Effect of "subliminal" tones upon the judgment of loudness.

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Abstract
A pilot study and 3 experiments, involving a total of 144 Ss, were conducted to determine if a "subliminal" anchor effect,already reported for the sensory dimension associated with mild electric shock, could be demonstrated also for the dimension of loudness. After some manipulation of the experimental conditions, it was found that the introduction of a tone below the clearly audible level was a accompanied by an elevation in the judged magnitude of series stimuli clearly above this level. It is noteworthy that the anchor effect was finally produced by increasing the scalar distance between the series and the anchor-designate, although this involved descreasing the physical intensity of the anchor and making it less likely to be heard. Implications of the results for adaptation level theory are suggested.
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