Patent ID: 8052425

Claim:
An automated method for developing and/or altering a user's implicit attitudes towards behavioural objects, said method implemented on a computing device via software as a client application that provides a training exercise selected by the user to strengthen their associations with a target behavior or activity, said training exercise comprising: presenting a series of stimuli to the user within a test environment which is either a display screen of a computing device or a graphics window within a display screen of a computing device, each stimulus being associated with a behavioural object, said behavioral object associated with the particular behavior or activity, wherein the series of stimuli are presented at a frequency which promotes the user to categorise the stimuli at a level which minimises rational consideration of the stimuli; designating a first zone within the environment as a positive behavioural association region associated with the user's self image and designating a second zone within the environment as a negative behavioural association region associated with something or someone the user dislikes; and prompting the user to categorise each stimulus by moving the stimulus to either the first zone or the second zone, wherein positively categorising stimuli causes the user to develop improved implicit attitudes towards the behavioural objects associated with those stimuli in the first zone thereby increasing the likelihood a target behavior or activity will be enacted.