Article

Psychological studies of "priming" effects document that covertly presented
stimuli can influence behavior without participant awareness. We examined whether
nonconscious priming can influence walking velocity on an instrumented walkway.
Fifty-nine healthy participants were randomly assigned to unscramble sentences
and answer self-concept questions containing words related to either the concepts
elderly/passive or youthful/active. Walking velocity was measured before and
after this priming manipulation. An ANOVA revealed a significant GroupxTime
interaction; the elderly/passive group showed a decrease in walking velocity over
time while the youthful/active group showed an increase. None of the participants
expressed any awareness of the study purpose and the experimenter was blind to
group assignment. These results suggest that spoken or written material received
by patients prior to gait assessments (such as casual conversations or written
health inventories) might influence walking performance outside of client or
clinician awareness.
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Langue : ANGLAIS