Dynamic competition and binding of concepts through time and space.

Abstract

Models of implicit stereotypes (e.g., association of male with math or female with language) usually explain the faster responses observed for stereotype-congruent trials in the Implicit Association Test (IAT) by requiring a fundamental opposition between the male and female concepts (or math-language), limiting the decision-making dynamics to abstract dimensions. This paper introduces alternate models exploiting the sensorimotor dimensions of the IAT, which naturally account for the opposition between concepts, because typically mapped on opposite corners of the screen space and on different response actions. In addition to the emergence of the IAT effect, dynamic characteristics of the decision-making process within these models are tested against human data, obtained with a mouse-tracking adapted IAT procedure.