scholarly journals Unconscious motivation. Part I: Implicit attitudes toward L2 speakers

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 423-454 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali H. Al-Hoorie

This paper reports the first investigation in the second language acquisition field assessing learners’ implicit attitudes using the Implicit Association Test, a computerized reaction-time measure. Examination of the explicit and implicit attitudes of Arab learners of English (N = 365) showed that, particularly for males, implicit attitudes toward L2 speakers are associated with self-reported openness to the L2 group and with strength of correlations among attitudinal and motivational variables. Implicit attitudes also moderated important paths in the L2 Motivational Self System. The paper concludes that implicit attitudes seem to be a meaningful individual difference variable, adding a new dimension to our understanding of language motivation.

Author(s):  
Melanie C. Steffens ◽  
Axel Buchner

Implicit attitudes are conceived of as formed in childhood, suggesting extreme stability. At the same time, it has been shown that implicit attitudes are influenced by situational factors, suggesting variability by the moment. In the present article, using structural equation modeling, we decomposed implicit attitudes towards gay men into a person factor and a situational factor. The Implicit Association Test ( Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998 ), introduced as an instrument with which individual differences in implicit attitudes can be measured, was used. Measurement was repeated after one week (Experiment 1) or immediately (Experiment 2). Explicit attitudes towards gay men as assessed by way of questionnaires were positive and stable across situations. Implicit attitudes were relatively negative instead. Internal consistency of the implicit attitude assessment was exemplary. However, the within-situation consistency was accompanied by considerable unexplained between-situation variability. Consequently, it may not be adequate to interpret an individual implicit attitude measured at a given point in time as a person-related, trait-like factor.


2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
John T. Jost

The implicit association test (IAT) is one of several measures of implicit attitudes, but it has attracted especially intense criticism. Some methodological objections are valid, but they are damning only if one accepts false analogies between the IAT and measures of intellectual aptitude, clinical diagnosis, or physical height. Other objections are predicated on misconceptions of the nature of attitudes (which are context-sensitive and reflect personal and cultural forces) or the naive assumption that people cannot be biased against their own group. Other criticisms are ideological, pertaining to questions of moral and political value, such as whether it is good to have fewer pro-White/anti-Black implicit attitudes and to provide respondents with feedback about their implicit attitudes. Implicit-attitude measures have been extremely useful in predicting voting and other political behavior. An indirect, unobtrusive, context-sensitive measure of attitudes is far more useful to social and political psychologists than an IQ test or clinical “diagnosis” would be, insofar as it reflects a dynamic Lewinian conception of the “person in the situation.”


2011 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 479-489 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gert-Jan de Bruijn ◽  
Mario Keer ◽  
Mark Conner ◽  
Ryan E. Rhodes

An implicit association test (IAT) was used to investigate how habit strength, implicit attitudes and fruit consumption interrelate. Fifty-two participants completed a computerized IAT and provided measures of fruit consumption and related habit strength. Implicit attitudes moderated the habit strength—fruit consumption relationship; stronger relationships were observed when implicit attitudes were more positive. Amongst those with strong fruit habits, more positive associations with fruit were found for those who had recently consumed sufficient fruits compared to those who had not. Findings demonstrate the relevance of implicit positive associations in understanding the relationship between fruit consumption habits and subsequent fruit consumption.


2014 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luca Stefanutti ◽  
Michelangelo Vianello ◽  
Pasquale Anselmi ◽  
Egidio Robusto

AbstractThe Implicit Association Test (IAT) is a computerized two-choice discrimination task in which stimuli have to be categorized as belonging to target categories or attribute categories by pressing, as quickly and accurately as possible, one of two response keys. The discrimination association model has been recently proposed for the analysis of reaction time and accuracy of an individual respondent to the IAT. The model disentangles the influences of three qualitatively different components on the responses to the IAT: stimuli discrimination, automatic association, and termination criterion. The article presents General Race (GRace), a MATLAB-based application for fitting the discrimination association model to IAT data. GRace has been developed for Windows as a standalone application. It is user-friendly and does not require any programming experience. The use of GRace is illustrated on the data of a Coca Cola-Pepsi Cola IAT, and the results of the analysis are interpreted and discussed.


Author(s):  

Rationale: The significance of this research stems from the impact implicit attitudes have on smoking behavior, where positive implicit attitudes can result in a greater likelihood of smoking behavior. Even though it has previously been argued that implicit attitudes can drive addictive behavior there is a lack of research on whether cigarette packaging has an influence on implicit attitudes. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of plain cigarette packaging and designed/logo cigarette packaging on implicit attitudes. Methods: Implicit attitudes towards cigarette packaging were assessed by means of the Brief Implicit Association Test (BIAT). A questionnaire was conducted to assess sociodemographic and smoking behavior. The Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND) was used to assess level of dependence. The sample consisted of 264 participants. Results: BIAT indicate a significant association between designed/logo cigarette packaging and positive implicit attitudes (Mean d-score > .15). Cigarette packaging design’s influence on implicit attitudes is positive (Mean d-score = .22), where there is a slight association between designed/logo packaging and positive implicit attitudes. Conclusions: When compared with plain packaging, designed/logo cigarette packaging leads to positive implicit attitudes. These findings support the effectiveness of plain packaging regulations where the removal of color, design and logo from cigarette packaging will decrease positive implicit attitudes formed by cigarette packaging.


2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 403-425
Author(s):  
Ryan C. Erps ◽  
Kimihiro Noguchi

A new two-sample test for comparing variability measures is proposed. To make the test robust and powerful, a new modified structural zero removal method is applied to the Brown–Forsythe transformation. The t-test-based statistic allows results to be expressed as the ratio of mean absolute deviations from median. Extensive simulation study demonstrates that the proposed test is robust to small or unequal sample sizes across many distributions. Moreover, careful exploratory analysis provides a new method for calculating the implicit association test scores for reaction time data with multiplicative treatment effects. Using this, a possible difference between variability of men and women’s implicit attitudes toward gay men is analyzed.


2012 ◽  
Vol 45 (03) ◽  
pp. 449-455 ◽  
Author(s):  
Todd K. Hartman ◽  
Adam J. Newmark

AbstractRecent polls reveal that between 20% and 25% of Americans erroneously indicate that President Obama is a Muslim. In this article, we compare individuals' explicit responses on a survey about religion and politics with reaction time data from an Implicit Association Test (IAT) to investigate whether individuals truly associate Obama with Islam or are motivated reasoners who simply express negativity about the president when given the opportunity. Our results suggest that predispositions such as ideology, partisanship, and race affect how citizens feel about Obama, which in turn motivates them to accept misinformation about the president. We also find that these implicit associations increase the probability of stating that Obama is likely a Muslim. Interestingly, political sophistication does not appear to inoculate citizens from exposure to misinformation, as they exhibit the same IAT effect as less knowledgeable individuals.


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