The effects of mellow and frenetic music on reported cognitions resulting from auditory subliminal messages

Building on the work of Henley and Dixon (1974) and Mykel and Daves (1979), we investigated the effects of mellow and frenetic music on reported cognitions resulting from auditory subliminal stimuli. College students (N = 120) were randomly assembled into six groups. One third of the students heard four subliminally transmitted water-related words, one third heard four subliminally transmitted family-related words, and one third heard no subliminal stimuli. Either mellow or frenetic masking music was played for half the students in each group. Students reported more word-related imagery in the mellow music conditions than in the frenetic conditions, although the reported imagery did not correspond with the subliminal messages presented.