Availability, accessibility, and subliminal perception

Psychophysiology of Dissociated Consciousness

“…During a movie presentation two verbal messages were projected: ''Drink Coke'' and ''Eat popcorn'' which led to increased popcorn consumption about 58 % and Coca-Cola consumption about 18 % (Wortman et al 1992). The experiment caused controversial discussions but subsequent findings confirmed the existence of subliminal perception and information processing (Bob 2003a;Bunge et al 2001;Crick and Koch 1995;Gawronski et al 2006;Kanwisher 2001;Kihlstrom 1987Kihlstrom , 2004Marcel 1983).…”

“…Although in principle we may consider a threshold of consciousness presenting absolute subliminality at which all discriminative responses disappear (Wortman et al 1992;Erdelyi 2004a, b;Reingold 2004), it seems to be that various sensory stimuli that have an importance for cognitive processes and adaptive behavioral responses may be influenced by various mechanisms of cognitive modulation and that subliminality may present relative phenomenon characterized by a sensitivity of discriminative responses (Kihlstrom 2004). …”

“…In this context, modern study of cognitive unconscious phenomena defined explicit and implicit perception, i.e., explicit perception means perception immediately presented to consciousness of a subject while implicit perception is not accessible for the awareness of the subject and cannot be verified immediately in the response of the subject but only indirectly by observation or measurement of subject's behavior or physiological response (Bob 2003a;Kihlstrom 1987Kihlstrom , 2004.…”

Subliminality, consciousness, and temporal shifts in awareness: Implications within and beyond the laboratory

“…Initial responses to Erdelyi's (2004) provocative thesis focused on its historical and conceptual underpinnings (Kihlstrom, 2004), neurological correlates of unconscious perception (Bachmann, 2004), theoretical implications of subchance perception data (Snodgrass, 2004), and the methodological implications of Erdelyi's analysis (Reingold, 2004). This Commentary addresses three issues that were not discussed in detail by earlier commentators: (1) the importance of distinguishing ''micro'' from ''macro'' temporal shifts; (2) the need to analyze PWA data at the level of the individual as well as the group; and (3) parallels between the dissociations associated with neuroclinical phenomena (e.g., hemispheric isolation) and those observed in patients with certain forms of personality pathology.…”

Implicit Eyewitness Memory

“…More recent work expands upon this notion. For example, Kihlstrom (2004) highlights that while availability is a byproduct of memory encoding (e.g., studying the lists of words and categories), accessibility is a byproduct of retrieval (e.g., cued vs. uncued recall).…”