Here is some information that may be of interest to any tipsters who use a demonstration tape by John Vokey and Don Read to discuss subliminal perception and backmasking.
Background: In 1985 Vokey and Read published an article in American Psychologist entitled "Subliminal messages: Between the devil and the media" In the article they outline their experience with the media and subsequent research on the topic of backmasking in music. At some later date they made a demonstration tape which was distributed free for use in classroom demonstrations. The tape included music and spoken word samples played forward and backward, and a short handout that described each segment. The tape has always been a bit awkward to use as the clips are short and I frequently like to replay segments - stopping the tape at just the right spot is difficult. I decided to make a CD of the tape and asked our Audio Visual expert to help out. Here is what he found. There were two inconsistencies between the tape and what the documentation said was on the tape. Excerpt #1 is a short sample from Queen's Another one bites the dust. The documentation states that the 2nd passage is the same piece played backward. A small detail, but it is a similar passage that does not contain any instrumentation. (played backward this is supposed to sound like "its fun to smoke marijuana" repeated several times. Passage #3 is supposed to be the 23rd Psalm played backward. However, there is no 23rd Psalm anywhere on the tape. Instead, it is a short segment of Jabberwocky followed immediately by an excerpt from Dickens' Christmas Carol. __________________________ Bill Goss College of the Rockies Box 8500 Cranbrook, BC, Canada V1C 5L7 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ph: 250-489-2751 or 1-877-489-2687 (toll free) --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
