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 people’s 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

6. Subliminal Affective Conditioning Images Control Image Positive Image Negative Image

7. The Program – Image Hiding Conditioning Image Less than 1/30 secs Dummy Picture 2~3 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

9. The Experiment - Participants • Total : 42 • 8 females, 34 males • Ages : 20~35 years old • Control Group • 16 : 3 females, 13 males • Positive Group • 15 : 2 females, 13 males • Negative Group • 11 : 3 females, 8 males

10. 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

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

12. 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 didn’t recognize any changes in their mood or arousal. (Winkielman,2005)

13. 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.

14. 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.

15. Thank you