If you think you are seeing a pink dragon when none exists then you are hallucinating. If you think you are holding a pink dragon then you are psychotic. If you perceive
a pink dragon when you are presented with a picture of a pink dragon
or even minimal cues indicating the presence of a dragon i.e. those
based on the techniques used by cartoonists and caricaturists, then
you are in good company. You are normal. You are also normal if you
think the combination of blobs of colour and dark lines in the image
on the right is a representation of Clint Neither
of these images are pictures but, nevertheless, The sketched information can be minimal, such as the few classic lines used to indicate Alfred Hitchcock in silhouette, or be very faint. Some examples are provided on the Faces page. Or the image can offer only the vaguest indications of a face, as in the logo on the Macintosh Operating System Version 8.0, of which four animated variations are shown below. Note that each animation presents two 'faces' but only one can be perceived at any particular moment. The logo thus shares some of the properties of the classic vase/face illusion, of which some variations are shown later on this page.
On
the right is an example of a classic image found in many psychology
textbooks. It contains very ambiguous information. As
the information in this jumble of black and white is ambiguous, not
everyone can perceive the figure. I, for example, 'recognise' quite
easily a bearded individual, rather like Christ or Che Another classic black and white image, that of a Labrador dog against a background of snow can be found on the Psychology page and various illustrations of paintings with embedded figures can be found on the ArtAttack page. There is thus plenty of evidence to indicate that figures can be embedded without difficult in ads. Nevetheless, advertising professionals continue to deny that such activities occur As it the case with works of art so it is with adverts. Whether or not they are presented very subtly or in an incomplete manner, such images present cues or stimuli to which visual and perceptual processes will respond. They exist outside the imagination of the viewer. They are not figments of the overly creative imagination as is continually claimed by critics of Wilson Key such as Burtch, Haberstroh and others. This means that when you are presented with examples of semi-subliminal advertising do not get gulled by arguments from the advertising profession claiming that no such phenomenon exists. The cues in semi-subliminal adverts might not be as obvious, pink and dragon-like, as in the illustration above, nor as clear-cut as a cartoonist's silhouette, but they certainly exist. They might not influence you but the many examples on this site testify to their existence. |
If
you smoke or drink, or even if you don't, you can bet your bottom dollar
that in late Cigarette and alcohol ads tend to have three primary functions. First. They present a socially acceptable face to the world: they generally look good and they are found them in classy magazines. They keep company with ads for other, less problematical, products. This association works only to put a 'gloss' on cigarette smoking and the conspicuous consumption of alcohol. The association rarely works the other way around to tarnish the image of products advertised in conjunction with cigarettes or drinks because the number of non cigarette/alcohol ads vastly outnumbers cigarette/alcohol ads. The result you accept that cigarette and alcohol advertising is O.K. 'No problem!' Second. Such ads are often calculated to keep smokers and drinkers and others in a state of anxiety, often using imagery associated with death or confrontations with death. See the various Marlboro, Jack Daniel and other ads for examples. Your response will be 'Can't be the case'. 'Never influenced me'. Third. Many ads, particularly those for cigarettes and alcoholic drinks, also attempt to develop a mental link between sex or anxiety and the Brand. The process is known as paired or associative conditioning. Simply by presenting the two sets of information together viewers become accustomed to the pairing. Viewers thus tacitly acknowledge the association and there is 'cross fertilization' of ideas associated with the brand and whatever they are associated with. The outcome of this process is likely to be that your store of knowledge about cigarette and alcohol brands also contains knowledge of many socially acceptable subjects. In addition, if your preferred brands advertise using semi-subliminal material, you will also 'know' other, less desirable types of information obtained from viewing the semi-subliminal components. The semi-subliminal content of ads do not need to be simplistic. Marlboro ads, in particular, indicate it is often possible to incorporate two or more semi-subliminal messages within one ad e.g. messages associated with sex and death. It simply requires multiple sets of cues or trigger images in the same ad. So long as the two sets of cues or triggers are not placed in positions where they conflict with each other, susceptible individuals will tend to 'identify' only those messages that are salient for them. For example, one may find something attractive, another abhorrent, depending upon their own personal |
A distinction was drawn above between seeing and perceiving. These terms are not synonymous in meaning. Psychologists and others can demonstrate very effectively that there is a difference between what is seen and what is perceived. In brief, the eye responds to light. It thus only 'sees' colours - perhaps even shapes - but there is no sense or meaning in what is seen. The world is just a booming, buzzing, confusion of changing colours. This is the type of description offered by people who have been blind for most of their life and an operation restores their sight. They have to learn how to interpret the visual information they begin to receive. It is information provided by different wavelengths of light registering on the eye that have to be interpreted before it can make sense. For more information on this subject see the entries in the Glossary and also view the Psychology page for examples.
People, in other
words, are active participants in making sense of their world. We are
not simply biological video recorders. What comes to our
conscious attention is the outcome of a complex set of psychological
processes. But this does not mean that we do not and cannot respond
unless we pay conscious attention to the world around us. A fuller discussion of psychological processes can be found on the Psychology page. Additional information, when necessary, can also be found in the Faq's, the Glossary and in chapters on visual perception in most psychology textbooks. |
See the Frequently Asked Questions Page for further information |
Last Revised: 3rd January, 2003 |