How Should We Think About Implicit Measures and Their Empirical “Anomalies”?

WIREs Cognitive Science:1-7 (2022)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Based on a review of several “anomalies” in research using implicit measures, Machery (2021) dismisses the modal interpretation of participant responses on implicit measures and, by extension, the value of implicit measures. We argue that the reviewed findings are anomalies only for specific—influential but long-contested—accounts that treat responses on implicit measures as uncontaminated indicators of trait-like unconscious representations that coexist with functionally independent conscious representations. However, the reviewed findings are to-be-expected “normalities” when viewed from the perspective of long-standing alternative frameworks that treat responses on implicit measures as the product of dynamic processes that operate on momentarily activated, consciously accessible information. Thus, although we agree with Machery that the modal view is empirically unsupported, we argue that implicit measures can make a valuable contribution to understanding the complexities of human behavior if they are used wisely in a way that acknowledges what they can and cannot do.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Entitativity and implicit measures of social cognition.Ben Phillips - 2021 - Mind and Language 37 (5):1030-1047.
Understanding and using the implicit association test.Brian A. Nosek - 2007 - In Bernd Wittenbrink & Norbert Schwarz (eds.), Implicit Measures of Attitudes. Guilford Press. pp. 59–102.
What is implicit bias?Jules Holroyd, Robin Scaife & Tom Stafford - 2017 - Philosophy Compass 12 (10):e12437.
What are implicit measures and why are we using them.Jan De Houwer - 2006 - In Reinout W. Wiers & Alan W. Stacy (eds.), Handbook of Implicit Cognition and Addiction. Sage Publications.

Analytics

Added to PP
2021-11-10

Downloads
1,048 (#19,640)

6 months
162 (#24,630)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author Profiles

Michael Brownstein
John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY)
Alex Madva
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona