Figure-ground asymmetries in the Implicit Association Test (IAT).
Based on the assumption that binary classification tasks are often processed asymmetrically (figure-ground asymmetries), two experiments showed that association alone cannot account for effects observed in the Implicit Association Test (IAT). Experiment 1 (N = 16) replicated a standard version of the IAT effect using old vs. young names as target categories and good and bad words as attribute categories. However, reliable compatibility effects were also found for a modified version of the task in which neutral words vs. nonwords instead of good vs. bad words were used as attribute categories. In Experiment 2 (N = 8), a reversed IAT effect was observed after the figure-ground asymmetry in the target dimension had been inverted by a previous go/nogo detection task in which participants searched for exemplars of the category "young." The experiments support the hypothesis that figure-ground asymmetries produce compatibility effects in the IAT and suggest that IAT effects do not rely exclusively on evaluative associations between the target and attribute categories.
Rothermund
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Department of Psychology, University of Trier, D-54286 Trier. rothermu@uni-trier.de
Wentura
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D000328:Adult; D001244:Association; D001290:Attitude; D005260:Female; D005364:Field Dependence-Independence; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011287:Prejudice; D011594:Psychometrics; D013240:Stereotyping; D014936:Word Association Tests