here. The evidence sentences are withheld with it; the tag layer and its grounding status remain. The article itself is at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2009.07.011.