Automatic Associations Research Articles

The role of objectification in young men's perpetration of intimate partner violence.

Theorists have argued that objectification is implicated in men's violence against women. Growing correlational and experimental evidence supports this claim. However, little research has studied the link between objectification and violence perpetrated by intimate partners. Three studies examined this link in relation to several forms of violent behavior. Study 1 (N = 215) found that men who implicitly associated women with objects were more likely to perpetrate sexual and physical violence against their female romantic partner, independent of their levels of hostile sexism. Study 2 (N = 325) replicated this finding but examined automatic associations with men's intimate partners rather than women as a class. Greater implicit objectification was again associated with self-reported physical violence and with a behavioral proxy measure of aggression among participants who responded most strongly to an experimental provocation. Study 3 (N = 192) manipulated objectification by inducing a physical appearance-focus mindset and found that the manipulation increased men's tendency to respond violently toward their partner. By implication, objectification appears to play a significant role in facilitating men's violence in romantic relationships.

Who Would Taste It? Exploring Decision-Making Styles and Intention to Eat Insect-Based Food among Italian University Students

Background: Although insect-based foods (IBFs) have been recently proposed as a way to face climate crisis and starvation, they encounter aversion from Western countries, which express fear, disgust, and high risk. The contribution of psychology research to food choices highlights how decisions are made, not only through reasoned attitudes and goal-directed behavior, but also through more automatic associations (dual-system models). Methods: In this paper, we investigated people’s dispositions towards IBFs by combining (a) explicit attitudes (as assessed via self-report scales), (b) automatic associations (as measured via indirect measures), and (c) intention to taste, and comparing different profiles based on (d) psychological factors, including decision-making style, food neophobia, and trust in science and scientist. A pilot sample of 175 Italian university students participated in the study. Results: The analyses of the general sample highlighted rather negative attitudes. The cluster analysis identified 4 decision-making profiles: ‘the gut feeling’, ‘the suspicious’, ‘the vicarious’, and ‘the mind’. It revealed more favorable opinions in ‘the mind’ profile, characterized by a rational decision-making style and high trust in science, and very aversive reactions from ‘the suspicious’ profile, characterized by high food neophobia and low trust in science. Conclusions: The results underline the importance of psychological factors in interpreting people’s reactions to IBF and changes in dietary habits based on the decision-making process. They suggest possible strategies to promote eco-friendly diets.

Crossing river oil pipeline spill emergency response plan automatic association study based on Apriori‐Topsis

Crossing river oil pipeline spill emergency response plan automatic association study based on Apriori‐Topsis

Automatic Associations between Sexual Function Problems and Pursuing Help in Pelvic Physical Therapy Practice: The Psychometric Investigation of an Implicit Association Test

Not all women experiencing pelvic floor complaints and sexual function problems seek help in pelvic physical therapy practice. Decisions to seek help can result from explicit and implicit cognitive processes. Having found some explicit predictive factors for receiving help in this setting, this study examines possible complementary implicit associations between sexual function problems and pursuing help that might also be predictive. The Pursuing Help for Sexual Problems Implicit Association Test (PHSP-IAT) was specially developed for this purpose. The instrument’s reliability and validity were evaluated. High reliability was found (Spearman’s Rho = .95). Convergent and divergent validity analyses resulted in low and non-significant correlations between the PHSP-IAT and the chosen self-report measures. The PHSP-IAT was predictive for receiving help in pelvic physical therapy practice. Further research is necessary to determine the PHSP-IAT’s validity and its predictive value in other healthcare settings.

What drives the automatic retrieval of real-world object size knowledge?

Real-world object size is a behaviorally relevant object property that is automatically retrieved when viewing object images: participants are faster to indicate the bigger of two object images when this object is also bigger in the real world. What drives this size Stroop effect? One possibility is that it reflects the automatic retrieval of real-world size after objects are recognized at the basic level (e.g., recognizing an object as a plane activates large real-world size). An alternative possibility is that the size Stroop effect is driven by automatic associations between low-/mid-level visual features (e.g., rectilinearity) and real-world size, bypassing object recognition. Here, we tested both accounts. In Experiment 1, objects were displayed upright and inverted, slowing down recognition while equating visual features. Inversion strongly reduced the Stroop effect, indicating that object recognition contributed to the Stroop effect. Independently of inversion, however, trial-wise differences in rectilinearity also contributed to the Stroop effect. In Experiment 2, the Stroop effect was compared between manmade objects (for which rectilinearity was associated with size) and animals (no association between rectilinearity and size). The Stroop effect was larger for animals than for manmade objects, indicating that rectilinear feature differences were not necessary for the Stroop effect. Finally, in Experiment 3, unrecognizable "texform" objects that maintained size-related visual feature differences were displayed upright and inverted. Results revealed a small Stroop effect for both upright and inverted conditions. Altogether, these results indicate that the size Stroop effect partly follows object recognition with an additional contribution from visual feature associations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Developing cue-behavior association for habit formation: A qualitative study to explore the role of avatar in hypertension.

Electronic health (eHealth) has been widely adopted in chronic disease management. Prior studies focused on time-based reminders as a cue to facilitate behavior change intentions, ignoring the development of automatic cue-behavior associations via other cue types. Hence, this study utilized avatar appearance as a visual-based cue to help establish the automatic association between appearance transformation and health behavior to form habits without intention. To better understand users' attitudes and experiences toward applying changes in avatar appearance to develop cue-behavior associations for hypertensive patients. Fifteen participants were recruited in a 14-day experiment. After excluding one participant who dropped out of the experiment, others were randomly assigned to two groups. One group consisted of a visual-based cue (a virtual plant) and basic behavior change techniques (BCTs). The other group only included basic BCTs. Attitudes and experience outcomes were collected by interview, and qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis. 57% of participants had been diagnosed with hypertension for more than five years, and more than 50% of participants have experience using mobile apps or wearables. 66% of participants did physical activity more than three times every week. The result shows that tailored time-based reminders, blood pressure monitoring, and daily dietary intake were the most attractive features. Additionally, hypertensive participants have positive attitudes toward avatar appearance as a visual-based cue to develop cue-behavior association, which enhances self-management motivation. This study proposes a visual-based cue design for habit formation and conducts a qualitative method to explore hypertensive patients' perceptions. The findings offer insights from user's perspectives into hypertensive patients' attitudes toward visual-based cues and perception of the connection between avatar appearance and health behavior for self-management. Subsequent discussions present eHealth design guidelines of habit formation from intention, automatic cue-behavior association, and self-management perspectives.

Analysis of Artificial Intelligence-Assisted Japanese Literature Teaching Reform and the Cultivation of Intercultural Communication Skills

Abstract With the deepening of Sino-Japanese economic and trade cooperation, the demand for enterprises for Japanese intercultural communication talents is increasing. In this paper, with the assistance of artificial intelligence, we constructed an innovative teaching mode of automatic association of Japanese expressions based on natural language processing technology and semantic analysis model of Japanese Literature, which deepens students’ understanding, memorization, and application of Japanese vocabulary by dispersing and associating the cultural context of Japanese Literature. The semantic similarity calculation parses participles and morphemes in Literature to find the vocabulary that can be substituted for the specified objects and form new example sentences. Finally, through the specific application of the innovative teaching mode by the Japanese language program of University X, the impact of the mode on the cultivation of students’ intercultural communicative competence was explored. The results show that the before-and-after difference in ICC competence in the class taught with the innovative mode is -10.134, while the before-and-after difference in the class prepared with the traditional mode is only -1.012, indicating that the proposed creative reform teaching mode has a pronounced effect on the cultivation of students’ intercultural communicative competence. This study realizes the digital reform of teaching the selected Japanese literature course and provides a reference path for cultivating students’ intercultural communicative competence.

Implicit beliefs and automatic associations in smoking

Background and objectivesDual process models of addiction suggest that controlled, goal-directed processes prevent drug-use, whereas impulsive, stimulus-driven processes promote drug-use. The most frequently used measure of automatic smoking-related processes, the implicit association test (IAT), has yielded mixed results. We examine the validity of two alternative implicit measures: 1) the affect misattribution procedure (AMP), a measure of automatic evaluations, and 2) the relational responding task (RRT), a measure of implicit beliefs. MethodsSmokers and non-smokers performed smoking-related versions of the AMP and the RRT and filled in questionnaires for smoking dependence. Smokers participated in two sessions: once after they just smoked, and once after being deprived for 10 h. Smokers also kept a smoking diary for a week after the second session. ResultsWe found significant differences between smokers and non-smokers on the RRT, t (86) = 2.86, p = .007, d = 0.61, and on the AMP, F (1, 85) = 6.22, p = .015, pƞ2 = 0.07. Neither the AMP nor the RRT were affected by the deprivation manipulation. Smoking dependence predicted smoking behavior in the following week; the AMP and RRT did not explain additional variance. LimitationsPossibly, our manipulation was not strong enough to affect the motivational state of participants in a way that it changed their implicit cognitions. Future research should examine the sensitivity of implicit measures to (motivational) context. ConclusionsWe found limited evidence for the validity of the smoking-AMP and the smoking-RRT, highlighting the need for a critical view on implicit measures.

Implicit Sexual Cognitions in Women with Ambiphilic Sexual Attractions: A Comparison to Androphilic and Gynephilic Women

Previous research using indirect cognitive measures (sometimes referred to as implicit measures) of sexual attraction have shown that women who are attracted to men (androphilic women) show category non-specific responses, whereas those who are attracted to women (gynephilic) show a category-specific bias to women. The purpose of the present study was to examine whether women who explicitly report approximately equal attraction to men and women (ambiphilic) would show similar non-category specific attraction at this implicit level or whether their responses would be more similar to those of gynephilic women. An implicit association task and a priming task were given to 169 women alongside measures of their self-labelled sexual orientation and an explicit measure of their sexual attraction to men and women. The results replicated previous findings of little bias towards either gender in androphilic women and of a strong bias towards females in gynephilic women. The ambiphilic women also showed a strong bias towards females. The findings clearly show that early automatic associations to sex are biased towards females in ambiphilic women and are not consistent with their explicit statements of preference.

Automatic processes moderate the association between reflective processes and movement behavior: A cross-sectional study

Dual-process theories postulate that both reflective and automatic processes regulate health behavior. Further research is required to test the basic postulates of dual-process theories. We investigated the direct associations and moderating effect between automatic processes and multiple indicators of reflective processes on various levels of physical activity and sedentary behavior assessed using accelerometry in adults who were not participating in regular physical exercise programs. This cross-sectional study included 257 adults. Each participant completed a computerized test for automatic associations, a set of questions assessing reflective processes, a seven-day assessment using accelerometers to determine their levels of physical activity and sedentary behavior. The results showed a direct relationship between perceived benefits (B = 15.90, p = 0.043), perceived cons (B = −12.81, p = 0.034), decisional intention (B = −0.07, p = 0.049) with light physical activity, and self-efficacy with daily steps (B = 485.71, p = 0.008). There was a positive association between intention strength and daily steps when implicit associations favored physical activity (b = 623.36, LLCI = 79.09, ULCI = 1167.62, p = 0.025); a negative association between self-efficacy and sedentary behavior when implicit associations favored sedentary behavior (b = −25.73, LLCI = −49.77, ULCI = −1.70, p = 0.035); and a positive association between intention strength and sedentary behavior when implicit associations favored physical activity (b = 34.18, LLCI = 8.81, ULCI = 59.56, p = 0.008). These findings underscore the importance of considering the interplay between reflective and automatic processes in shaping movement behavior.

Using Event-related Potentials To Capture Automatic Associations Of Physical Activity

Using Event-related Potentials To Capture Automatic Associations Of Physical Activity

Mental Health and Aggression in Indonesian Women.

Aggression is a global problem and complex social behavior. In Indonesia, some common manifestations of aggression are sexual harassment, domestic violence, and the stigmatization of other people. However, unlike men, aggression in women is still rarely studied, whereas facts find that many conditions can make women more vulnerable. There are various aspects related to biological, psychological, social, and cultural issues that can potentially provoke female aggression. Furthermore, mental health and aggression are often viewed as an automatic association and are inseparable in society, reinforcing the stigma against people with mental problems, particularly women, who tend to suffer more stigma of mental health issues than men. However, there has not yet been a study explicitly related to this relationship in the general population of women. The current study aims to examine the overall relationship between mental health and aggression in the extensive general population of Indonesian women with various mental conditions ranging from a normal mental state to severe mental health problems. This was a cross-sectional study conducted using uncontrolled quota sampling via distributing online self-report questionnaires, the modified Indonesian version instruments of the Brief Symptoms Rating Scale-5, and the Buss Aggression Scale with high internal consistency. This study among 203 women aged 19-67 in Indonesia, a multicultural nation and the fourth densest country in the world, proposes that mental health can be a predictor of aggressive behavior, with the influence of mental health on the aggression of women being 21.6% only. The finding indicates that mental health issues are not a macro contributing factor to women's aggressiveness in society and may help reduce stigma against women with mental health problems.

Consumer Attitudes toward Pulses: Measuring the Implicit.

Research into consumer attitudes toward food products is important to help people adopt healthier, more sustainable diets. A positive attitude regarding an object is a prerequisite for its adoption. This study compares French consumers' implicit attitudes toward pulses and cereals. Many studies have measured attitudes by explicit methodologies (e.g., questionnaires). Such methods are often biased by social desirability, and consumers may not be consciously aware of their attitudes toward food. A Sorting Paired Feature Task measures the strength of automatic associations, pairing images of pulses or cereals and adjectives with positive or negative valence. Participants sorted 120 paired stimuli as fast as possible. Pairs composed of pulses and negative adjectives were sorted faster than pairs composed of cereals and negative adjectives. Cereals with positive adjectives were sorted more rapidly than pulses with positive adjectives. Mistaken associations were more frequent for pairs composed of cereals and negative adjectives than for pairs composed of pulses and negative adjectives. These results highlight more negative implicit attitudes toward pulses than cereals. This study provides the first potential evidence of negative implicit attitudes toward pulses, which could explain the low consumption of these products.

Measuring Symptom-Specific Panic-Relevant Associations Using Single-Target Implicit Association Tests

BackgroundAccording to major cognitive accounts of panic disorder, bodily sensations can lead to automatic activation of an associative fear network, potentially triggering a cascade of cognitive, emotional, and physiological responses culminating in a panic attack. However, the evidence for the automatic associations assumed by these models is mixed. This may reflect the heterogeneous nature of panic disorder, in that the relative importance of different bodily sensations and symptoms varies between individuals. The current study aimed to test this possibility via measuring the associations between three different sets of panic symptoms (cognitive, respiratory, cardiac) and scores on three symptom-specific single target implicit association tests (STIATs).MethodsA total of 226 unselected female participants aged 18–35 completed the STIATs as well as questionnaires assessing panic symptoms and related measures in a web-based study.ResultsOnly limited evidence was found to support the idea of specific associations between STIAT stimuli sets and their related panic symptoms. Exploratory analyses indicated that there were only associations between STIAT scores and panic-relevant questionnaires amongst those participants who had experienced a panic attack in the previous 6 months.ConclusionsThe results have implications for measuring panic-relevant associations and understanding their role in panic disorder.

AAFL: automatic association feature learning for gene signature identification of cancer subtypes in single-cell RNA-seq data.

Single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) technologies have enabled the study of human cancers in individual cells, which explores the cellular heterogeneity and the genotypic status of tumors. Gene signature identification plays an important role in the precise classification of cancer subtypes. However, most existing gene selection methods only select the same informative genes for each subtype. In this study, we propose a novel gene selection method, automatic association feature learning (AAFL), which automatically identifies different gene signatures for different cell subpopulations (cancer subtypes) at the same time. The proposed AAFL method combines the residual network with the low-rank network, which selects genes that are most associated with the corresponding cell subpopulations. Moreover, the differential expression genes are acquired before gene selection to filter the redundant genes. We apply the proposed feature learning method to the real cancer scRNA-seq data sets (melanoma) to identify cancer subtypes and detect gene signatures of identified cancer subtypes. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can automatically identify different gene signatures for identified cancer subtypes. Gene ontology enrichment analysis shows that the identified gene signatures of different subtypes reveal the key biological processes and pathways. These gene signatures are expected to bring important implications for understanding cellular heterogeneity and the complex ecosystem of tumors.

The foreign-language effect on self-positivity bias: Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence

AbstractPrevious research has shown that using foreign languages reduces cognitive biases. Here, we investigate whether this foreign-language effect extends to self-related cognition – in particular, the self-positivity bias, which refers to automatic association of oneself with positive information and has a facilitation role in maintaining mental health. We applied event-related brain potentials and oscillations in the implicit association test where Chinese–English bilinguals responded to category words (self vs. others) and attribute words (positive vs. negative) in either their native language Chinese or their foreign language English. In response to Chinese words, a self-positivity bias occurred, indexed by a positive D-score in reaction times as well as by smaller N200, larger P3-like/LPC responses, and lower alpha desynchronization when self words were associated with positive relative to negative traits. However, the bias was diminished in the English context. Overall, our findings provide important implications for language choices when self-protective mechanisms should be enhanced.

Toward the nature of automatic associations: item-level computational semantic similarity and IAT-based alcohol-valence associations

Automatic associations involving alcohol have been proposed to play a role in drinking behavior. Such associations are often assessed using implicit measures such as the Implicit Association Test (IAT). Neural network language models provide computational measures of semantic relationships between words. These model-based measures could be related to behavioral alcohol-related associations as observed using the IAT. If so, this could provide a step toward better understanding of the nature of automatic associations and their relationship to behavior. The current study therefore aimed to test whether there is a systematic covariation over items between model-based and behavior-based associations. Analyses were performed for two single-target IATs from a previously published study. One task involved alcohol versus nonalcohol drinks and positive associates, and the other alcohol versus nonalcohol drinks and negative associates. The GenSim library and a pretrained word2vec model were used to calculate a relative computational association between specific items from the positive and negative categories, respectively, and the alcohol versus nonalcohol word sets. In both tasks, a significant covariance between items’ computational and behavioral measures of association was found over participants. The results thus add to the information on the relationship between neural network language models and psychological associations. They may provide methodological strategies for task design and data analysis. Models of semantic associations connect computational linguistics and social-cognitive psychology and may provide a theoretical link between measures of alcohol-related associations using verbal stimuli and alcohol-related cognition and behaviors.

Cognitions mediate the influence of personality on adolescent cannabis use initiation

AimsMuch research indicates that an individual’s personality impacts the initiation and escalation of substance use and problems in youth. The acquired-preparedness model suggests that personality influences substance use by modifying learning about substances, which then affects substance use. The current study used longitudinal data to test whether automatic cannabis-related cognitions (memory associations and outcome expectancy liking) mediate the relationship between four personality traits with later cannabis use. MethodsThe study focused on initiation of use in a sample of adolescents who had not previously used (n = 670). ResultsA structural equation model supported a full mediation effect and the hypothesis that personality affects cannabis use in youth by influencing automatic memory associations and outcome expectancy liking. Further findings from the same model also indicated a mediation effect of these cognitions in the relationship between age and cannabis use. ConclusionThe findings of the study support the acquired-preparedness model where personality influences automatic associations in the context of dual-processing theories of substance use.

An implicit priming intervention alters brain and behavioral responses to high-calorie foods: a randomized controlled study

Conditioned food cues (e.g., smell, sight) can affect intake of foods associated with those cues, regardless of homeostatic need. As such, altering automatic associations with food cues could support weight loss or maintenance efforts by affecting the salience of those cues and the effort required to resist consumption. This study investigated neuronal and behavioral effects of an implicit priming (IP) intervention, in which negatively valenced images were paired with high-calorie foods and positively valenced images with low-calorie foods. Priming images were presented immediately before food images, but below conscious perception (20ms). We hypothesized that this evaluative conditioning approach could alter food cue responses by modifying affective associations. The final sample included 41 adults with BMI≥25kg/m2 (n=22, active IP; n=19, control IP). In control IP, food images were primed with neutral, scrambled images. Participants completed a visual food cue task during fMRI, both before and after IP. To determine the replicability of prior behavioral findings, food image ratings were completed before and after IP as a secondary outcome. In a whole-brain analysis, reduced dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) response to high-calorie foods was observed after active compared with control IP (t=4.93, P=0.033). With a region of interest analysis, reduced response to high-calorie foods in active compared with control IP was also observed in the striatum (t=2.40, P=0.009) and insula (t=2.38, P=0.010). Active compared with control IP was associated with reduced high-calorie food ratings (F=4.70, P=0.038). Reduced insula and striatum response to high-calorie foods after active compared with control IP suggests effectiveness of IP in altering food cue salience. Reduced dlPFC response to high-calorie foods after active compared with control IP may reflect fewer attentional resources being directed to those images and reduced engagement of inhibitory processes.This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT02347527.

Automatic and controlled antecedents of suicidal ideation and action: A dual-process conceptualization of suicidality.

Dual-process models of cognition distinguish relatively automatic from relatively controlled processes in terms of their interactive impact on perception, judgment, and behavior. Such models have advanced explanation and prediction in a variety of domains across psychology but have yet to be comprehensively applied to the pressing societal and public health problem of suicide. We propose a model of suicide that integrates dual-process models of social cognition with ideation-to-action conceptualizations of suicide. The model specifies: (a) suicide-relevant automatic associations involving the self, others, the future, death, and bodily harm, (b) suicide-relevant motives involving the self, interpersonal relations, the future, and the desire to die, and (c) hypotheses regarding the conditions under which automatic associations and motives individually and interactively impact suicidal ideation and lethal action at various stages of an ideation-to-action framework. The model recasts a number of suicide-relevant variables in terms of the opportunity factor of dual-process theories of attitudes, which encompasses capacity-relevant variables (e.g., time, cognitive resources) that determine whether suicide-relevant judgments and behavior are the result of relatively automatic associations or more controlled, deliberative cognition. Accordingly, the model articulates a number of novel predictions regarding the sources of suicide-relevant automatic associations, motives, and opportunity factors, as well as their interactive influences on suicidal ideation and action. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).