Investigando os efeitos do condicionamento subliminar sobre a motivação apetitiva

Abstract

This master’s dissertation is divided into two parts: the first part is composed by summary of this work with less technical language, written in Portuguese. The second part is composed by manuscript for publication, in English language. The literature has shown that associating eating-related words (CS) with valanced words (US) may differentially influence affective-motivational and top-down evaluation systems. We tested this claim in a subliminal CS-US conditioning procedure, where CS and US were respectively presented for ~17 and 170 milliseconds respectively. Three groups of Brazilian undergraduates (N = 69) viewed eating-related words (CS+) or their scrambled counterparts (CS-) followed by positive or neutral words (US). A free-selection visibility check confirmed that none of the subliminally presented CS had been reliably detected during conditioning. Participants who associated CS with positive US produced reliably more saliva than remaining groups, whereas CS evaluations were not significantly influenced along explicit or implicit evaluation levels. Reliable saliva augmentation, coupled with non-significant evaluation outcomes, illustrates how affective (CS-US) information can credibly influence motivational response systems even as top-down evaluations appear statistically unaffected.