Effects of Subliminal Priming on Nonconscious Goal Pursuit and Effort-Related Cardiovascular Response

Abstract

Building on the work of Aarts and coworkers on nonconscious goal pursuit, the present study investigates whether subliminal processes may motivate effortful behavior and perseverance to learn coursework. We exposed students to a priming task in which subliminal representation of the goal of studying was directly paired (priming-positive group) or not (priming group) to a positive word. There was also a control group without subliminal prime of the goal. Next, students performed a learning task based on their coursework. Participants in the priming-positive group exhibited across time on task a larger decrease of midfrequency band of heart rate variability and a larger decrease of the pulse transit time related to effort mobilization than participants in the control group and the priming group, respectively. These fi ndings provide the fi rst evidence that subliminal priming can induce a greater cardiovascular reactivity suggesting effortful behavior and perseverance when pursuing a simple goal typical of daily life.We thank Lionel Naccache and Chris Frith for helpful comments on earlier drafts. Axel Cleeremans is a Research Director with the Fonds de la Recherche Scientifi que-FNRS.

Long-lasting effect of subliminal processes on cardiovascular responses and performance

“…For the learning task, contrary to a previous study (Capa et al, 2011b), no effect across time on task for each cardiovascular measure has been found (all ps N .65). Task demand of the learning difficult task was increased compared to the previous study (Capa et al, 2011b) (i.e., sentences duration was reduced from 2600 ms to 2350 ms and complexity of the sentences was increased).…”

“…In our previous study (Capa et al, 2011b), we failed to observe performance differences between groups. Further, the observed differences in cardiovascular reactivity appeared only at the end of the learning task.…”

“…This suggests that subliminal processes may directly induce a brief vigorous behavior toward the achievement of a goal. In another study, Capa et al (2011b) extended these effects. Students exhibited higher cardiovascular response, after exposure to subliminal word primes related to the goal of studying associated with visible positive words, at the end of a learning task based on their coursework (i.e., after twenty minutes and over the last five minutes).…”

“…We anticipated low cardiovascular reactivity in the easy condition for each group (contrast weight = − 1). Based on previous results (Capa et al, 2011b), we did not anticipate reactivity during the priming task. This should result in contrast × time interaction effects on cardiovascular reactivity.…”

“…2). For each condition, two sentences among those presented appeared again with the last word missing instead of one in our previous study (Capa et al, 2011b). The goal was to increase reliability of the behavioral measure.…”