Implicit Processes Research Articles

Artifact feature purification for cross-domain detection of AI-generated images

In the era of AIGC, the fast development of visual content generation technologies, such as diffusion models, brings potential security risks to our society. Existing generated image detection methods suffer from performance drops when faced with out-of-domain generators and image scenes. To relieve this problem, we propose Artifact Purification Network (APN) to facilitate the artifact extraction from generated images through the explicit and implicit purification processes. For the explicit one, a suspicious frequency-band proposal method and a spatial feature decomposition method are proposed to extract artifact-related features. For the implicit one, a training strategy based on mutual information estimation is proposed to further purify the artifact-related features. The experiments are conducted in two settings. Firstly, we perform a cross-generator evaluation, wherein detectors trained using data from one generator are evaluated on data generated by other generators. Secondly, we conduct a cross-scene evaluation, wherein detectors trained for a specific domain of content (e.g., ImageNet) are assessed on data collected from another domain (e.g., LSUN-Bedroom). Results show that for cross-generator detection, the average accuracy of APN is 5.6%∼16.4% higher than the previous 11 methods on the GenImage dataset and 1.7%∼50.1% on the DiffusionForensics dataset. For cross-scene detection, APN maintains its high performance. Via visualization analysis, we find that the proposed method can extract diverse forgery patterns and condense the forgery information diluted in irrelated features. We also find that the artifact features APN focuses on across generators and scenes are global and diverse. The code will be available at https://github.com/RichardSunnyMeng/APN-official-codes.

Are we afraid of the woods? – An investigation of the implicit and explicit fear reactions to forests

The beneficial effects of nature exposure have been repeatedly documented and encourage frequent and regular contact with nature and especially highlight forests. However, in human history, forests have also been associated with negative emotions such as fear and were seen as dangerous environments. While existing literature could demonstrate that natural environments can evoke fear, the focus was on the explicit perception. Given that research has shown the significance of additional implicit processes in fear-related behaviour, we aim to explore the presence of an implicit fear response to forests. Therefore, in an online study, we investigated the explicit and implicit fear reactions to forests by a Northern German sample of N = 256. Using three explicit measurements, we investigated fear and danger perception on a semantic and visual level of the stimulus category "forest" compared to the human-made urban green space "park" and the urban setting "house". Additionally, we assessed the unconscious response tendencies towards the forest within three implicit tasks: Subliminal Priming Procedure (SPP), Affect Misattribution Procedure (AMP) and Approach-Avoidance Task (AAT). Within the analyzed sample, the subliminally presented word forest evoked a stronger positive valence response compared to park (SPP). In contrast to houses, the forest showed a stronger approach and weaker avoidance tendency (AAT). At the same time, both the three explicit and one implicit measurement (AMP) showed a stronger fear perception of forests compared to parks or houses. Considering the increasingly utilised beneficial effects of nature in interventions, these findings should be acknowledged when implementing nature exposure in interventions and treatments.

Differential Aging Effects on Implicit and Explicit Sensorimotor Learning.

Deterioration in motor control is a hallmark of aging, significantly contributing to a decline in quality of life. More controversial is the question of whether and how aging impacts sensorimotor learning. We hypothesized that the inconsistent picture observed in the current literature can be attributed to at least two factors. First, aging studies tend to be underpowered. Second, the learning assays used in these experiments tend to reflect, to varying degrees, the operation of multiple learning processes, making it difficult to make inferences across studies. We took a two-pronged approach to address these issues. We first performed a meta-analysis of the sensorimotor adaptation literature focusing on outcome measures that provide estimates of explicit and implicit components of adaptation. We then conducted two well-powered experiments to re-examine the effect of aging on sensorimotor adaptation, using behavioral tasks designed to isolate explicit and implicit processes. Convergently, both approaches revealed a striking dissociation: Older individuals exhibited a marked impairment in their ability to discover an explicit strategy to counteract a visuomotor perturbation. However, they exhibited enhanced implicit recalibration. We hypothesize that the effect of aging on explicit learning reflects an age-related decline in reasoning and problem solving, and the effect of aging on implicit learning reflects age-related changes in multisensory integration. Taken together, these findings deepen our understanding of the impact of aging on sensorimotor learning.

Explicit and implicit locomotor learning in individuals with chronic hemiparetic stroke.

Motor learning involves both explicit and implicit processes that are fundamental for acquiring and adapting complex motor skills. However, stroke may damage the neural substrates underlying explicit and/or implicit learning, leading to deficits in overall motor performance. While both learning processes are typically used in concert in daily life and rehabilitation, no gait studies have determined how these processes function together after stroke when tested during a task that elicits dissociable contributions from both. Here, we compared explicit and implicit locomotor learning in individuals with chronic stroke to age- and sex-matched neurologically intact controls. We assessed implicit learning using split-belt adaptation (where two treadmill belts move at different speeds). We assessed explicit learning (i.e., strategy-use) using visual feedback during split-belt walking to help individuals explicitly correct for step length errors created by the split-belts. The removal of visual feedback after the first 40 strides of split-belt walking, combined with task instructions, minimized contributions from explicit learning for the remainder of the task. We utilized a multi-rate state-space model to characterize individual explicit and implicit process contributions to overall behavioral change. The computational and behavioral analyses revealed that, compared to controls, individuals with chronic stroke demonstrated deficits in both explicit and implicit contributions to locomotor learning, a result that runs counter to prior work testing each process individually during gait. Since post-stroke locomotor rehabilitation involves interventions that rely on both explicit and implicit motor learning, future work should determine how locomotor rehabilitation interventions can be structured to optimize overall motor learning.

Have I Been Touched? Subjective and Objective Aspects of Tactile Awareness.

Somatosensory tactile experience is a key aspect of our interaction with the environment. It is involved in object manipulation, in the planning and control of actions and, in its affective components, in the relationships with other individuals. It is also a foundational component of body awareness. An intriguing aspect of sensory perception in general and tactile perception in particular is the way in which stimulation comes to consciousness. Indeed, although being aware of something seems a rather self-evident and monolithic aspect of our mental states, sensory awareness may be in fact modulated by many different processes that impact on the mere stimulation of the skin, including the way in which we perceive our bodies as belonging to us. In this review, we first took into consideration the pathological conditions of absence of phenomenal experience of touch, in the presence of implicit processing, as initial models for understanding the neural bases of conscious tactile experience. Subsequently, we discussed cases of tactile illusions both in normal subjects and in brain-damaged patients which help to understand which high-order processes impact tactile awareness. Finally, we discussed the observations reported in the review in light of some influential models of touch and body representation.

Explicit and implicit cognitive processes of the public towards people who stutter

PurposeThe Public Opinion Survey of Human Attributes - Stuttering (POSHA-S, St. Louis, 2013) was developed as a standard measure of public attitudes about people who stutter. As with any survey-based methods, threats to validity may occur because of social desirability bias. Using computer mouse-tracking, we were interested in observing changes in cognition that are manifested in intentionality through action by evaluating underlying cognitive processes that drive social judgments of people who stutter. MethodsTwenty-two women, 1 non-binary person, and 47 men reported using a computer mouse to complete an online, remote, and modified version of the POSHA-S. Responses were categorized as correct/helpful or incorrect/unhelpful relative to each component of the POSHA-S and were used as measures of explicit cognitive processes. Computer-mouse trajectory metrics, including area under the curve (AUC) and reaction time (RT), were used to measure implicit cognitive processes. ResultsAlthough participants’ explicit responses were significantly more likely to be correct/helpful than incorrect/unhelpful, with endorsement of correct/helpful prompts 77 % of the time, participants also endorsed incorrect/unhelpful prompts more than half (i.e., 52 %) of the time. Familiarity with people who stutter was associated with disagreeing with incorrect/unhelpful prompts. As indicated by greater AUC, participants exhibited significantly more implicit cognitive processes indicating competition when responding “disagree” compared to “agree”, regardless of whether the prompts were correct/helpful or incorrect/unhelpful. Similarly, participants took significantly longer to respond to prompts with "disagree" rather than "agree". ConclusionThe findings of this study offer evidence of participants reporting cognitive processes that are overall more correct/helpful than incorrect/unhelpful, in their explicit responses to the dichotomous response tasks of the POSHA-S. However, these findings are tempered by evidence of a tendency to agree with statements in the measure and suggest the need for further research to increase understanding of how to measure and improve explicit and implicit cognitive processes related to people who stutter.

Social dysfunction relates to shifts within socioaffective brain systems among Schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease patients

Social dysfunction represents one of the most common signs of neuropsychiatric disorders, such as Schizophrenia (SZ) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Perturbed socioaffective neural processing is crucially implicated in SZ/AD and generally linked to social dysfunction. Yet, transdiagnostic properties of social dysfunction and its neurobiological underpinnings remain unknown. As part of the European PRISM project, we examined whether social dysfunction maps onto shifts within socioaffective brain systems across SZ and AD patients. We probed coupling of social dysfunction with socioaffective neural processing, as indexed by an implicit facial emotional processing fMRI task, across SZ (N = 46), AD (N = 40) and two age-matched healthy control (HC) groups (N = 26 HC-younger and N = 27 HC-older). Behavioural (i.e., social withdrawal, interpersonal dysfunction, diminished prosocial or recreational activity) and subjective (i.e., feelings of loneliness) aspects of social dysfunction were assessed using the Social Functioning Scale and De Jong-Gierveld loneliness questionnaire, respectively. Across SZ/AD/HC participants, more severe behavioural social dysfunction related to hyperactivity within fronto-parieto-limbic brain systems in response to sad emotions (P = 0.0078), along with hypoactivity of these brain systems in response to happy emotions (P = 0.0418). Such relationships were not found for subjective experiences of social dysfunction. These effects were independent of diagnosis, and not confounded by clinical and sociodemographic factors. In conclusion, behavioural aspects of social dysfunction across SZ/AD/HC participants are associated with shifts within fronto-parieto-limbic brain systems. These findings pinpoint altered socioaffective neural processing as a putative marker for social dysfunction, and could aid personalized care initiatives grounded in social behaviour.

KaTaGCN: Knowledge-Augmented and Time-Aware Graph Convolutional Network for efficient traffic forecasting

Dynamic spatio-temporal dependencies and temporal patterns in traffic series are critical factors affecting traffic forecasting accuracy. Due to the intrinsic challenges of incorporating explicit, logical knowledge into the implicit black-box learning process of neural networks, only a few methods effectively use prior knowledge to improve the learning of traffic forecasting. To tackle this problem, we introduce a new approach called Knowledge-augmented and Time-aware Graph Convolutional Network, namely KaTaGCN. At its core, we have created a knowledge-augmented module that boosts the diffusion weights between closely related adjacent nodes in graph learning. This is achieved by implementing a new loss function. Then, to learn the periodic implicit relationship between these timestamps and traffic signals, the weights and biases are chosen adaptively to be trained based on the timestamps of each sample. Finally, a gated spatio-temporal mapping module regresses high-dimensional embedded features from spatial and temporal dimensions. KaTaGCN is structured without any attention mechanisms or recurrent neural networks. Extensive experimental results on six real-world public traffic datasets demonstrate that KaTaGCN achieves an average improvement of 4.29% in forecasting performance compared with suboptimal results.

The resolution of proactive interference in a novel visual working memory task: A behavioral and pupillometric study.

Proactive interference (PI) occurs when previously learned information impairs memory for more recently learned information. Most PI studies have employed verbal stimuli, while the role of PI in visual working memory (VWM) has had relatively little attention. In the verbal domain, Johansson and colleagues (2018) found that pupil diameter - a real-time neurophysiological index of cognitive effort - reflects the accumulation and resolution of PI. Here we use a novel, naturalistic paradigm to test the behavioral and pupillary correlates of PI resolution for what-was-where item-location bindings in VWM. Importantly, in our paradigm, trials (PI vs. no-PI condition) are mixed in a block, and participants are naïve to the condition until they are tested. This design sidesteps concerns about differences in encoding strategies or generalized effort differences between conditions. Across three experiments (N = 122 total) we assessed PI's effect on VWM and whether PI resolution during memory retrieval is associated with greater cognitive effort (as indexed by the phasic, task-evoked pupil response). We found strong support for PI's detrimental effect on VWM (even with our spatially distributed stimuli), but no consistent link between interference resolution and effort during memory retrieval (this, even though the pupil was a reliable indicator that higher-performing individuals tried harder during memory encoding). We speculate that when explicit strategies are minimized, and PI resolution relies primarily on implicit processing, the effect may not be sufficient to trigger a robust pupillometric response.

The role of objective sleep in implicit and explicit affect regulation: A comprehensive review

Impairments in sleep and affect regulation are evident across a wide range of mental disorders. Understanding the sleep factors that relate to affect regulatory difficulties will inform mechanistic understanding and aid in treatment. Despite rising interest, some research challenges in this area include integrating across different clinical and non-clinical literatures investigating the role of sleep architecture (measured with polysomnography) and experimentally manipulated sleep, as well as integrating more explicit versus implicit affect regulation processes. In this comprehensive review, we use a unifying framework to examine sleep's relationship with implicit-automatic regulation and explicit-controlled regulation, both of which are relevant to mental health (e.g., PTSD and depression). Many studies of implicit-automatic regulation (e.g., fear extinction and safety learning) demonstrate the importance of sleep, and REM sleep specifically. Studies of explicit-controlled regulation (e.g., cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) are less consistent in their findings, with results differing depending on the type of affect regulation and/or way that sleep was measured or manipulated. There is a clear relationship between objective sleep and affect regulation processes. However, there is a need for 1) more studies focusing on sleep and explicit-controlled affect regulation; 2) replication with the same types of regulation strategies; 3) more studies experimentally manipulating sleep to examine its impact on affect regulation and vice versa in order to infer cause and effect; and 4) more studies looking at sleep's impact on next-day affect regulation (not just overnight change in affect reactivity).

Proactive suppression is an implicit process that cannot be summoned on demand.

We examined whether proactive suppression can be applied on demand. A prompt cue indicated the to-be-ignored distractor color for each trial. Participants needed to use this cue to know which of two target shapes to respond to. To assess proactive suppression of the cued distractor color, we presented a probe letter recall task on a minority (25%) of the trials. A letter appeared inside each of the six shapes of the search array and participants recalled as many letters as they could. When the to-be-ignored color was fixed in Experiment 1, probe recall accuracy was lower for probe letters inside to-be-ignored-color distractors than target-color distractors, known as the probe suppression effect. However, when the prompted to-be-ignored color varied from trial to trial, the probe suppression effect disappeared, regardless of whether the prompt was a colored circle (Experiment 2) or a colored word (Experiment 3). Experiment 4 tested the search and destroy hypothesis by shortening the search display duration from 200 to 50 ms. No capture effect by the to-be-ignored color was evident, suggesting that participants did not first search for the to-be-ignored color, prior to suppressing it. We conclude that when rejection of a distractor color is required on demand, one cannot accomplish such suppression proactively but instead must deal with the distractor reactively, incurring a large cost in performance. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Acute neural effects of the mood stabiliser lamotrigine on emotional processing in healthy volunteers: a randomised control trial.

Lamotrigine is an effective mood stabiliser, largely used for the management and prevention of depression in bipolar disorder. The neuropsychological mechanisms by which lamotrigine acts to relieve symptoms as well as its neural effects on emotional processing remain unclear. The primary objective of this current study was to investigate the impact of an acute dose of lamotrigine on the neural response to a well-characterised fMRI task probing implicit emotional processing relevant to negative bias. 31 healthy participants were administered either a single dose of lamotrigine (300 mg, n = 14) or placebo (n = 17) in a randomized, double-blind design. Inside the 3 T MRI scanner, participants completed a covert emotional faces gender discrimination task. Brain activations showing significant group differences were identified using voxel-wise general linear model (GLM) nonparametric permutation testing, with threshold free cluster enhancement (TFCE) and a family wise error (FWE)-corrected cluster significance threshold of p < 0.05. Participants receiving lamotrigine were more accurate at identifying the gender of fearful (but not happy or angry) faces. A network of regions associated with emotional processing, including amygdala, insula, and the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), was significantly less activated in the lamotrigine group compared to the placebo group across emotional facial expressions. A single dose of lamotrigine reduced activation in limbic areas in response to faces with both positive and negative expressions, suggesting a valence-independent effect. However, at a behavioural level lamotrigine appeared to reduce the distracting effect of fear on face discrimination. Such effects may be relevant to the mood stabilisation effects of lamotrigine.

Following Your Ideal Leader: Implicit Public Leadership Theories, Leader—Member Exchange, and Work Engagement

Although social comparisons are ubiquitous in leadership, previous scholarship in public administration has not yet studied comparative aspects of how followers perceive and respond to leadership. This study addresses this gap and disentangles the link between leadership and work engagement from a socio-cognitive and relational perspective. It examines how public employees compare their real leaders against ideal leaders and how perceived gaps between both affect their work engagement through leader–member exchange (LMX). Building on leadership and job demands–resources theory, a priming study using the Semantic Misattribution Procedure (SMP) extracts participants’ Implicit Public Leadership Theories. Structural equation modeling reveals that work engagement is substantially higher (lower) when characteristics of the supervisor resonate with positive (negative) prototypes of ideal leaders, with this association being fully mediated by LMX. The study shows how implicit information processing matters for the emergence of leader–follower relationships and, in turn, for important follower outcomes. It thus contributes to, and combines, a socio-cognitive and a relational approach to leadership in the public sector.

Prediction of rolling resistance and wheel force for a passenger car tire: A comparative study on the use of different material models and numerical approaches

In this research, the characteristics of tire-road interaction of a 185/65R14 88H passenger car tire are investigated using the Finite Element Method in Abaqus commercial software. Moreover, the effect of various material models on tire performance is studied by implementing Visco-Hyperelastic, Parallel Rheological Framework, and Mullins effect. The novelty of this research is devoted to the development of the complex material models particularly considering the Mullins effect of the rubber compounds in the tire structure for the load-displacement criteria. For this purpose, a tire finite element model was generated using Abaqus/Standard command line in two different methods including an Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian formulation for steady state rolling and implementing a pure Lagrangian approach for the transient dynamic analysis carried out implicit and explicit process respectively. Rolling resistance force was computed according to ISO 28580 with 210 kPa inflation pressure and 4155 N vertical load. The footprint test results were extracted in both static and transient dynamic analyses. Additionally, the wheel reaction force was predicted using an indirect method by extracting the tire-terrain contact patch reaction force in Abaqus/Explicit to observe the effect of the material convection along with stress softening phenomena of the rubber compounds of tire structure. In the post-processing analysis, the wheel reaction was filtered by implementing SAE60 filter to reduce the numerical noise in the final response.

The contribution and interplay of implicit and explicit processes on physical activity behavior: empirical testing of the physical activity adoption and maintenance (PAAM) model

The adoption and maintenance of physical activity (PA) is an important health behavior. This paper presents the first comprehensive empirical test of the Physical Activity Adoption and Maintenance (PAAM) model, which proposes that a combination of explicit (e.g., intention) and implicit (e.g., habit,, affect) self-regulatory processes is involved in PA adoption and maintenance. Data were collected via online questionnaires in English, German, and Italian at two measurement points four weeks apart. The study included 422 participants (Mage= 25.3, SDage= 10.1; 74.2% women) from Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Canada, and the U.S. The study results largely supported the assumptions of the PAAM model, indicating that intentions and habits significantly mediate the effects of past PA on future PA. In addition, the effect of past PA on future PA was shown to be significant through a mediation chain involving affect and habit. Although the hypothesis that trait self-regulation moderates the intention-behavior relationship was not supported, a significant moderating effect of affect on the same relationship was observed. The results suggest that interventions targeting both explicit and implicit processes may be effective in promoting PA adoption and maintenance.

Mapping the differential impact of spontaneous and conversational laughter on brain and mind: an fMRI study in autism.

Spontaneous and conversational laughter are important socio-emotional communicative signals. Neuroimaging findings suggest that non-autistic people engage in mentalizing to understand the meaning behind conversational laughter. Autistic people may thus face specific challenges in processing conversational laughter, due to their mentalizing difficulties. Using fMRI, we explored neural differences during implicit processing of these two types of laughter. Autistic and non-autistic adults passively listened to funny words, followed by spontaneous laughter, conversational laughter, or noise-vocoded vocalizations. Behaviourally, words plus spontaneous laughter were rated as funnier than words plus conversational laughter, and the groups did not differ. However, neuroimaging results showed that non-autistic adults exhibited greater medial prefrontal cortex activation while listening to words plus conversational laughter, than words plus genuine laughter, while autistic adults showed no difference in medial prefrontal cortex activity between these two laughter types. Our findings suggest a crucial role for the medial prefrontal cortex in understanding socio-emotionally ambiguous laughter via mentalizing. Our study also highlights the possibility that autistic people may face challenges in understanding the essence of the laughter we frequently encounter in everyday life, especially in processing conversational laughter that carries complex meaning and social ambiguity, potentially leading to social vulnerability. Therefore, we advocate for clearer communication with autistic people.

The Effect of the Symbolic Meaning of Speed on Implicit Timing

Abstract It has been demonstrated that the stimulus’s features, including size, brightness, numerosity, and loudness, can affect the perception of subjective and explicit time. But, in a daily life situation, actual events presumably involve an implicit processing of time rather than an explicit processing, with some studies suggesting that the presentation of emotional stimuli before the target stimulus influences implicit timing. The present study aims to test the implicit component of temporal processing that the symbolic meaning of speed might influence. We used a time foreperiod task in which participants were first presented with a warning signal recalling the meaning of fast or slow speed, followed by the target. Our study shows significant main effects of the presented image cue and foreperiod effect. We observed faster reaction time when the target was preceded by a faster image compared to a slow image and in dependence of the factor of weight. Based on this, we conclude the symbolic meaning of speed can affect implicit timing by altering how the brain interprets temporal data.

Clinical, behavioral, and electrophysiological profiles along a continuum of suicide risk: evidence from an implicit association task.

An urgent need exists to identify neural correlates associated with differing levels of suicide risk and develop novel, rapid-acting therapeutics to modulate activity within these neural networks. Electrophysiological correlates of suicide were evaluated using magnetoencephalography (MEG) in 75 adults with differing levels of suicide risk. During MEG scanning, participants completed a modified Life-Death Implicit Association Task. MEG data were source-localized in the gamma (30-58 Hz) frequency, a proxy measure of excitation-inhibition balance. Dynamic causal modeling was used to evaluate differences in connectivity estimates between risk groups. A proof-of-concept, open-label, pilot study of five high risk participants examined changes in gamma power after administration of ketamine (0.5 mg/kg), an NMDAR antagonist with rapid anti-suicide ideation effects. Implicit self-associations with death were stronger in the highest suicide risk group relative to all other groups, which did not differ from each other. Higher gamma power for self-death compared to self-life associations was found in the orbitofrontal cortex for the highest risk group and the insula and posterior cingulate cortex for the lowest risk group. Connectivity estimates between these regions differentiated the highest risk group from the full sample. Implicit associations with death were not affected by ketamine, but enhanced gamma power was found for self-death associations in the left insula post-ketamine compared to baseline. Differential implicit cognitive processing of life and death appears to be linked to suicide risk, highlighting the need for objective measures of suicidal states. Pharmacotherapies that modulate gamma activity, particularly in the insula, may help mitigate risk.Clinicaltrials.gov identifier: NCT02543983, NCT00397111.

Social intuition: behavioral and neurobiological considerations.

Social intuition is instrumental in bringing about successful human interactions, yet its behavioral and neural underpinnings are still poorly understood. We focus in this article on the automatic, involuntary, nature of social intuition, rather than on higher-level cognitive and explicit Theory-of-Mind processes (which contribute to rendering social intuition meaningful in real-life situations). We argue that social-affective implicit learning plays a crucial role in establishing automatic social intuition. These implicit learning processes involve associations between the perception of other's bodily articulations, concurrent events, and the consequences or outcomes in terms of subsequent actions, affective valences and visceral states. The traditional non-social implicit learning paradigms do not allow one to draw conclusions about the role of implicit learning processes in social intuition, as they lack these vital characteristics typically associated with human actions. We introduce a new implicit learning paradigm, which aims to fill these gaps. It targets agile, rapid, social-affective learning processes, involving cue contingencies with a relatively simple structure, unlike the very complex structures that underpin the traditional tasks. The paradigm features matching social and non-social versions, allowing direct comparison. Preliminary data suggest equal performance of TD (typically-developed) and ASC (autism spectrum conditions) groups on the non-social version, but impaired implicit learning in ASC on the social version. We hypothesize that this reflects an anomalous use of implicitly learned affective information in ASC when judging other people. We further argue that the mirror neuron mechanism (MNM), which is part of the Action Observation Network, forms an integral part of the neural substrate for social intuition. In particular as there are indications that the MNM supports action anticipation, and that implicitly learned information can trigger MNM activation, which both seem vital to a social intuition ability. The insights that can be derived from comparing the performances of TD and ASC individuals on (non)social implicit learning tasks, and the implications for the role of MNM activation, are discussed.

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.