Indirect memory tests assess the retention of information without direct reference to the source of information. Participants are given tasks designed to elicit knowledge that was acquired incidentally or unconsciously and is evident when performance shows greater inclination towards items initially presented than new items.Rajaram, S., Roediger, H. (1993). Direct comparison of four implicit memory tests. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 19(4), 765-776 Performance on indirect tests may reflect contributions of implicit memory, the effects of priming, a preference to respond to previously experienced stimuli over novel stimuli. Types of indirect memory tests include the implicit association test, the lexical decision task, the word stem completion task, artificial grammar learning, word fragment completion, and the serial reaction time task.
Implicit association test (IAT) The implicit association test is a testing method designed by Anthony Greenwald, Debbie McGhee and Jordan Schwartz, and was first introduced in 1998.Greenwald, A.G., McGhee, D.E., & Schwartz, J.L.K. (1998). Measuring individual differences in implicit cognition: The implicit association test. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(6), 1464-1480 The IAT measures the associative strength between categories (e.g. Bug, Flower) and attributes (e.g. Bad, Good) by having participants rapidly classify stimuli that represent the categories and attributes of interest on a computer.Lane, K.A., Banaji, M.R., Nosek, B.A., & Greenwald, A.G. (2007). Understanding and using the Implicit Associating Test: IV. What we know (so far) about the method (Pp. 59-102). In B. Wittenbrink & N.S. Schwarz (Eds.). Implicit measures of attitudes: Procedures and controversies. New York: Guillford Press. During four of the seven trial blocks in an IAT, categories and attributes share a response key (e.g. Bug or Bad, Flower or Good), with the underlying assumption being that participant response times will be quicker when the category and attribute are more closely associated.
Method/procedure
The first two trial blocks have participants match stimuli only to categories or attributes, to allow participants to practice grouping the stimuli (Bug, Flower). The third and fourth trial blocks mark the first occurrence that a category and attribute share a response key, and during these blocks, categories and attributes are grouped in a congruently associative manner (e.g. Bug with Bad, Flower with Good). The fifth trial block has the category labels switch sides, and gives participants a chance to practice grouping stimuli from the category, with the new orientation of the labels (e.g. Flower, Bug). Finally, the sixth and seventh trial blocks have categories and attributes sharing a response key again, but now, because of the switching of sides for the category, labels are now presented in an incongruently associative manner (Flower and Bad, Bug and Good).
Originally, a participant's performance during an IAT was scored in milliseconds, depending on how much time they took to respond each trial, but since then, an improved scoring algorithm has been created.Greenwald, A.G., Nosek, B.A., & Banaji, M.R. (2003). Understanding and using the Implicit Association Test: I. An improved scoring algorithm. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(2), 197-216 The resulting "D measure" was found to be superior in a variety of ways, such as creating larger correlations with explicit measures, and reducing the effects of prior IAT experience. Interpreting the D measure is also fairly straightforward, with high positive scores indicating a congruent implicit preference, high negative scores indicating an incongruent implicit preference, and scores around zero indicating a relatively neutral implicit preference.
Reliability and validity information Implicit measures, especially latency-based ones, typically struggle to achieve a satisfactory level of internal consistency and test-retest reliability. However, the IAT possess acceptable levels of both, with one review finding that internal consistency values of IAT's typically ranged from .7 to .9.Greenwald, A.G., & Nosek, B.A. (2001). Health of the Implicit Association Test at age 3. Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie, 48, 85-93 In terms of test-retest reliability, the IAT has shown itself to be a relatively stable measure, however, little research has examined the test-retest reliability of the IAT with a gap in time larger than a month between administrations.Nosek, B.A., Greenwald, A.G., & Banaji, M.R. (2007). The Implicit Association Test at age 7: A methodological and conceptual review (Pp. 265-292). In J.A. Bargh (Ed.), Automatic processes in social thinking and behavior. Psychology Press.
The IAT has also established itself to be an acceptably valid measure, and has demonstrated this through its convergent validity, discriminant validity, and predictive validity. The IAT's convergent and discriminant validity has been established through its comparison with explicit measures, whereby IAT's were found to relate to explicit measures targeting the traits, and not with explicit measures targeting unrelated traits. Additionally, multitrait-multimethod studies have demonstrated that although IATs and explicit measures may be related, they appear to be measuring different constructs. Overall, the IAT has been found to be an effective predictor of behavior, and is generally superior to self-report measures when dealing with topics of discrimination and stereotyping, especially when examining patterns of ingroup liking (e.g. preferring Canadians over Americans if one is Canadian, and vice versa if one is American).
Current research The IAT is a procedure applied to a variety of research topics, including examinations of self-esteem, consumer studies, and human sexuality. Often, it is the IAT's ability to skirt socially desirable response biases that makes it an attractive method, and it is often used in lieu of, or alongside explicit self-report measures.
Implicit self-esteem Implicit self-esteem IAT's utilize "self" and "other" as categories, and "positive" and "negative" as attributes.Greenwald, A.G., & Farnham, S.D.(2000). Using the Implicit Association Test to measure self-esteem and self-concept Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(6), 1022-1038 Participants who group "self" stimuli quicker when sharing a response with "positive" stimuli show positive implicit self-esteem. On the other hand, participants who group "self" stimuli quicker when sharing a response key with "negative" stimuli show low implicit self-esteem. In one implicit self-esteem IAT study, it was demonstrated that North American and Asian university students all have relatively high levels of implicit self-esteem.Yamaguchi, S., Greenwald, A.G., Banaji, M.R., Murakami, F., Chen, D., Shiomura, K., Kobayashi, C., Cai, H., & Krendl, A. (2007). Apparent universality of positive implicit self-esteem. Psychological Science, 18(6), 498-500 This is quite a difference when compared with explicit measures of self-esteem, as North American participants tended to have much higher levels of explicit self-esteem than their Asian counterparts, highlighting implicit self-esteem as a possibly universal phenomenon. Separate research examining the relationship of implicit and explicit self-esteem has determined that the two are separate, but weakly related constructs.
Marketing and consumer studies The IAT has also been effectively used in the realm of marketing and consumer studies. In one such study, participant's attitudes towards Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows computers were compared using both an explicit measure and an IAT.Brunel, F.F., Tietje, B.C., & Greenwald, A.G. (2004). Is the Implicit Association Test a valid and valuable measure of implicit consumer social cognition? Journal of Consumer Psychology, 14(4), 385-404 The IAT used targets of "Windows" and "Mac" which were paired with attributes of "positive" and "negative". The researchers found that while correlations between explicit brand preference and implicit brand preference were high, that Mac users had stronger implicit preferences for their brand than Windows users. Other IAT research has also demonstrated that the IAT can reliably predict consumer behavior, including purchase intention, brand preference, and perceived brand superiority.Perkins, A., Forehand, M., Greenwald, A.G., & Maison, D. (2008). The influence of implicit social cognition on consumer behavior: Measuring the non-conscious. In C. Haugtvedt, P. Herr, & F. Kardes (Eds.), Handbook of Consumer Psychology (Pp. 461-475). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Human sexuality Human sexuality research has been one area where the IAT has been slow to catch on as a procedure choice, as implicit sexual attitudes have not been investigated in earnestGeer, J.H. & Robertson, G.G. (2005). Implicit attitudes in sexuality: Gender differences. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 34(6), 671-677 and most of the research has focused on attitudes towards condom use, and attitudes towards gay and lesbian people. In one study, researchers found that while explicit attitudes towards gays and lesbians were generally positive, implicit attitudes towards gay men were negative, as were men's implicit attitudes towards lesbians.Steffens, M.C. (2005). Implicit and explicit attitudes towards lesbians and gay men. Journal of Homosexuality, 49(2), 39-66 Additionally, the IAT has been found to be extremely effective at predicting the sexual orientation of gay and heterosexual men.Snowden, R.J., Wichter, J., & Gray, N.S. (2008). Implicit and explicit measurements of sexual preferences in gay and heterosexual men: A comparison of Priming Techniques and the Implicit Association Test Archives of Sexual Behavior, 37, 558-565 Finally, research comparing heterosexual men and women found that heterosexual women harbor more negative explicit and implicit attitudes towards sex than males.
Criticisms
Previous criticisms of the IAT typically centered around the notion that IAT effects were a product of familiarity with stimulus items, rather than actual implicit attitudes. However, additional research seems to have addressed this concern as several studies have shown that IAT effects are not on account of familiarity.Dasgupta, N., McGhee, D.E., Greenwald, A.G., & Banaji, M.R. (2000). Automatic preference for white American: Eliminating the familiarity explanation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, (36), 316-328. One such study found that implicit attitudes towards White Americans were much more positive compared to Black Americans, even when equally unfamiliar stimuli were used to represent these categories.
Currently, most of the criticisms of the IAT center around the accuracy of its communicated purpose, as some have interpreted the IAT to act as a kind of lie detector to get at attitudes that are "more true". However, the creators of the IAT assert that participants' implicit attitudes may differ from self-report for a number of reasons, such as they are unaware of these implicit biases, are aware of the implicit biases but reject them as incongruent with their beliefs, or are aware of the implicit biases and simply attempt to hide them, and only in the third case does the IAT fit the description of detecting hidden beliefs. In conclusion the authors state that the difference between the IAT and self-report measures of attitudes is that self-report measures require introspection, while the IAT does not: they simply measure different things and one is not more associated with truth than the other.
Lexical decision task (LDT)