Neuroscience
To find out, now you too can take the latest Implicit Association Test (IAT)!
Mixing Memory has posted a hilarious summary of a satirical IAT paper, I See Dead People (Taking the Implicit Association Test). The paper bemoans the shocking decline in participants available to take the IAT. After describing the results of Study 1, the IAT in unborn babies,
Reference
Bones, A.K., & Johnson, N.R. (2007). Measuring the immeasurable: Or "Could Abraham Lincoln Take the Implicit Association Test?" Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2(4), 406-411.
With the Association for Psychological Science's new ethical standards requiring that all research studies include an Implicit Association Test (IAT), forecasters predict that the population of new participants available to take IATs will expire by the year 2023. Shrill, doomsday proposals from IAT experts involve rationing the precious pool of remaining IAT novices or other naive strategies. These solutions demonstrate rigid, scientific thinking, with a distinct lack of the creative flair that makes psychology stand apart from the real sciences. Building on our prior experience of adapting the IAT for measuring infant cognition and rooting out aliens among us, we demonstrate that new pools of participant resources—the unborn and passed on—are available, if we take the time to develop the methods to exploit them. Two studies illustrate some of the methodological challenges and opportunities that must be met in order to make better use of the new populations to keep the IAT juggernaut on its path of global (and interstellar) domination.
- Extras
Eye-catching studies that didn't make the final cut (plus some other tit-bits): Did working memory spark creative culture? How thinking of sex vs. love changes our mode of mental processing. Thinking of love boosts our global processing, including...
- Extras
Eye-catching studies that didn't make the final cut: Children's understanding of transfer of ownership. Using the implicit association test to change, rather than simply measure, people's attitudes. Baby-faced politicians deemed to be less...
- So-called 'implicit' Test Of Attitudes Is Affected By Social Desirability
A perennial problem with asking people about their views is that they are likely to moderate their answers to make them socially acceptable. The ‘implicit association test’ (IAT) is supposed to get round that problem by tapping into people’s deep-held...
- Extras
Studies that didn't make the final cut this fortnight: The 'implicit association test', used to measure people's inherent biases, might not be as pure a measure as some would suggest. And see this on Mind Hacks. Can false memories recover...
- Human, All Too Human (and Alien)
Are You an Alien? To find out, now you too can take the latest Implicit Association Test (IAT)! Human or Alien? The Neurocritic is Human AND Alien. Coming soon: "Tips for Manipulating the IAT." You have completed the...
Neuroscience
Human or Alien?
To find out, now you too can take the latest Implicit Association Test (IAT)!Human or Alien?
Mixing Memory has posted a hilarious summary of a satirical IAT paper, I See Dead People (Taking the Implicit Association Test). The paper bemoans the shocking decline in participants available to take the IAT. After describing the results of Study 1, the IAT in unborn babies,
...Bones and Johnson found another untapped population to study with the IAT: dead people. They point out that the work of people like M. Night Shyamalan has called into question the validity of people's self-report about whether they're alive or dead. An implicit measure of life or death is therefore important for both methodological and practical reasons.For a good laugh, read the rest of the summary and the original paper by "Bones & Johnson" 2007.
Reference
Bones, A.K., & Johnson, N.R. (2007). Measuring the immeasurable: Or "Could Abraham Lincoln Take the Implicit Association Test?" Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2(4), 406-411.
With the Association for Psychological Science's new ethical standards requiring that all research studies include an Implicit Association Test (IAT), forecasters predict that the population of new participants available to take IATs will expire by the year 2023. Shrill, doomsday proposals from IAT experts involve rationing the precious pool of remaining IAT novices or other naive strategies. These solutions demonstrate rigid, scientific thinking, with a distinct lack of the creative flair that makes psychology stand apart from the real sciences. Building on our prior experience of adapting the IAT for measuring infant cognition and rooting out aliens among us, we demonstrate that new pools of participant resources—the unborn and passed on—are available, if we take the time to develop the methods to exploit them. Two studies illustrate some of the methodological challenges and opportunities that must be met in order to make better use of the new populations to keep the IAT juggernaut on its path of global (and interstellar) domination.
- Extras
Eye-catching studies that didn't make the final cut (plus some other tit-bits): Did working memory spark creative culture? How thinking of sex vs. love changes our mode of mental processing. Thinking of love boosts our global processing, including...
- Extras
Eye-catching studies that didn't make the final cut: Children's understanding of transfer of ownership. Using the implicit association test to change, rather than simply measure, people's attitudes. Baby-faced politicians deemed to be less...
- So-called 'implicit' Test Of Attitudes Is Affected By Social Desirability
A perennial problem with asking people about their views is that they are likely to moderate their answers to make them socially acceptable. The ‘implicit association test’ (IAT) is supposed to get round that problem by tapping into people’s deep-held...
- Extras
Studies that didn't make the final cut this fortnight: The 'implicit association test', used to measure people's inherent biases, might not be as pure a measure as some would suggest. And see this on Mind Hacks. Can false memories recover...
- Human, All Too Human (and Alien)
Are You an Alien? To find out, now you too can take the latest Implicit Association Test (IAT)! Human or Alien? The Neurocritic is Human AND Alien. Coming soon: "Tips for Manipulating the IAT." You have completed the...