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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Implicit Association Test (IAT) is an experimental method within social psychology designed to measure the strength of automatic association between mental representations of objects (concepts) in memory. The IAT requires the rapid categorization of various stimulus objects, such that easier pairings (and faster responses) are interpreted as being more strongly associated in memory than more difficult pairings (slower responses).

The IAT is a tool in the development of theories of implicit social cognition, a body of results that suggest that many cognitive processes that affect behavior are unconscious in nature and are inaccessible to observation by the actor. These implicit processes affect perception, influence behavior, and color interpretation of past events. The IAT has been profiled in major media outlets (e.g. in the Washington Post^[1] ) and in the popular book Blink, where it was suggested that one could score better on the implicit racism test by visualizing respected black leaders such as Nelson Mandela. The most prominent implicit association test is one that measures bias on race. Other popular tests look at gender and age bias.

The IAT was introduced in 1998 by Anthony Greenwald, Debbie McGhee, and Jordan Schwartz. Project Implicit, a research and educational outreach program that allows individuals to take the test over the web, is run by social psychologists Greenwald, Mahzarin Banaji, and Brian Nosek.

The IAT has also been used in clinical psychology research. Recent work led by Bethany Teachman (wife of aforementioned researcher Brian Nosek) at the University of Virginia has tested the hypothesis that implicit associations may be maintaining or causal factors in the development of anxiety disorders. ^[2]

A recent meta-analysis has suggested that the IAT is a better predictor of some forms of behavior (e.g. discrimination) than traditional 'explicit' self-report methods,^[3] but there are some questions as to the fitness of the explicit measures used in the studies reviewed by this meta-analysis (e.g., "feeling thermometers; see Theory of reasoned action), and this analysis omitted published studies that should have been included. Two recent re-analyses in Journal of Applied Psychology and General Internal Medicine also call into question conclusions in some of the studies summarized. The IAT has been used to measure attitudes toward objects in the environment, self-esteem, self-identity, and stereotypes. In applied settings, the IAT has been used in marketing and industrial psychology.

Variations of the IAT include the Go/No-go Association Test (GNAT) and the Brief-IAT.

[edit] Criticism and controversy

The IAT has engendered some controversy (e.g. in the Wall Street Journal; Science News Article). More specifically, it has been interpreted as assessing familiarity,^[4] perceptual salience asymmetries,^[5] or mere cultural knowledge regardless of personal endorsement of that knowledge.^[6] A more recent critique argued that there is a lack of empirical research justifying the diagnostic statements that are given to the lay public.^[7] Proponents of the IAT have responded to these charges,^[8] but the debate continues. According to The New York Times, "there isn’t even that much consistency in the same person’s scores if the test is taken again."^[9]

[edit] References

1. ^ Vedantam, Shankar (2005-01-23). "See No Bias". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27067-2005Jan21.html. Retrieved on 2008-10-10. 
2. ^ Teachman, Bethany. "Bethany Teachman". http://projectimplicit.net/bethany/research.html#cog. Retrieved on 2008-10-11. 
3. ^ Poehlman, T. Andrew; Uhlmann, Eric Luis; Greenwald, Anthony G.; Banaji, Mahzarin (PDF). Understanding and Using the Implicit Association Test: III. Meta-analysis of Predictive Validity. http://faculty.washington.edu/agg/pdf/IAT.Meta-analysis.16Sep05.pdf. Retrieved on 2008-10-11. 
4. ^ Greenwald, Anthony. "Dr. Anthony Greenwald / IAT Materials". http://faculty.washington.edu/agg/iat_validity.htm#famil. Retrieved on 2008-10-11. 
5. ^ Rothermund, Klaus; Wentura, Dirk (2004). "Underlying Processes in the Implicit Association Test: Dissociating Salience From Associations" (PDF). Journal of Experimental Psychology: General (American Psychological Association) 133 (2): 139-165. http://faculty.washington.edu/agg/IATmaterials/PDFs/R&W.JEPG(2004).pdf. 
6. ^ Karpinski, Andrew; Hilton, James L. (2001). "Attitudes and the Implicit Association Test" (PDF). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (American Psychological Association) 81 (5): 774-778. http://faculty.washington.edu/agg/IATmaterials/PDFs/Karpinski&Hilton.JPSP(2001).pdf. 
7. ^ Blanton, Hart; Jaccard, James (January 2006). "Arbitrary Metrics in Psychology" (PDF). American Psychologist (American Psychological Association) 61 (1): 27-41. http://psychology.tamu.edu/Faculty/blanton/bj.2006.arbitrary.pdf. 
8. ^ Greenwald, Anthony. "Dr. Anthony Greenwald / IAT Materials". http://faculty.washington.edu/agg/iat_validity.htm#famil. Retrieved on 2008-10-11. 
9. ^ Tierney, John (November 17, 2008). "In Bias Test, Shades of Gray". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/18/science/18tier.html. Retrieved on 2009-01-09. 

[edit] External links

• Project Implicit - Take the test
• A name based Implicit Association Test
• American Psychologist Article
• Wall Street Journal article
• Test of Unconscious Identification- similar to the IAT using open source software
• Further Readings on Unconscious Bias from John Tierney column on Bias of Bias test