Conscious Vision/ Priming and Subliminal Messages

Vision is not only a conscious perceiving of the world there are many subconscious things our brain does with visual information.  There have been cases of people who swore that they could not see but when asked they could direct their hand to grab a stick in the correct orientation.  This operation could only be done if they were getting visual information.  This phenomenon is called “blind sight. (Carlson, 2004)

Reading words in a literate society is something our brains learn to do.  In fact we do it so well that it is possible to do without being conscious of it.  Psychologists often want people to think things without telling them out right what they should be thinking about.  One way that they have found that works very well is priming.  Priming can be done by the flashing of words on a screen that is so fast that the conscious mind can’t make sense of it.  However, our visual reading systems are so good at reading they can read these flashed words and the words can effect what we are thinking without us knowing.  Soft drink companies used to pay movie makers to put subliminal messages (flashes of their product) in the movies to try to get people to think about buying there product.  During the Gore vs. Bush presidential campaign there was a lot of controversy over a Republican National Committee ad that tried to link Gore with rats.  CNN has a copy if you would like to experience subliminal messages first hand. GORE is a RAT VIDEO (look for it when near the end of the ad when the voice says “the Gore prescription plan”)