Robust within-session modulations of IAT scores may reveal novel dynamics of rapid change

Abstract

The Implicit Association Test (IAT) is employed in the domain of social psychology as a measure of implicit evaluation. Participants in this task complete blocks of trials where they are asked to respond to categories and attributes (e.g., types of faces and types of words). Reaction times in different blocks sharing certain response combinations are averaged and then subtracted from blocks with other response combinations and then normalized, the result of which is taken as a measure indicating implicit evaluation toward or away from the given categories. One assumption of this approach is stationarity of response time distributions, or at a minimum, that temporal dynamics in response times are not theoretically relevant. Here we test these assumptions, examine the extent to which response times change within the IAT blocks and, if so, how trajectories of change are meaningful in relation to external measures. Using multiple data sets we demonstrate within-session changes in IAT scores. Further, we demonstrate that dissociable components in the trajectories of IAT performance may be linked to theoretically distinct processes of cognitive biases as well as behaviors. The present work presents evidence that IAT performance changes within the task, while future work is needed to fully assess the implications of these temporal dynamics.