Alan Brown and Elizabeth Marsha report that a brief flash of an entirely novel symbol before its subsequent, longer presentation, significantly increased the likelihood that a participant would wrongly claim to have seen that symbol prior to the experiment.
Indeed, novel symbols not preceded by a subliminal flash were judged to be familiar just three per cent of the time, compared with 15 per cent of the time when preceded by a subliminal flash of the same symbol.
I wonder if Tablet and other mobile PC software developers would increase learning rates if the built subliminal flashes and other cues into a student learning program.
Brown, A., & Marsh, E. (2009). Abstract. Creating Illusions of Past Encounter Through
Brief Exposure Psychological Science, 20 (5), 534-538.
Brown, A. (2004). Getting to grips with déjà vu.