Hi to whom is may concern,
"Subliminal programming actually has an effect on the human mind" is my hypothesis, but I am not sure how to do an experiment on it, it is very general and I am not sure how to start on research it or set up an experiment. I was thinking of having several messages come up and then have them fill out a form of what they thought the message said, and how the are feeling after it. The subject is SO general, I just am confused as to what to do now, and I have researched all about subliminal programming...
Hello colleen_13 and welcome to the Science Buddies "Ask an Expert" forum. This is a very interesting area of research and there is much debate about the effectiveness of this technique. It appears your hypothesis is that insertion of subliminal messages into some form of media (cause) can change a person's thoughts and/or behavior (effect)... is this accurate? If so you will need to make or obtain something that contains a subliminal message(s), show it to a group of test subjects, and determine whether or not the message was received. There are several ways to do this, but this will depend on the amount of time and resources you have available for your project. I hope this helps get you started... if you can tell us a bit more about the project (timeline, any ideas you have, questions etc) I'm sure we'll be able to help you out.
Good luck!
Ryan
"All inquires carry with them some element of risk. There is no guarantee that the universe will conform to our predispositions.." - Carl Sagan
Hi, colleen_13! Welcome to Science Buddies. You've gotten a lot of good ideas already, but I also wanted to let you know that there are a few places here on the Science Buddies site that may help get your gears going about how to set up such an experiment. A good first place to look is the Science Fair Project Question page at https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... tion.shtml, where you can examine your question and think about the best way to ask it.
The content listing for the guide is here, and if you look through the links, you'll find more information that may help you refine your thoughts and experimental plan: http://sciencebuddies.com/science-fair- ... ndex.shtml
A final place to hunt around is the Human Behavior project idea page. There are several projects listed, and you might want to read through those to get an idea of the methodology of such projects. On that page is also a "Related Links" box that takes you to information about designing studies that involve surveys. Start here: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ?ia=HumBeh
Plenty to dig into, so take a look and then please let us know if you have questions or need clarification! Welcome again!
Emily
Ok, thanks so much!!
I am thinking of doing different messages, one might be funny, sad, scary, and trying that on 5-10 people from different age groups, then asking them many questions about what they think the message was, what ran through their head at the beginning, and then if it changed by the end. I have unlimited resources, I can get about anything I need for this project to happen, so if anyone can help, is there is something I need specifically, I probably can get it. I have to accomplish this whole project by Feb. 20, 2009, so I have plenty of time. Right now I am encountering the research part and trying to find out as many things as I can about human behavior and I am going to talk to a psychologist soon! Thanks so much for all your help!!
Hi colleen_13, I'm glad we could help... it looks like you're off to a great start! The idea of testing the effectiveness of delivering different types of messages to different age groups adds a very interesting dimension to your project. I am curious to see whether there is any relationship between the theme of the message / subject age and whether or not it is received.
The type of media you use to deliver the message(s) is completely up to you. Take the knowledge and understanding you gain during your research and use the resources available in a way that you feel will be most effective. Keep in mind that the number of themes and age groups you choose to test will greatly affect the amount of time it will take to design, conduct, and analyze data from your experiment.
There are at least two types of questions you will want to ask the subjects about the recording(s):
1) questions regarding the non-subliminal content to evaluate how well the subject was consciously paying attention
2) questions regarding the subliminal content of the recording to determine if the implanted message was received
You can analyze your data by looking at the overall response to the messages (total of received versus unreceived), then you can look for relationships between the different factors (theme and age) and response.
When you speak to the psychologist be sure to ask about the appropriate size for the test subject groups. Human perception varies considerably from person to person, so the sample size will be important to minimize the effect of this natural variation. This person can also advise you on the types of questions you will want to ask, and whether the subjects should be told there is a subliminal message in the recordings they will view. If they are aware they may look for the message consciously, which would bias your results.
I wish I could offer more specific advice to you but unfortunately this is not my area of expertise. Hopefully the psychologist and/or the other experts here can provide more information.
Please let us know if you need anything further and keep us posted on your progress... good luck!
- Ryan
"All inquires carry with them some element of risk. There is no guarantee that the universe will conform to our predispositions.." - Carl Sagan
Hi to whom is may concern,