Implicit Evaluations Research Articles

Implicit evaluation in academic discourse: A systemic functional perspective

ABSTRACT Traditional studies of evaluation in Systemic Functional Linguistics have presented a wide range of characteristics and resources of implicit and explicit evaluation (henceforth IE and EE). These studies have revealed that IE is tactical and involves complicated expressions but they have not clearly illustrated why speakers/writers choose one linguistic expression of IE instead of another. To address this issue, we carry out a qualitative analysis of IE by establishing an analytical framework comprised of three sub-systems: value, situation and reasoning, based on a reinterpretation of IE in terms of its metafunctions. Within this analytical framework, we generalize a three-dimension space vector model to illustrate the working mechanism behind the choice between various linguistic resources of IE. The model illustrates the collaboration and the complementarity between various constituents in the analytical framework, and what has unfolded in discourse is essentially the result of the vector calculation process.

The effects of implicit evaluation of emotion regulation on electrical brain activity

Implicit evaluation of emotion regulation (IE-ER) refers to an implicit representation of individuals' attitudes about whether emotion should be regulated, and comprises positive (PIE-ER) and negative (NIE-ER) emotion regulation components. In this study we used the picture position decision task to investigate participants' electrical brain responses to both types of IE-ER. Electroencephalogram data were recorded simultaneously. Analysis of variance results show that the PIEER (vs. NIE-ER) group had significantly higher N1 amplitudes, shorter N1 latencies, and lower P1 amplitudes. The P1 amplitude in the left (vs. right) frontal brain region was significantly higher in both groups. In addition, as the PIE-ER (vs. NIE-ER) group had a greater ability to orient themselves to emotional stimuli, the cognitive resources they allocated to processing emotional stimuli decreased: Processing depth gradually became shallow, and emotion regulation elicited left frontal electrical asymmetry. Our findings provide a new understanding of unconscious emotion regulation, which may impact on physical and psychological intervention for the treatment of individuals' emotional problems and mental health, and well-being promotion.

Nodding and shaking of the head as simulated approach and avoidance responses

Our recent study within the embodiment perspective showed that the evaluation of true and false information activates the simulation of vertical and horizontal head movements involved in nodding and shaking of the head (Moretti & Greco, 2018). This result was found in an explicit evaluation task where motion detection software was deployed to enable participants to assess a series of objectively true or false statements by moving them with the head vertically and horizontally on a computer screen, under conditions of compatibility and incompatibility between simulated and performed action. This study replicated that experiment, but with subjective statements about liked and disliked food, in both explicit and implicit evaluation tasks. Two experiments, plus one control experiment, were devised to test the presence of a motor-affective compatibility effect (vertical-liked; horizontal-disliked) and whether the motor-semantic compatibility found with objective statements (vertical-true; horizontal-false) could be a sub-effect of a more general and automatic association (vertical-accepted; horizontal-refused). As expected, response times were shorter when statements about liked foods and disliked foods were moved vertically and horizontally respectively by making head movements, even when participants were not explicitly required to evaluate them. In contrast, the truth compatibility effect only occurred in the explicit evaluation task. Overall results support the idea that head-nodding and shaking are simulated approach-avoidance responses. Different aspects of the meaning of these gestures and the practical implications of the study for cognitive and social research are discussed.

The Instructed Task-Switch Evaluation Effect: Is the Instruction to Switch Tasks Sufficient to Dislike Task Switch Cues?

It is often argued that people dislike situations in which there is conflict requiring cognitive control, possibly because it is effortful to resolve this conflict. In a recent study, Vermeylen, Braem, and Notebaert (2019) provided evidence for this idea in the context of task switching. They observed that participants evaluated cues signaling a task switch more negatively than cues signaling a task repetition in a task switching paradigm. The present study examined whether this evaluative bias can be observed also on the basis of mere instructions. We instructed participants that two non-words would either signal the requirement to switch or to repeat tasks in an upcoming task switching block, which was actually never administered. In Experiment 1, we did not observe more positive implicit or explicit evaluations of the instructed task repetition compared to the task switch cue. In Experiment 2, participants first completed a task switching block in which a first pair of transition cues were used. We then provided task switching instructions that described the signaling function of a second pair of cues, which would be used in an upcoming (but never administered) second task switching block. Participants showed a clear preference for both instructed and experienced task repetition cues on explicit but not on implicit evaluations. Experiment 3 replicated the instructed task-switch evaluation effect on explicit evaluations in the context of prior task experience (but not without prior experience) and extended it to implicit evaluations. We discuss theoretical implications and potential explanations of this task-switch evaluation effect.

Measuring user experience on SIPEJAR as e-learning of Universitas Negeri Malang

E-learning has become the choice of several educational institutions to improve the quality of learning and educational affordability. Universitas Negeri Malang (UM) as one of the higher education institutions also has e-learning infrastructure with its main system called SIPEJAR. Every UM lecturer is required to use SIPEJAR in synchronous and asynchronous learning, but until now the use of SIPEJAR has not been too massive. Therefore the purpose of this paper is to measure learning effectiveness and user experience by implicit evaluation. However, it cannot reveal what “user feels” through interaction with the system neither record user feedback. The research instrument used was a questionnaire with a Likert scale using the User Experience Question framework and conducted interviews with 102 system users. Result shows that user experience score, usability score, learning design validation score, and student’s response from the interview session indicate that the system is not good; therefore, an improvement is needed. For the future works, we proposed an evaluation of SIPEJAR’s governance and critical success factors to determine the carrying capacity of implementation and the factors that support the successful implementation of SIPEJAR.

Linguistic means of expressing implicit evaluation in political texts of contemporary English internet-based media

Linguistic means of expressing implicit evaluation in political texts of contemporary English internet-based media

An Implicit Evaluation Method of Vector 2-Norms Arising from Sphere Constrained Quadratic Optimizations

An Implicit Evaluation Method of Vector 2-Norms Arising from Sphere Constrained Quadratic Optimizations

D-cycloserine as adjunct to brief computerised CBT for spider fear: Effects on fear, behaviour, and cognitive biases

Background and objectivesIn anxiety disorders, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) improves information-processing biases such as implicit fear evaluations and avoidance tendencies, which predicts treatment response. Thus, these cognitive biases might constitute important treatment targets. This study investigated (i) whether information-processing biases could be changed following single-session computerised CBT for spider fear, and (ii) whether this effect could be augmented by administration of D-cycloserine (DCS). MethodsSpider-fearful individuals were randomized to receiving either 250 mg of DCS (n = 21) or placebo (n = 17). Three hours after drug administration, they received single-session computerized CBT, characterized by psychoeducation and exposure elements. Spider fear was assessed using self-report, behavioural, and information processing (Extrinsic Affective Simon Task & Approach Avoidance Task) measures at baseline (before drug administration), post-treatment, 1-day, and 1-month follow-up. ResultsLinear mixed-effects analyses indicated significant improvements on self-report and behavioural spider fear indices following CBT, but not on cognitive bias measures. There was no evidence of an augmentation effect of DCS on any outcome. Cognitive bias measures at 1-day were not predictive of 1-month follow-up spider fear in adjusted linear regression analyses. LimitationsResults might be biased by limited representativeness of the sample (high education and intelligence, largely Caucasian ethnicity, young age). The study was also only powered for detection of medium-sized DCS effects. ConclusionsThese findings do not provide evidence for information-processing biases relating to treatment outcome following computerised CBT for spider fear or augmentation with DCS.

How User’s First Impression Forms on Mobile user Interface?: An ERPs Study

ABSTRACTIn an era of mobile Internet, the using of mobile interfaces is ineluctable in our daily life. To some extent, the first impression of the mobile user interfaces determines users’ downloading and using behavior, even affects the overall user experience. In fact, the underlying neural mechanism of users’ first impression formation of mobile user interface is worthy to be investigated. Considering the process of first impression formation is always unconscious and transient, event-related potentials (ERPs), which are used to track users’ cerebral activities could be an appropriate method to explore this process. In the present study, the perceived usability and esthetics are taken as the evaluation dimensions of user’ first impression formation, and ERPs were used to investigate which dimensions were automatically activated when users browsed the mobile user interfaces passively without any explicit guidance. The ERPs results showed that N2 was dominated by perceived usability and esthetics, which reflected in enhanced N2 for high esthetics than for low esthetics, and larger N2 for high-perceived usability/high esthetics compared to low-perceived usability/low esthetics. Moreover, there was a larger late positive potential (LPP) for low esthetics interfaces with respect to high esthetics ones. The findings revealed that users could make an implicit evaluation spontaneously to the mobile user interfaces with different levels of perceived usability and esthetics. Furthermore, users’ first impression is significantly affected by the differences in esthetics but marginally influenced by the difference in perceived usability. The suggestions from this study for mobile application designers might be that the esthetics design of the mobile user interface should be prioritized in the early design stage.

Vulnerability to Psychosis, Ideas of Reference and Evaluation with an Implicit Test.

Background: Ideas of reference (IRs) are observed in the general population on the continuum of the psychotic phenotype (as a type of psychotic-like experiences, PLE). The instruments usually used to evaluate IRs show some problems: They depend on the cooperation of the participant, comprehension of items, social desirability, etc. Aims: The Testal emotional counting Stroop (TECS) was developed for the purpose of improving evaluation of individuals vulnerable to psychosis and its relationship with ideas of reference. The TECS (two versions) was applied as an implicit evaluation instrument for IRs and related processes for early identification of persons vulnerable to psychosis and to test the possible influence of emotional symptomatology. Method: A total of 160 participants (67.5% women) from the general population were selected (Mean (M) = 24.12 years, standard deviation (SD) = 5.28), 48 vulnerable and 112 non-vulnerable. Results: Vulnerability to psychosis was related to greater latency in response to referential stimuli. Version 4 of the TECS showed a slight advantage in identifying more latency in response to referential stimuli among participants with vulnerability to psychosis (Cohen’s d = 1.08). Emotional symptomatology (especially stress), and IQ (premorbid) mediated the relationship between vulnerability and IR response latency. Conclusions: The application of the implicit Testal emotional counting Stroop test (TECS) is useful for evaluating processes related to vulnerability to psychosis, as demonstrated by the increased latency of response to referential stimuli.

Microaggressions in Clinical Training and Practice.

Microaggressions in Clinical Training and Practice.

Hypnotic Suggestions Can Induce Rapid Change in Implicit Attitudes

We sometimes evaluate our environment (e.g., persons, objects, situations) in an automatic fashion. These automatic or implicit evaluations are often considered to be based on qualitatively distinct mental processes compared with more controlled or explicit evaluations. Important evidence for this claim comes from studies showing that implicit evaluations do not change as the result of counterattitudinal information, in contrast to their explicit counterparts. We examined the impact of counterattitudinal information on implicit evaluations in two experiments (N = 60, N = 72) that included an innovative manipulation: hypnotic suggestions to participants that they would strongly process upcoming counterattitudinal information. Both experiments indicated that hypnotic suggestions facilitated effects of counterattitudinal information on implicit evaluations. These findings extend recent evidence for rapid revision of implicit evaluations on the basis of counterattitudinal information and support the controversial idea that belief-based processes underlie not only explicit but also implicit evaluations.

The Predictive Validity of Explicit and Implicit Partner Evaluations for Relationship Behaviors: An Actor–Partner Interdependence Analysis

This research introduced novel measures of explicit and implicit romantic partner evaluations and tested whether these measures predict video-observed relationship behaviors. One hundred and eighty heterosexual participants (90 couples) completed 2 measures of explicit partner evaluations, the Relationship Assessment Scale (RAS) and a short form of the Trier Partnership Inventory (TPI–S). Participants also completed measures of implicit partner evaluations, namely 2 variants of an affective priming task (APT), one of them focusing on reaction times (RT-APT) and the other one focusing on errors (EB-APT), and a facial electromyography (fEMG) task. Relationship behaviors were video-recorded in the laboratory and coded by a total of 34 independent observers. Actor–partner interdependence models were used to test whether partner evaluations predicted participants’ own relationship behaviors (actor effects), and the behaviors of the partner (partner effects). Furthermore, we examined how explicit and implicit partner evaluations are related to the behaviors of the couple as a whole. Relationship behaviors were indeed predicted on all 3 levels by the RAS, the TPI–S, the EB-APT, and the fEMG, but not by the RT-APT. The research thus provides researchers with novel tools to assess explicit and implicit partner evaluations that are linked to relationship behaviors.

Rapid Objective Assessment of Contrast Sensitivity and Visual Acuity With Sweep Visual Evoked Potentials and an Extended Electrode Array

Purpose Sweep visual evoked potentials (sVEPs) provide an implicit, objective, and sensitive evaluation of low-level visual functions such as visual acuity and contrast sensitivity. For practical and traditional reasons, sVEPs in ophthalmologic examinations have usually been recorded over a single or a limited number of electrodes over the medial occipital region. Here we examined whether a higher density of recording electrodes improves the estimation of individual low-level visual thresholds with sVEPS, and to which extent such testing could be streamlined for clinical application. Methods To this end, we tested contrast sensitivity and visual acuity in 26 healthy adult volunteers with a 68-electrode electroencephalogram (EEG) system. Results While the most sensitive electrophysiologic response was found at the traditional medial occipital electrode Oz in a small majority of individuals, it was found at neighboring electrodes for the remaining participants. At the group level, lower spatial frequencies were also associated with right lateralized responses. More generally, visual function was evaluated more sensitively based on EEG recorded at the most sensitive electrode defined individually for each participant. Our data suggest that recording over seven posterior electrodes while limiting the testing session to less than 15 minutes ensures a sensitive and consistent estimation of acuity and contrast sensitivity threshold estimates in every individual. Conclusions The present study shows that sampling from a larger number of posterior scalp electrodes is relevant to optimize visual function assessment and could be achieved efficiently in the time-constrained clinical setting.

Moving Beyond System 1 and System 2.

. It is generally assumed that relational knowledge is the foundation of higher cognition such as (analogical and conditional) reasoning, language, the use of relational categories, and planning. Dual-system models (e.g., Kahneman, 2011) that divide the realm of cognition into two systems with opposing properties (e.g., fast vs. slow, intentional vs. unintentional, conscious vs. unconscious, associative vs. propositional) foster the view that other psychological phenomena are not relational in nature. In this paper, I argue that the impact of relational knowledge is more widespread than dual-system models imply. More specifically, I review evidence suggesting that also Pavlovian conditioning, implicit evaluation, and habitual responding are mediated by relational knowledge. Considering the idea that relational knowledge underlies also fast, unintentional, unconscious, and seemingly associative psychological phenomena is not only theoretically important but also reveals new opportunities for influencing thinking and behavior.

The Application of Graduation in Political Speech

In this paper, the graduation system in appraisal theory is combed, and the development and theoretical origin of the graduation system are discussed. The development of graduation system can be divided into three stages: embryonic stage, develop stage and mature stage. The graduation system embodies three important thoughts: the thought of grading, the thought of strengthening, the thought of vagueness. They are interrelated and have a broad theoretical basis. Tracing the development of the graduation system and its theoretical sources will help us to further to understand and improve the graduation system, and better apply the evaluation theory to discourse analysis, language teaching and other research fields. Political speech is a written oral speech that reflects the value of the discourse information conveyed by the speaker by means of explicit or implicit evaluation. These value judgments and their evaluation resources also reflect the speaker's position, views and attitudes. In the appraisal theory, the speaker uses the graduation system to increase the intensity of discourse. This paper proves that the graduation to analyse the special political speech is useful, it enriches the research on political speech and provides valuable inspiration for Chinese and foreign scholars in the relevant academic writing.

Stylistics and rhetoric of lifestyle discourse

The purpose of the study is to identify the features of the architectonics of lifestyle discourse in terms of the organization of stylistic and rhetorical linguistic means. Lifestyle discourse, or discourse about a healthy lifestyle in all its manifestations, is a diversified communicative entity that combines a number of different characteristics. First of all, it is a sample of institutional communication, representing the point of view of the professional community. At the same time, this text addresses non-professional community. As an institutional practice, lifestyle discourse is aimed at developing in the audience the need for a healthy lifestyle, which is understood broadly and involves several levels of its manifestation: moral, mental, material and physical. To achieve the expected communicative effect, lifestyle discourse implements such principles as diversified persuasion, unification and simplification of its language design. The diversification of impact is carried out through the use of different code systems of communication, a combination of institutionality and personality, explicit and implicit evaluation. On the other hand, unification implies codification of the verbal-compositional structure of the text. Reflecting the face of society rhetoric of lifestyle discourse is associated with social practices verbalized in the text. Stylistic characteristics of the type of discourse under study are characterized by simplicity, which is explained by the communicative purpose of the producer of the text to perform a didactic task: to regulate the lifestyle of the addressee. The research material comprises articles about healthy lifestyle from modern English-language online publications. The research involves the methods of discursive analysis aimed at identifying socially significant factors affecting the verbal construction of discourse, contextual analysis, stylistic analysis, semantic analysis in the definitive version.

Multisensory Facial Stimulation Implicitly Improves Evaluations of the Goodness of Attractive Others.

It has been well demonstrated that shared multisensory experiences between the self and others can influence the social perception of out-group members. Previous research has shown that the illusion of ownership over a dark-skinned rubber hand or full virtual body generated less negative implicit bias against people with dark skin. However, less is known about how perceived attractiveness difference between self and other affects social perception toward those others after shared multisensory experience. The present study assessed whether shared multisensory experience between the self and attractive others would affect the implicit evaluation of goodness of others. Seventy-three women participated in the study. After the visuotactile multisensory stimulation procedure, participants were administered the Single Category Implicit Association Test (SC-IAT), which presents two attributes (good and bad) and one concept (other). Results showed that the more attractive the faces are, the more positive their implicit evaluation becomes after the synchronous tactile stimulation. This result suggests that shared multisensory experience makes people feel more positive toward others who have positive attribute. This finding suggests that self-other blurring in social contexts might be a compelling factor in evaluating other people positively.

Contributive justice: social class and graduate employment in the UK

ABSTRACT This article applies Paul Gomberg’s theory of contributive justice to the problematic of working-class graduates’ access to skilled and meaningful work in the UK. I begin by outlining Gomberg’s argument for the importance of quality work as a key social good. I then draw upon a range of sociologically-informed literature to offer a two-fold argument. Firstly, I contend that the UK suffers from a structural misalignment between graduate demand for high-skilled employment and the supply the labour market can provide; secondly, that working-class graduates are disproportionately likely to encounter problems in gaining quality work, at least in their early-stage careers. To understand these issues as questions of social justice, I apply Gomberg’s thesis throughout the discussion. I conclude by reflecting upon the value of Gomberg’s theory to studies such as this, which take a sociologically-informed approach to the interface between education and work. I argue that Gomberg’s neo-Aristotelian theory, wherein work is central to human flourishing, offers a framework through which we may make explicit our normally implicit evaluations and critiques.

Facing one's implicit biases: From awareness to acknowledgment.

Expanding on conflicting theoretical conceptualizations of implicit bias, 6 studies tested the effectiveness of different procedures to increase acknowledgment of harboring biases against minorities. Participants who predicted their responses toward pictures of various minority groups on future implicit association tests (IATs) showed increased alignment between implicit and explicit preferences (Studies 1-3), greater levels of explicit bias (Studies 1-3), and increased self-reported acknowledgment of being racially biased (Studies 4-6). In all studies, effects of IAT score prediction were significant even when participants did not actually complete IATs. Effects of predicting IAT scores were moderated by nonprejudicial goals, in that IAT score prediction increased acknowledgment of bias for participants with strong nonprejudicial goals, but not for participants with weak nonprejudicial goals (Study 4). Mere completion of IATs and feedback on IAT performance had inconsistent effects across studies and criterion measures. Instructions to attend to one's spontaneous affective reactions toward minority group members increased acknowledgment of bias to the same extent as IAT score prediction (Study 6). The findings are consistent with conceptualizations suggesting that (a) implicit evaluations are consciously experienced as spontaneous affective reactions and (b) directing people's attention to their spontaneous affective reactions can increase acknowledgment of bias. Implications for theoretical conceptualizations of implicit bias and interventions that aim to reduce discrimination via increased acknowledgment of bias are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).