Psychometric analysis of traditional and alternative implicit association tests

Two studies were conducted to explore the psychometric properties of the Implicit Association Test (IAT). Several potential measurement problems associated with the design of the IAT methodology were highlighted, including (1) the use of a simple difference score to create a meaningful index of relative implicit evaluations (RIE), (2) the use of a relative attitude measure, and (3) the use of a double-barreled question format. A new measure of implicit evaluations was introduced that improved upon several of the methodological shortcomings revealed in the IAT design.;Structural equation models were used to examine the validity of assumptions underlying the measurement strategies used in the IAT. Results suggested that taking a difference between the two focal tasks in the IAT is problematic because they are assessing distinct psychological constructs. The use of a relative attitude measure also was brought into question, because of the problematic assumption that attitudes toward each of the racial groups would have an equal influence on each of the IAT tasks. The latent causal models revealed a pattern of negativity bias, such that the two tasks were influenced to a greater degree by the attitude toward the group paired with negative adjectives.;In addition, the use of a double-barreled question format was shown to be problematic by the latent model indicating that implicit attitudes toward African Americans are distinct from implicit attitudes toward European Americans. Thus, the process of measuring both of these attitudes at the same time is not useful because it results in an assessment that confounds these two separate constructs. A new measure of implicit evaluations, the Simple Association Test (SAT), was tested in Study Two. This measure allowed for independent assessment of positive and negative evaluations of African Americans and European Americans, thus removing the constraint of relative attitude measurement using a double-barreled question format found in the IAT. In addition, the SAT allowed for investigation of the way in which these distinct attitudes combine to influence the two focal components of the IAT task.