Inhibition and Tachistoscopic Thresholds for Sexually Charged Words

Indicators of perception: I. Subliminal perception, subception, unconscious perception: An analysis in terms of psychophysical indicator methodology.

“…The most common method for varying stimulus magnitude is through control of duration using a tachistoscope (3,10,23,30,39,40,50,51,63,64,65,73,75,86,95,96,98,101,112,114,116,117,119,126,130,134,138,139,140,141,147,150,151,153,163,164,165,167,168,179,180,184); indeed, a photograph of a tachistoscope appeared in an introductory psychology textbook issued during this period (76, p. 297). Variation of voltage for visual stimuli has been used in other experiments (53,56,68,74,106,111,…”

The Recovered Memory Controversy: A Representative Case Study

“…Reisner indicated Holmes' argument that "response suppression" and not "repression" explained the results of the perceptual defense studies was not valid as Holmes did not cite any supportive studies. In contradicting Holmes, Reisner declared that such criticisms were well known to investigators involved in the perceptual defense experiments, and he cited not only works in which the researchers successfully argued against such criticisms (Eriksen, 1954;Lazarus, 1954), but also works that empirically demonstrated the criticisms to be essentially invalid (Aronfreed, Messick, & Diggory, 1953;Kissin, Gottesfeld, & Dicks, 1957). In summarizing his findings, Reisner concluded that while repression of traumatic memories was not specifically supported by experimental research, there was experimental evidence that was consistent with the existence of both repression and denial, and that experimental evidence coupled with corroborated case studies of repressed memories did indeed support "that, at times, memories can be repressed and later recovered" (p. 207).…”

A theoretico-historical review of the threshold concept.

“…The concept of a response threshold has found wide applicability in psychology in areas other than psychophysics. For example, Martin, Paul, and Welles (1915) compared reflex and sensory thresholds; Hull (1917) compared the fluctuations of threshold in the formation and retention of associations among the insane; Williams (1918) calculated the associative limen in certain memory experiments; Wells (1919) reported a series of experiments involving the threshold of "conscious" learning; Oberly (1928) compared the "attention span" limen for ungrouped digits and the "memory span" limen for grouped digits; Irwin (1932) investigated the thresholds for the perception of differences in facial expression; Miller (1939) discussed the limen of awareness in the problem of discrimination without awareness; Postman, Bruner, and McGinnies (1948) treated the duration threshold in tachistoscopic presentations as an index of selective perception; Kissen, Gottesfeld, and Dicks (1957) determined the inhibition and tachistoscopic thresholds for sexually charged words; and Corso (1959) studied changes in auditory thresholds as a function of age and sex. In each of these investigations, recourse was taken to the threshold notion denned in a particular manner in order to determine the responsiveness of the human organism under a given set of conditions.…”