Skip to main content
Search
Search
    Quick Search anywhere
    Quick search in Citations
Advanced Search
Skip main navigationClose Drawer MenuOpen Drawer Menu
Previous article
Next article
Original Article

Indirect Measurement of Motivation

Developing and Testing a Motivational Recoding-Free Implicit Association Test (m-IAT-RF)

Published Online:January 01, 2015https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-9335/a000234

Abstract

For the indirect measurement of approach-avoidance tendencies, two procedures are introduced and compared. The procedures are modifications of the standard IAT and the Recoding-Free IAT (IAT-RF) and use a motivational attribute dimension (approach, avoidance) instead of an evaluative one. Study 1 (N = 162) assesses their convergent and discriminant validity with respect to self-reported measures of motivation and evaluation, and their predictive validity with respect to actual behavior. Study 2 (N = 205) furthermore compares their validity to evaluative variants of the same test paradigms. Overall, both procedures perform similarly. In Study 2, procedures based on the IAT-RF are superior, and the motivational IAT-RF shows the highest predictive validity. Unfortunately, no evidence for incremental validity over explicit measures alone is found for any of the implicit measures. Furthermore, procedures based on the IAT-RF appear to be less reliable than procedures based on the standard IAT. A possible explanation is offered.

References

  • Berridge, K. C., & Robinson, T E. (2003). Parsing reward. Trends in Neurosciences, 26, 507–513. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Blanton, H., Jaccard, J., Gonzales, P. M., & Christie, C. (2006). Decoding the Implicit Association Test: Implications for criterion prediction. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 42, 192–212. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Bluemke, M., & Friese, M. (2006). Do features of stimuli influence IAT effects? Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 42, 163–176. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Brunstrom, J. M., & Shakeshaft, N. G. (2009). Measuring affective (liking) and non-affective (expected satiety) determinants of portion size and food reward. Appetite, 52, 108–114. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Chen, M., & Bargh, J. A. (1999). Consequences of automatic evaluation: Immediate behavioral predispositions to approach or avoid the stimulus. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25, 215–224. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Cohn, A. M., Cameron, A. Y., Udo, T., Hagman, B. T., Mitchell, J., Bramm, S., & Ehlke, S. (2012). Delineating potential mechanisms of implicit alcohol cognitions: Drinking restraint, negative affect, and their relationship with approach alcohol associations. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 26, 318–324. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • De Houwer, J. (2001). A structural and process analysis of the Implicit Association Test. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 37, 443–451. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • De Houwer, J., Crombez, G., Baeyens, F., & Hermans, D. (2001). On the generality of the affective Simon effect. Cognition and Emotion, 15, 189–206. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • De Houwer, J., Crombez, G., Koster, E. H., & De Beul, N. (2004). Implicit alcohol-related cognitions in a clinical sample of heavy drinkers. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 35, 275–286. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • De Houwer, J., Custers, R., & De Clercq, A. (2006). Do smokers have a negative implicit attitude toward smoking? Cognition and Emotion, 20, 1274–1284. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Deutsch, R., & Strack, F. (2006). Reflective and impulsive determinants of addictive behavior. In R. W. Wiers, & A. W. Stacy, (Eds.), Handbook of implicit cognition and addiction (pp. 45–57). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Farris, S. R., Ostafin, B. D., & Palfai, T. P. (2010). Distractibility moderates the relation between automatic alcohol motivation and drinking behavior. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 24, 151–156. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Faul, F., Erdfelder, E., Buchner, A., & Lang, A.-G (2009). Statistical power analyses using G*Power 3.1: Tests for correlation and regression analyses. Behaviour Research Methods, 41, 1149–1160. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Fazio, R. H., Chen, J. M., McDonel, E. C., & Sherman, S. J. (1982). Attitude accessibility, attitude-behavior consistency, and the strength of the object-evaluation association. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 18, 339–357. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Fazio, R. H., Sanbonmatsu, D. M., Powell, M. C., & Kardes, F. R. (1986). On the automatic activation of attitudes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 229–238. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Ferguson, M. J., & Bargh, J. A. (2003). The constructive nature of automatic evaluation. In J. Musch, & K. C. Klauer, (Eds.), The psychology of evaluation: Affective processes in cognition and emotion (pp. 169–188). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Ferguson, M. J., & Bargh, J. A. (2004). Liking is for doing: The effects of goal pursuit on automatic evaluation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87, 557–572. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Finlayson, G., King, N., & Blundell, J. E. (2008). The role of implicit wanting in relation to explicit liking and wanting for food: Implications for appetite control. Appetite, 50, 120–127. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Friese, M., Hofmann, W., & Schmitt, M. (2008). When and why do implicit measures predict behaviour? Empirical evidence for the moderating role of opportunity, motivation, and process reliance. European Review of Social Psychology, 19, 285–338. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Friese, M., Hofmann, W., & Wänke, M. (2008). When impulses take over: Moderated predictive validity of explicit and implicit attitude measures in predicting food choice and consumption behaviour. British Journal of Social Psychology, 47, 397–419. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Govan, C. L., & Williams, K. D. (2004). Changing the affective valence of the stimulus items influences the IAT by re-defining the category labels. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 40, 357–365. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Greenwald, A. G., McGhee, D. E., & Schwartz, J. L. K. (1998). Measuring individual differences in implicit cognition: The Implicit Association Test. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 1464–1480. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Greenwald, A. G., Nosek, B. A., & Banaji, M. R. (2003). Understanding and using the Implicit Association Test: I. An improved scoring algorithm. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 197–216. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Greenwald, A. G., Poehlman, T. A., Uhlmann, E. L., & Banaji, M. R. (2009). Understanding and using the Implicit Association Test: III. Meta-analysis of predictive validity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97, 17–41. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Hoch, S. J., & Loewenstein, G. F. (1991). Time-inconsistent preferences and consumer self-control. Journal of Consumer Research, 17, 492–507. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Hofmann, W., Gawronski, B., Gschwendner, T., Le, H., & Schmitt, M. (2005). A meta-analysis on the correlation between the Implicit Association Test and explicit self-report measures. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31, 1369–1385. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Hofmann, W., & Van Dillen, L. (2012). Desire: The new hot spot in self-control research. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 21, 317–322. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Houben, K., Rothermund, K., & Wiers, R. W. (2009). Predicting alcohol use with a recoding-free variant of the Implicit Association Test. Addictive Behaviors, 34, 487–489. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Huijding, J., Muris, P., Lester, K. J., Field, A. P., & Joosse, G. (2011). Training children to approach or avoid novel animals: Effects on self-reported attitudes and fear beliefs and information-seeking behaviors. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 49, 606–613. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Karpinski, A., & Hilton, J. L. (2001). Attitudes and the Implicit Association Test. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 774–788. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Karpinski, A., & Steinman, R. B. (2006). The single category Implicit Association Test as a measure of implicit social cognition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91, 16–32. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Kemps, E., Tiggemann, M., Martin, R., & Elliott, M. (2013). Implicit approach – avoidance associations for craved food cues. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 19, 30–38. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Klauer, K. C., Voss, A., & Stahl, C. (2011). Cognitive methods in social psychology. New York, NY: Guilford Press. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Lindgren, K. P., Neighbors, C., Teachman, B. A., Wiers, R. W., Westgate, E., & Greenwald, A. G. (2013). I drink therefore I am: Validating alcohol-related Implicit Association Tests. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 27, 1–13. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Meissner, F., & Rothermund, K. (2013). Estimating the contributions of associations and recoding in the Implicit Association Test: The ReAL model for the IAT. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology., 104, 45–69. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Mierke, J., & Klauer, K. C. (2003). Method-specific variance in the Implicit Association Test. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 1180–1192. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Neumann, R., Förster, J., & Strack, F. (2003). Motor compatibility: The bidirectional link between behavior and evaluation. In J. Musch, & K. C. Klauer, (Eds.), The psychology of evaluation: Affective processes in cognition and emotion (pp. 371–391). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Nisbett, R. E., & Wilson, T. D. (1977). Telling more than we can know: Verbal reports on mental processes. Psychological Review, 84, 231–259. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Nosek, B. A. (2005). Moderators of the relationship between implicit and explicit evaluation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 134, 565–584. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Nosek, B. A., Hawkins, C. B., & Frazier, R. S. (2011). Implicit social cognition: From measures to mechanisms. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 15, 152–159. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Olson, M. A., & Fazio, R. H. (2004). Reducing the influence of extrapersonal associations on the Implicit Association Test: Personalizing the TAT. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86, 653–667. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Ostafin, B. D., & Brooks, J. J. (2011). Drinking for relief: Negative affect increases automatic alcohol motivation in coping-motivated drinkers. Motivation and Emotion, 35, 285–295. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Ostafin, B. D., Marlatt, G. A., & Greenwald, A. G. (2008). Drinking without thinking: An implicit measure of alcohol motivation predicts failure to control alcohol use. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 46, 1210–1219. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Ostafin, B. D., & Palfai, T. P. (2006). Compelled to consume: The Implicit Association Test and automatic alcohol motivation. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 20, 322–327. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Palfai, T. P., & Ostafin, B. D. (2003). Alcohol-related motivational tendencies in hazardous drinkers: Assessing implicit response tendencies using the modified-IAT. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 41, 1149–1162. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Payne, B. K. (2001). Prejudice and perception: The role of automatic and controlled processes in misperceiving a weapon. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 181–192. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Perugini, M., Richetin, J., & Zogmaister, C. (2010). Prediction of behavior. Handbook of Implicit Social Cognition: Measurement, Theory, and Applications, 10, 255–278. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Rinck, M., & Becker, E. S. (2007). Approach and avoidance in fear of spiders. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 38, 105–120. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Robinson, T. E., & Berridge, K. C. (1993). The neural basis of drug craving: An incentive-sensitization theory of addiction. Brain Research Reviews, 18, 247–291. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Roefs, A., Huijding, J., Smulders, F. T., MacLeod, C. M., de Jong, P. J., Wiers, R. W., & Jansen, A. (2011). Implicit measures of association in psychopathology research. Psychological Bulletin, 137, 149–193. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Roousseeuw, P. J., & Van Driessen, K. (1999). A fast algorithm for the minimum covariance determinant estimator. Technometrics, 41, 212–223. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Rothermund, K., Teige-Mocigemba, S., Gast, A., & Wentura, D. (2009). Minimizing the influence of recoding in the Implicit Association Test: The Recoding-Free Implicit Association Test (IAT-RF). The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 62, 84–98. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Rothermund, K., & Wentura, D. (2004). Underlying processes in the Implicit Association Test: Dissociating salience from associations. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 133, 139–165. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Schneider, E., & Zuccoloto, A. (2007). E-prime 2.0 [Computer software]. Pittsburg, PA: Psychological Software Tools. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Seibt, B., Häfner, M., & Deutsch, R. (2007). Prepared to eat: How immediate affective and motivational responses to food cues are influenced by food deprivation. European Journal of Social Psychology, 37, 359–379. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Sherman, S. J., Rose, J. S., Koch, K., Presson, C. C., & Chassin, L. (2003). Implicit and explicit attitudes toward cigarette smoking: The effects of context and motivation. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 22, 13–39. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Sriram, N., & Greenwald, A. G. (2009). The Brief Implicit Association Test. Experimental Psychology, 56, 283–294. First citation in articleLink, Google Scholar

  • Strack, F., & Deutsch, R. (2004). Reflective and impulsive determinants of social behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 8, 220–247. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Strack, F., Werth, L., & Deutsch, R. (2006). Reflective and impulsive determinants of consumer behavior. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 16, 205–216. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Teige-Mocigemba, S., Klauer, K. C., & Rothermund, K. (2008). Minimizing method-specific variance in the IAT: A single block IAT. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 24, 237–245. First citation in articleLink, Google Scholar

  • Tibboel, H., De Houwer, J., Spruyt, A., Field, M., Kemps, E., & Crombez, G. (2011). Testing the validity of implicit measures of wanting and liking. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 42, 284–292. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Türk Pereira, P. (2010). Testing the sour-grapes effect: How food deprivation and reward expectancy change implicit and explicit food-liking and food-wanting. (Doctoral dissertation, University of Würzburg, Germany). First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Wiers, R. W., Eberl, C., Rinck, M., Becker, E. S., & Lindenmeyer, J. (2011). Retraining automatic action tendencies changes alcoholic patients’ approach bias for alcohol and improves treatment outcome. Psychological Science, 22, 490–497. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Wiers, R. W., Rinck, M., Kordts, R., Houben, K., & Strack, F. (2010). Retraining automatic action-tendencies to approach alcohol in hazardous drinkers. Addiction, 105, 279–287. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Wiers, R. W., Van Woerden, N., Smulders, F. T., & De Jong, P. J. (2002). Implicit and explicit alcohol-related cognitions in heavy and light drinkers. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 111, 648–658. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar

  • Wigboldus, D. H., Holland, R. W., & van Knippenberg, A. (2004). Single Target Implicit Association. Unpublished manuscript. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Wilson, T. D. (2002). Strangers to ourselves: Discovering the adaptive unconscious. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Wittenbrink, B., Judd, C. M., & Park, B. (2001). Spontaneous prejudice in context: Variability in automatically activated attitudes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 815–827. First citation in articleCrossref, Google Scholar