Explicit and implicit stereotype activation effects on memory: do age and awareness moderate the impact of priming?

Two studies examined the effects of implicit and explicit priming of aging stereotypes. Implicit primes had a significant effect on older adults' memory, with positive primes associated with greater recall than negative primes. With explicit primes, older adults were able to counteract the impact of negative stereotypes when the cues were relatively subtle, but blatant stereotype primes suppressed performance regardless of prime type. No priming effects under either presentation condition were obtained for younger adults, indicating that the observed implicit effects are specific to those for whom the stereotype is self-relevant. Findings emphasize the importance of social-situational factors in determining older adults' memory performance and contribute to the delineation of situations under which stereotypes are most influential.     

Who distinguishes between sinners and sins at the implicit level of awareness?

Several researchers have investigated the possibility that people indeed can love individuals who are engaged in behaviors that are considered unacceptable. In the present research, the authors evaluated the possibility that people distinguish between presumably sinful persons and presumably sinful behaviors at a cognitive level that does not involve conscious intent and awareness: the implicit (nonconscious) level of awareness. Participants performed a speeded-response task, the Implicit Association Test. Results indicated that participants were able to make such a (person vs. behavior) distinction and that in doing so, they manifested positive implicit evaluations of sinful people relative to sinful actions.     

Are awareness questionnaires valid? Investigating the use of posttest questionnaires for assessing awareness in implicit memory tests

Two experiments--one employing a perceptual implicit memory test and the other a conceptual implicit memory test--investigated the validity of posttest questionnaires for determining the incidence of awareness in implicit memory tests. In both experiments, a condition in which none of the studied words could be used as test responses (i.e., the none-studied condition) was compared with a standard implicit test condition. Results showed that reports of awareness on the posttest questionnaire were much less frequent in the none-studied condition than in the standard condition. This was especially true after deep processing at study. In both experiments, 83% of the participants in the none-studied condition stated they were unaware even though there were strong demands for claiming awareness. Although there was a small bias in the questionnaire (i.e., 17% of the participants in the none-studied condition stated they were aware), overall, there was strong support for the validity of awareness questionnaires.     

Strategic behavior without awareness? Effects of implicit learning in the Eriksen flanker paradigm

This experiment investigated whether subjects' selection and use of strategies in detecting a target letter in a flanker task requires intention. Subjects' expectancies for compatible and incompatible trials (trials on which the response to the flanker stimulus was consistent or inconsistent with the target response) were manipulated by presenting cues that signaled the occurrence of these types of trials. Three groups of subjects received explicit, partially explicit, or implicit instructions about the meaning of the cues. By the end of the experiment, all the groups were able to select and use strategies based on the cues to improve their performance. However, this strategy selection developed slowly with practice in the latter two groups, whereas it was present from the outset in the first group. In addition, forced choice tests performed after the experiment showed that the subjects in the implicit condition could not intentionally indicate which stimuli were most likely to follow a given cue. Thus, the data suggest that the selection of strategies occurred outside the subjects' awareness, and without their intention.     

Measuring Big-Five personality dimensions with the implicit association test – Implicit personality traits or self-esteem?

We examined whether the implicit association test (IAT) could serve as an implicit measure of the dimensions of the Five-Factor Model of Personality. In the first study (N = 84) IAT-effects of the Big-Five (Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism and Openness) were found and the IAT showed good internal consistencies and convergent validity with an explicit Big-Five questionnaire (NEO-FFI-30). In a second study (N = 50), conducted to determine the overlap of the personality-IATs with implicit self-esteem, the Extraversion and the Neuroticism-IAT were shown to correlate with a self-esteem-IAT only moderately.     

In search of the optimal measure of awareness: Discrete or continuous?

Studies of perceptual awareness require sensitive measures reflecting subjective judgments of visibility. Two scales have been proposed for this purpose: the Continuous Scale (CS) and the Perceptual Awareness Scale (PAS). Here we compare the scales in the context of the Gabor patch orientation discrimination task and propose a Continuous Perceptual Awareness Scale (C-PAS) that aims to combine their advantages. The results of the study shown no differences in sensitivity between the scales. However, we observed differences between the scales in awareness ratings frequencies and accuracy associated with the lowest ratings. We concluded that visibility ratings are often biased, and thus, the scale sensitivity may not be optimal. Furthermore, based on the additional analyses, we argued that there is an advantage of using C-PAS over CS. The scale allows to use an additional variability of judgment within PAS categories and thus it may enable more fine-grained measurement of visibility at near-threshold conditions.     

Measuring Big-Five personality dimensions with the implicit association test – Implicit personality traits or self-esteem?

We examined whether the implicit association test (IAT) could serve as an implicit measure of the dimensions of the Five-Factor Model of Personality. In the first study (N = 84) IAT-effects of the Big-Five (Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism and Openness) were found and the IAT showed good internal consistencies and convergent validity with an explicit Big-Five questionnaire (NEO-FFI-30). In a second study (N = 50), conducted to determine the overlap of the personality-IATs with implicit self-esteem, the Extraversion and the Neuroticism-IAT were shown to correlate with a self-esteem-IAT only moderately.     

Causes of boredom: The person,the situation,or both?

Some theories emphasize the role of the situation, some emphasize the role of the person, and some emphasize the interaction between situation and person in causing boredom. The present study examines these models by determining whether boredom propensity (person) and/or experimental condition (situation) independently or in interaction affected state boredom. The study also examined the relative contribution of behavioural activation and inhibition to state boredom. Boredom propensity and condition significantly and independently predicted state boredom, as did the interaction between behavioural inhibition and condition. Implications are discussed, including the possibility of two distinct causes of boredom.     

Impact of the driver’s visual engagement on situation awareness and takeover quality

During automated driving (SAE Level 3), drivers can delegate control of the vehicle and monitoring of the road to an automated system. They may then devote themselves to tasks other than driving and gradually lose situational awareness (SA). This could result in difficulty in regaining control of the vehicle when the automated system requires it. In this simulator study, the level of SA was manipulated through the time spent performing a non-driving task (NDRT), which alternated with phases where the driver could monitor the driving scene, prior to a critical takeover request (TOR). The SA at the time of TOR, the visual behaviour after TOR, and the takeover quality were analysed. The results showed that monitoring the road just before the TOR allowed the development of limited perception of the driving situation, which only partially compensated for the lack of a consolidated mental model of the situation. The quality of the recovery, assessed through the number of collisions, was consistent with the level of development of SA. The analysis of visual behaviour showed that engagement in the non-driving task at the time of TOR induced a form of perseverance in consulting the interface where the task was displayed, to the detriment of checking the mirrors. These results underline the importance of helping the driver to restore good SA well in advance of a TOR.     

Who shapes the self of independents and interdependents? Explicit and implicit measures of the self's relatedness to family,friends and partner

We suggest that social relationships shape the self in different ways, depending on whether persons define themselves as independent or interdependent. While the self of independents is most strongly associated with mental representations of others to whom they are related because of their own deliberate action (e.g. friends), the self of interdependents is most strongly connected with representations of others with whom they share allocated group memberships (e.g. family members). We took both explicit (Study 1) and implicit measures (Studies 2, 3 and 4) on how strongly independent and interdependent selves are associated with self‐chosen versus allocated close others. In Studies 3 and 4, we additionally primed the independent or interdependent self. Both explicit and implicit measures indicated that mental representations of family members were more strongly associated with the interdependent self than with the independent self, while romantic partners and friends were connected with both the independent and interdependent self. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Skepticism: Genuine unbelief or implicit beliefs in the supernatural?

We examined whether skeptics hold implicit supernatural beliefs or implicit cognitive underpinnings of the beliefs. In study 1 (N = 57), participants read a biological or a religious story about death. The story content had no effect on skeptics’ (or believers’) afterlife beliefs. Study 2 examined the relationships between religious and non-religious paranormal beliefs and implicit views about whether supernatural and religious phenomena are imaginary or real (n1 = 33, n2 = 31). The less supernatural beliefs were endorsed the easier it was to connect “supernatural” with “imaginary”. Study 3 (N = 63) investigated whether participants’ supernatural beliefs and ontological confusions differ between speeded and non-speeded response conditions. Only non-analytical skeptics’ ontological confusions increased in speeded conditions. The results indicate that skeptics overall do not hold implicit supernatural beliefs, but that non-analytically thinking skeptics may, under supporting conditions, be prone to biases that predispose to supernatural beliefs.     

The persistence of structural priming: transient activation or implicit learning?

Structural priming in language production is a tendency to recreate a recently uttered syntactic structure in different words. This tendency can be seen independent of specific lexical items, thematic roles, or word sequences. Two alternative proposals about the mechanism behind structural priming include (a) short-term activation from a memory representation of a priming structure and (b) longer term adaptation within the cognitive mechanisms for creating sentences, as a form of procedural learning. Two experiments evaluated these hypotheses, focusing on the persistence of structural priming. Both experiments yielded priming that endured beyond adjacent sentences, persisting over 2 intervening sentences in Experiment 1 and over 10 in Experiment 2. Although memory may have short-term consequences for some components of this kind of priming, the persisting effects are more compatible with a learning account than a transient memory account.     

Assessing the potential impacts of connected vehicle systems on Driver’s situation awareness and driving performance

Vehicles equipped with connected vehicle technologies are able to communicate with each other and with infrastructures. Compared to Advanced Driving Assistance Systems (ADAS) using camera systems and sensor technologies, the Connected Vehicle Systems (CVS) leverage the wireless communication networks to detect hazards with a greater range, alert drivers of hazards much earlier, and therefore enhance driving safety. However, drivers’ reliance on the CVS to detect critical situations could negatively affect them maintaining situation awareness (SA) in noncritical situations when no warning is issued by the CVS. The present study conducted a driving simulator experiment with 40 participants to investigate the effect of connected vehicle systems on driver SA in normal, noncritical driving scenarios after they were exposed to the CVS with different designs of collision warning lead time (3 s, 6 s, and no warnings). After drivers experienced the CVS-supported warnings with the assigned design of lead time in critical situations, driver SA was measured in normal driving conditions using the freeze probe technique. Results revealed that drivers who experienced the CVS with early warnings (6 s) showed lower SA for normal driving events compared to those who experienced the CVS with late warnings (3 s) or no warnings. Although early warnings of CVS brought more safety benefits to drivers in critical situations, the degraded driver SA due to drivers’ reliance on such warning systems could endanger drivers when a system failure occurred. These findings highlight the importance of balancing the effects of warning lead time on driver SA and driving performance in designing connected vehicle systems.     

Are situation awareness and decision-making in driving totally conscious processes? Results of a hazard prediction task

Detecting danger in the driving environment is an indispensable task to guarantee safety which depends on the driver’s ability to predict upcoming hazards. But does correct prediction lead to an appropriate response? This study advances hazard perception research by investigating the link between successful prediction and response selection. Three groups of drivers (learners, novices and experienced drivers) were recruited, with novice and experienced drivers further split into offender and non-offender groups. Specifically, this works aims to develop an improved Spanish Hazard Prediction Test and to explore the differences in Situation Awareness, (SA: perception, comprehension and prediction) and Decision-Making (DM) among learners, younger inexperienced and experienced drivers and between driving offenders and non-offenders. The contribution of the current work is not only theoretical; the Hazard Prediction Test is also a valid way to test Hazard Perception. The test, as well as being useful as part of the test for a driving license, could also serve a purpose in the renewal of licenses after a ban or as a way of training drivers. A sample of 121 participants watched a series of driving video clips that ended with a sudden occlusion prior to a hazard. They then answered questions to assess their SA (“What is the hazard?” “Where is it located?” “What happens next?”) and DM (“What would you do in this situation?”). This alternative to the Hazard Perception Test demonstrates a satisfactory internal consistency (Alpha = 0.750), with eleven videos achieving discrimination indices above 0.30. Learners performed significantly worse than experienced drivers when required to identify and locate the hazard. Interestingly, drivers were more accurate in answering the DM question than questions regarding SA, suggesting that drivers can choose an appropriate response manoeuvre without a totally conscious knowledge of the exact hazard.     

Unconscious perception or not? An evaluation of detection and discrimination as indicators of awareness

Most investigations of unconscious perception use a dissociation design in which an awareness variable (e.g., detection) is compared with a perceptual processing variable (e.g., identification). Unconscious perception is inferred when the awareness variable lacks sensitivity to the stimulus but evidence of perceptual processing is still obtained. In two studies we examined the relationship between word identification and detection (Study 1) or discrimination (words vs. nonwords; Study 2) with a variety of techniques. In both studies, dissociations suggestive of unconscious perception occurred when the data were examined with subjective threshold approaches, but these differences disappeared when the variables were compared with techniques derived from signal detection theory (SDT). These results do not support unconscious perception in subjective threshold paradigms. In addition, detection appears to be the most sensitive and appropriate task for assessing stimulus awareness, provided that several SDT assumptions are met.     

Does contingency awareness mediate the influence of emotional learning on the cueing of visual attention?

Previous research has indicated that conditioning depends on contingency awareness (CA). However, we argue that these studies have examined this issue under methodological conditions that might be insensitive to associative learning without CA. In the present study we examined the effect of an experimental manipulation of CA on attentive processing of classically conditioned stimuli, which is sensitive to associative learning with and without CA. We found that aversive conditioning with additional contingency instructions modulated visual attention, in the sense that the conditioned cues captured and held attention more strongly than the non-conditioned cues. Surprisingly, conditioning under conditions of restricted CA yielded a response pattern that was different from that under full CA. These findings suggest that conditioning with full and restricted CA can lead to qualitatively different effects on attention.     

Stalking the perfect measure of implicit self-esteem: the blind men and the elephant revisited?

Recent interest in the implicit self-esteem construct has led to the creation and use of several new assessment tools whose psychometric properties have not been fully explored. In this article, the authors investigated the reliability and validity of seven implicit self-esteem measures. The different implicit measures did not correlate with each other, and they correlated only weakly with measures of explicit self-esteem. Only some of the implicit measures demonstrated good test-retest reliabilities, and overall, the implicit measures were limited in their ability to predict our criterion variables. Finally, there was some evidence that implicit self-esteem measures are sensitive to context. The implications of these findings for the future of implicit self-esteem research are discussed.     

Retracted: Correction or comparison? The effects of prime awareness on social judgments

In previous research on the effects of accessible information on social judgments, divergent explanations have been offered for contrast effects that occur as a consequence of prime awareness. Some authors favor a comparison explanation, whereas others favor a correction explanation. In two studies, we successfully disentangled comparison and correction contrast by demonstrating that whereas correction for unwanted influences is a general process that leads to contrast on various dimensions on which a target is judged, comparison effects are prime specific and occur mainly on comparison relevant dimensions. In addition, our findings indicate that for correction attempts to occur and succeed, respondents must have the feeling that these primes contaminate their target judgments and should be removed from their “true” reaction to the target. When people are not suspicious of the potential contaminating influences of priming stimuli, prime awareness is more likely to lead to prime‐target comparisons than to correction efforts. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.