Attention guidance technique using visual subliminal cues and its application on videos

Abstract

Attention is known to be shifted reflexively by subliminal cues in static environments, but their effect when applied in dynamic environments remains unclear. This study examines the effect of subliminal cues in both static and dynamic environments and presents a novel technique of applying subliminal cues within videos. Experiment 1 confirmed the effect of subliminal cues in guiding covert spatial attention in a static environment. Experiment 2 investigated the effect of subliminal cues in guiding overall gaze distribution in video context by manipulating the frequency of subliminal cues to bias the viewer's gaze towards a specific side. There was no main effect of cue frequency, but additional findings showed the possibility that the effect of subliminal cues occurred differently between gender, and other factors such as gaze orientation bias influenced the viewer's gaze distribution. These results provide insights on application of subliminal cues in video contexts and render the directions for future studies.