Friday, August 21, 2009

Implicit Association


www.implicit.harvard.edu

This site contains some tests showing the research done by Harvard about rapid cognition and implicit association. Images are flashed quickly in front of you, and you're asked to reponded by associating them to certain categories. I tried the fat/thin association test. Images of fat and thin people were shown, and I had to put them into categories of good and bad. Below are my results:



Your Result
Your data suggest a slight automatic preference for Thin People compared to Fat People.
The interpretation is described as 'automatic preference for Thin People' if you responded faster when Thin faces and Good words were classified with the same key than when Fat faces and Good words were classified with the same key. Depending on the magnitude of your result, your automatic preference may be described as 'slight', 'moderate', 'strong', or 'little to no preference'.



What's important here is that the research utilizes instant rapid response to uncover one's implicit association to a particular topic. It recognizes the importance of the glimpse as opposed to gaze. If you were to take too long to complete the test, results are not given. Implicit association proves the power of the blink.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Subliminal Advertising

Subliminal advertising is where campaigns are flashed for 1/28th of a second during a tv show, exploiting the viewer's subconsious to as the advertising scheme.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMzbwa6PvEE
Watch this clip from IronChef America. Everything proceeds as normal, and suddenly a red flash appears. You brain is not quick enough to accurately percieve what the flash is, but without reason, you start to feel hungry. You start to crave for fast food... slowing the clip down reveals that in a split second frame, an icon of Maccers pops up. Quickly enough for one to ignore, but also effective enough for the subconscious to capture.
Subliminal advertising is proof of rapid cognition. Subliminal advertising is proof of the blink.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Parables for the Virtual

Parables for the Virtual - Movement, Affect, Sensation
Recently I've been reading this book by Massumi. Massumi's writing is fascinating. He always starts of describing a captivating situation or study, and the analyses in his own terms. The chapter I'm reading is on movement vision. He talks about quasi corporeality, event, proprioceptive memory, visceral perception, mesoperception etc. It sounds intriguing, yet I have no idea really, what they mean. I imagine he is giving a scientific and academic analysis of the fact that the body responds faster than the brain. I imagine the book is an in depth study of perception and this idea of affect (intuition/sense/that feeling of jolt, which cannot be explained). I imagine it will be useful in my thesis when I'm talking about the moment of perception or the moment of blink (ie. glimpse). Confused? I am. I'll keep reading. Let me know your thoughts.