Effects of Subliminal Conditioning on Computer Program Users

1
Effects ofSubliminal Conditioning onComputer
Program Users

• MAS 630, Spring 2005
• April 29th
• Hyemin Chung

2
Backgrounds

• Subliminal affective conditioning can affect
  peoples behavior or evaluation.
• After unconsciously exposed to A, people choose A
  rather than B when they are forced to choose one
  between them. (Bonanno,1986)
• People with positive subliminal conditioning give
  higher score than people with negative subliminal
  conditioning in evaluating something.
  (Winikielman,1997)

3
Purposes

• Can we use the subliminal affective conditioning
  in human-computer interactions?
• Can we use the conditioning to make computer
  programs more favorable?

4
The Experiment - Method

• Using a specially coded program
• Participants are asked to run the program and to
  follow the instructions of the program.
• Asked to fully attend to the program.
• Asked not to stop, suspend, or re-run the program
  during the experiment.
• Questionnaires are included in the program.
• Participants do not know the purpose or the
  details of the program before the experiment.
• The program takes around 10 minutes.

5
The Program

• Randomly chooses the conditioning mode
• No conditioning mode Control Group
• Shows a blank image as a conditioning image
• Positive conditioning mode
• Shows a positive image as a conditioning image
• Negative conditioning mode
• Shows a negative image as a conditioning image
• Shows the conditioning image for 109 times during
  the experiment

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Subliminal Affective Conditioning Images
Control Image
Positive Image
Negative Image
7
The Program Image Hiding
Conditioning Image Less than 1/30 secs
Dummy Picture 23 secs
8
Demo

• Run Demo
• A one-minute version of the program
• Pre-experiment Questionnaire
• To gather basic information about participants
• To minimize external effects such as weather,
  environment, or hunger
• Dummy Tasks
• To expose participants to subliminal conditioning
  without their knowing
• Post-experiment Questionnaire
• To collect result data

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The Experiment - Participants

• Total 42
• 8 females, 34 males
• Ages 2035 years old
• Control Group
• 16 3 females, 13 males
• Positive Group
• 15 2 females, 13 males
• Negative Group
• 11 3 females, 8 males

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Effects on

• See Results
• Negative effects are stronger than positive
  effects
• Q71 How much did you want to quit this program?
• Q74 Was the experiment pleasant?
• A little correlated with initial mood states Q7
• Q76 Was it annoying?
• Q77 Was it boring?
• Q78 Do you like this program?
• Subliminal conditioning itself can be negative.
• Might be because of increased cognitive loads

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Effects on

• Positive effect still can be expected.
• Q72 Are you willing to participate in more
  experiments like this one?

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Little Effects on

• Little effects on
• Mood and arousal
• Q7/Q79 How are you feeling now?
• Q75 Were you excited?
• Subliminal conditioning can affect the responses
  of users without evident changes of their
  emotional states.
• Can be supported by other research
• In one research, the behaviors of participants
  were affected by subliminal conditioning, but
  they didnt recognize any changes in their mood
  or arousal. (Winkielman,2005)

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Cognitive Load Problem

• Possibility of negative effects from cognitive
  load
• Q15, Q18, and Q20
• It could be coincidence,but it also could be
  negative effects of increased cognitive load from
  subliminal stimuli.

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Conclusion

• Users emotional states
• Are hardly affected by subliminal affective
  conditioning
• Users responses to the programs
• Can be affected by subliminal affective
  conditioning.
• However, negative effects are stronger than
  positive effects.
• Users capacity or ability
• Might be negatively affected by subliminal
  conditioning.
• Maybe because of cognitive loads.
• Needs more work about this problem.

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Thank you