手术后，Lubke通过向患者展示单词的前三个字母（例如“ lim”）并要求他们完成来对患者进行测试。以这些字母开头的单词在手术过程中播放过的患者（例如“极限”）的选择频率比使用其他单词列表的患者平均高11％。没有患者有意识地听到单词表的记忆。当患者被最轻微地麻醉时，无意识启动对于所播放的单词最强。但是，即使在播放该单词时对患者进行完全麻醉的情况下，它也具有统计学意义。这一发现将发表在《麻醉学》杂志上，可能意味着手术室的工作人员应该更加谨慎。安大略省滑铁卢大学的心理学家菲利普·梅里克勒说，他们在手术期间所说的话可能会令患者感到困扰。After the operation, Lubke tested the patients by showing them the first three letters of a word, such as “lim”, and asking them to complete it. Patients who had had a word starting with these letters played during surgery—“limit”, for example—chose that word an average of 11 percent more often than patients who had been played a different word list. None of the patients had any conscious memory of hearing the word lists. Unconscious priming was strongest for words played when patients were most lightly anaesthetized. But it was statistically significant even when patients were fully anaesthetized when the word was played. This finding, which will be published in the journal Anesthesiology, could mean that operating theatre staff should be more discreet. What they say during surgery may distress patients afterwards, says Philip Merikle, a psychologist at the University of Waterloo, Ontario.