Minimizing the influence of recoding in the Implicit Association Test: the Recoding-Free Implicit Association Test (IAT-RF).
Recoding processes can influence the Implicit Association Test (IAT; Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998) in a way that impedes an unequivocal interpretation of the resulting compatibility effects. We present a modified version of the IAT that aims to eliminate recoding, the IAT-RF (short for "IAT-recoding free"). In the IAT-RF, compatible and incompatible assignments of categories to responses switch randomly between trials within a single experimental block. Abandoning an extended sequence of consistent category-response mappings undermines recoding processes in the IAT-RF. Two experiments reveal that the IAT-RF is capable of assessing compatibility effects between the nominally defined categories of the task and effectively prevents recoding. By enforcing a processing of the stimuli in terms of their task-relevant category membership, the IAT-RF eliminates the confounding of compatibility effects with task switch costs and becomes immune against biased selections of stimuli.
Rothermund
Klaus
K
Institut für Psychologie, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Am Steiger 3, Jena, Germany. klaus.rothermund@uni-jena.de
Teige-Mocigemba
Sarah
S
Gast
Anne
A
Wentura
Dirk
D
D001244:Association; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D014936:Word Association Tests