THE RELATION OF PRIMARY-PROCESS THINKING TO THE RECOVERY OF SUBLIMINAL MATERIAL

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Abstract
This study set out to test a theory offered to explain subliminal effects. It was postulated that a truly subliminal stimulus had the possibility of showing an effect on behavior. Moreover, it was assumed that a person whose thinking showed much evidence of the primary process would show a greater effect of a subliminal stimulus than a person whose thinking was rigidly oriented towards reality (secondary process). An additional postulate was that among those who were responsive to the subliminal stimulus, those whose regression to the primary process was adaptive, would show greater sensitivity than the pathological group. Ss were classified according to their diagnosis in a hospital as "Psychiatric" or "Medical." In addition, their Rorschach responses were classified as "High" or "Low" on amount of primary-process thinking, as measured by Holt''s system. Only those who received poor Defense-Effectiveness scores (from the same scoring system) were accepted in the Psychiatric group and only those who received good Defense-Effectiveness scores were accepted in the Medical group. The four groups were compared on their ability to recover a subliminal stimulus via imagery. All images were scored on the revised Fisher-Paul double-profile checklist. The scores received on drawings of images following a blank exposure were compared with scores of drawings following the stimulus exposure. There was no significant amount of recovery of the subliminal stimulus for the group as a whole; neither did amount of primary-process nor type of control individually show any tendency to be related to the recovery of the subliminal stimulus. The results did, however, show that for the group in which both poor control and high primary process were present, there was a significant difference between the images following the blank exposure and those following the subliminal double-profile stimulus. The results of the study were discussed in terms of their supporting a theory of registration without awareness, and in terms of personality correlates of subliminal sensitivity.

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