Backward masking
The concept of backward masking originated in
temporal masking
of quiet sounds that occur moments before a louder sound.
In
visual backward masking involves presenting one visual stimulus (a "mask" or "masking stimulus") immediately after a brief (usually 30 ms) "target" visual stimulus resulting in a failure to consciously perceive the first stimulus.[1] It is widely used in psychophysiological studies on fear and phobias that investigate the preattentive nonconscious reactions to fear-relevant stimuli.[2]
It is unknown how a later stimulus is able to block an earlier one. However, one theory for this phenomenon, known as the dual channel interaction theory, proposes that a fast signal created by the second stimulus is able to catch up to and overcome a slower signal sent from the first impulse.context interpretation. It has been shown that visually masked stimuli can elicit motor responses in simple reaction-time tasks (e.g. response priming) independent of their conscious visibility.[4]
It is a widespread belief that masked stimuli can be used for
subliminal messages, psychorama). However, the empirical evidence for subliminal persuasion
is limited.
References
- ^ a b Breitmeyer, B.G. and Ogmen, H. (2007) Visual masking, Scholarpedia, 2(7):3330.
- ^ Öhman, A. (2002). Automaticity and the Amygdala: Nonconscious Responses to Emotional Faces. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11(2), 62-66
- S2CID 71893836.
- ^ Vorberg, D., Mattler, U., Heinecke, A., Schmidt, T., & Schwarzbach, J.: Different time courses for visual perception and action priming. In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, Nr. 100, 2003, p. 6275-6280.
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