In a well-known experiment conducted by researchers at the University of Uppsala in Sweden, images of snakes and spiders were exposed to a series of volunteers. However, these images only appeared on the screen for less than one three hundredth of a second .
To consciously register an image we need about half a second. However, those volunteers experienced sweaty palms. They reacted with fear even though they were not aware of having seen what caused them fear and concern.
This experiment, then, highlights how our attention distinguishes something and quickly alerts those parts of the brain that channel responses before the conscious mind has even finished noticing it.
What this experiment also demonstrates is the robustness of the classical conditioning preparation theory proposed by Seligman (1970, 1971), which has been widely applied over the last 40 years to explain the nature and "source" of human fear and fear. phobias. Image | LongitudeLatitude