People solve rebuses unwittingly—Both forward and backward: Empirical evidence for the mental effectiveness of the signifier
IntroductionFreud proposed that names of clinically salient objects or situations, such as for example a beetle (Käfer) in Mr. E’s panic attack, refer through their phonological word form, and not through their meaning, to etiologically important events—here, “Que faire?” which summarizes the indeci...
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2023-02-01
|
| Series: | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2022.965183/full |
| _version_ | 1811167036674408448 |
|---|---|
| author | Giulia Olyff Giulia Olyff Ariane Bazan Ariane Bazan Ariane Bazan |
| author_facet | Giulia Olyff Giulia Olyff Ariane Bazan Ariane Bazan Ariane Bazan |
| author_sort | Giulia Olyff |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | IntroductionFreud proposed that names of clinically salient objects or situations, such as for example a beetle (Käfer) in Mr. E’s panic attack, refer through their phonological word form, and not through their meaning, to etiologically important events—here, “Que faire?” which summarizes the indecisiveness of Mr. E’s mother concerning her marriage with Mr. E’s father. Lacan formalized these ideas, attributing full-fledged mental effectiveness to the signifier, and summarized this as “the unconscious structured as a language”. We tested one aspect of this theory, namely that there is an influence of the ambiguous phonological translation of the world upon our mental processing without us being aware of this influence.MethodsFor this, we used a rebus priming paradigm, including 14 French rebuses, composed of two images depicting common objects, such as paon /pã/ “peacock” and terre /tεr/ “earth,” together forming the rebus panthère /pãtεr/ “panther.” These images were followed by a target word semantically related to the rebus resolution, e.g., félin “feline,” upon which the participants, unaware of the rebus principle, produced 6 written associations. A total of 1,458 participants were randomly assigned either to Experiment 1 in which they were shown the rebus images in either forward or in reverse order or to Experiment 2, in which they were shown only one of both rebus images, either the first or the last.Results and discussionThe results show that the images induced inadvertent rebus priming in naïve participants. In other words, our results show that people solve rebuses unwittingly independent of stimulus order, thereby constituting empirical evidence for the mental effectiveness of the signifier. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-10T16:02:24Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-46a0b796889e4e6385a32064af48cb2f |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1662-5161 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-10T16:02:24Z |
| publishDate | 2023-02-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |
| spelling | doaj.art-46a0b796889e4e6385a32064af48cb2f2023-02-10T10:38:28ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Human Neuroscience1662-51612023-02-011610.3389/fnhum.2022.965183965183People solve rebuses unwittingly—Both forward and backward: Empirical evidence for the mental effectiveness of the signifierGiulia Olyff0Giulia Olyff1Ariane Bazan2Ariane Bazan3Ariane Bazan4Centre de Recherche en Psychologie Clinique, Psychopathologie et Psychosomatique, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Bruxelles, BelgiumObservatoire du SIDA et des Sexualités, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Bruxelles, BelgiumCentre de Recherche en Psychologie Clinique, Psychopathologie et Psychosomatique, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Bruxelles, BelgiumObservatoire du SIDA et des Sexualités, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Bruxelles, BelgiumInterpsy (UR 4432), Université de Lorraine, Nancy, FranceIntroductionFreud proposed that names of clinically salient objects or situations, such as for example a beetle (Käfer) in Mr. E’s panic attack, refer through their phonological word form, and not through their meaning, to etiologically important events—here, “Que faire?” which summarizes the indecisiveness of Mr. E’s mother concerning her marriage with Mr. E’s father. Lacan formalized these ideas, attributing full-fledged mental effectiveness to the signifier, and summarized this as “the unconscious structured as a language”. We tested one aspect of this theory, namely that there is an influence of the ambiguous phonological translation of the world upon our mental processing without us being aware of this influence.MethodsFor this, we used a rebus priming paradigm, including 14 French rebuses, composed of two images depicting common objects, such as paon /pã/ “peacock” and terre /tεr/ “earth,” together forming the rebus panthère /pãtεr/ “panther.” These images were followed by a target word semantically related to the rebus resolution, e.g., félin “feline,” upon which the participants, unaware of the rebus principle, produced 6 written associations. A total of 1,458 participants were randomly assigned either to Experiment 1 in which they were shown the rebus images in either forward or in reverse order or to Experiment 2, in which they were shown only one of both rebus images, either the first or the last.Results and discussionThe results show that the images induced inadvertent rebus priming in naïve participants. In other words, our results show that people solve rebuses unwittingly independent of stimulus order, thereby constituting empirical evidence for the mental effectiveness of the signifier.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2022.965183/fullrebussignifierFreudLacanphonological primingShevrin |
| spellingShingle | Giulia Olyff Giulia Olyff Ariane Bazan Ariane Bazan Ariane Bazan People solve rebuses unwittingly—Both forward and backward: Empirical evidence for the mental effectiveness of the signifier Frontiers in Human Neuroscience rebus signifier Freud Lacan phonological priming Shevrin |
| title | People solve rebuses unwittingly—Both forward and backward: Empirical evidence for the mental effectiveness of the signifier |
| title_full | People solve rebuses unwittingly—Both forward and backward: Empirical evidence for the mental effectiveness of the signifier |
| title_fullStr | People solve rebuses unwittingly—Both forward and backward: Empirical evidence for the mental effectiveness of the signifier |
| title_full_unstemmed | People solve rebuses unwittingly—Both forward and backward: Empirical evidence for the mental effectiveness of the signifier |
| title_short | People solve rebuses unwittingly—Both forward and backward: Empirical evidence for the mental effectiveness of the signifier |
| title_sort | people solve rebuses unwittingly both forward and backward empirical evidence for the mental effectiveness of the signifier |
| topic | rebus signifier Freud Lacan phonological priming Shevrin |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2022.965183/full |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT giuliaolyff peoplesolverebusesunwittinglybothforwardandbackwardempiricalevidenceforthementaleffectivenessofthesignifier AT giuliaolyff peoplesolverebusesunwittinglybothforwardandbackwardempiricalevidenceforthementaleffectivenessofthesignifier AT arianebazan peoplesolverebusesunwittinglybothforwardandbackwardempiricalevidenceforthementaleffectivenessofthesignifier AT arianebazan peoplesolverebusesunwittinglybothforwardandbackwardempiricalevidenceforthementaleffectivenessofthesignifier AT arianebazan peoplesolverebusesunwittinglybothforwardandbackwardempiricalevidenceforthementaleffectivenessofthesignifier |