Subliminal Speech Priming
Abstract
We present a novel subliminal priming technique that operates in the auditory modality. Masking is achieved by hiding a spoken word within a stream of time-compressed speechlike sounds with similar spectral characteristics. Participants were unable to consciously identify the hidden words, yet reliable repetition priming was found. This effect was unaffected by a change in the speaker's voice and remained restricted to lexical processing. The results show that the speech modality, like the written modality, involves the automatic extraction of abstract word-form representations that do not include non-linguistic details. In both cases, priming operates at the level of discrete and abstract lexical entries and is little influenced by overlap in form or semantics.
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- Authors
- Kouider, S., & Dupoux, E.
- Affiliations
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives et Psycholinguistique, EHESS-ENS-CNRS, Paris, France
- Corresponding author
- Kouider, Sid
- ORCID
- Kouider, Sid
- Venue
- Psychological Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2005-08
- Volume
- 16
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 617-625
- ISSN
- 0956-7976 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-9280
- OpenAlex
- W2129624808
- Cited by
- 100
- References
- 44
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 2.64
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Phonetics and Phonology Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Reading and Literacy Development
- Keywords
- subliminal priming, auditory priming, repetition priming, lexical processing, word recognition, time-compressed speech, masking, automatic word recognition
- MeSH terms
- Acoustic Stimulation, Analysis of Variance, Awareness, Humans, Linguistics, Perceptual Masking, Phonetics, Reaction Time, Semantics, Speech, Speech Acoustics, Students, Subliminal Stimulation, Time Factors
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