The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of supplemental subliminal captions and field dependence on the recall of cognitive information. Groups of subjects (N = 199) viewed one of four television presentations: subliminal captions only, conventional (visible) captions only, subliminal and visible combined for reinforcement, and subliminal and visible mismatched for interference. D8ta was analysed using ANCOVA and Tukey multiple comparison tests with a 0.05 significance level. There was a significant difference in recall between field dependents and field independents in each treatment except combined subliminal and conventional captions.Based on this evidence the authors suggest repetitive subliminal television captions which supplement visible captions may be an effective device for reducing differences in achievement attributable to cognitive style in learning from television programmes. Subliminal perception has been demonstrated to occur when visual or aural stimuli below the level of conscious awareness have effected a person's behaviour. Often, however, the effects were tentative and weak, and any possible influence of individual differences among subjects was not controlled. In this study, televised content-relevant subliminal messages were tested as a means of aiding concept learning among students who were stratified on the cognitive-style field dependence.Several generalizations about subliminal perception became apparent from a review of four summaries of research (Bevan, 1964; Dixon, 198 1 and 197 1 ;McConnell, Cutler and McNeil, 1958). For example, susceptibility to subliminal stimulation varies among people and is dependent on a number of factors such as anxiety, attentiveness, and need. Likewise an individual's sensitivity to subliminal effects tends to be cumulative, as repeated viewings of subliminal materials tend to make a person more aware of the technique. Differences in individual perceptual thresholds also may determine if subliminal messages are perceived.In three studies which used film or television, an attempt was made to teach one topic while students viewed an unrelated programme. This 'two-for-one' approach did not prove successful, however, as DeChenne (1976), Skinner (1969), andTaris (1970) found that students did not learn from subliminal messages which were unrelated in content to the main programme. In contrast, Murch (1965) found that if people who were concentrating on a task were also given task-related subliminal messages, their performance improved. Taken together, these two sets of findings suggest that the context in which subliminal messages are presented may determine, to a degree, their effectiveness. Rather than teaching one topic subliminally while students attend to another topic presented through 'normal' conventional channels, an alternative educational use of subliminal perception may be as a content reinforcement technique. Both Murch (1965) and Skinner (1969) have suggested exploration of this technique, but no research studies were found that ...