The mind's “aye”? Investigating overlap in findings produced by reverse correlation versus self-report

Abstract

Reverse correlation is an influential method for assessing mental representations. One benefit of reverse correlation is that the method may capture psychological content that individuals are unwilling to self-report due to social desirability concerns, particularly in domains like person perception or intergroup processes. To investigate the degree to which reverse correlation and self-report findings are aligned, 32 prior reverse correlation studies (totaling 148 analyses) were converted into comparable measures of self-report (total N = 3441). Despite only 13% of original studies containing a parallel self-report measure, 55% of research conclusions could be replicated using self-report, though effect sizes from the two methods were unrelated (r = −0.06). The two methods were more likely to reach the same conclusion for findings that were rated as more intuitive. Future uses of reverse correlation will benefit from greater consideration to when the method is most necessary and informative.