Implicit association
≈ 4 MIN · 2 PRACTICE + 2 COMBINED BLOCKS · Judgement
What this is about
Some pairs go together more easily than others: when FLOWER and PLEASANT share a key, the hand sorts faster than when FLOWER falls together with UNPLEASANT. Greenwald, McGhee and Schwartz built the Implicit Association Test from this in 1998 — measured is the speed difference between the two mappings.
This is the neutral textbook version of the original: flowers versus insects, pleasant versus unpleasant words — the version the method was introduced with, deliberately without social categories. The flower advantage showed clearly in 1998; it is not surprising, and exactly that makes it right for getting to know the method.
Before you start, the essential point: a single IAT score is not a diagnosis. At the level of one person, repeated runs scatter considerably, order and practice interfere; the method becomes solid only across groups and many runs. What comes out here in a moment shows the mechanics of the method — not your character.
How it runs
- Block 1 (practice): flowers left (key 1), insects right (key 2) — 8 words.
- Block 2 (practice): pleasant left, unpleasant right — 8 words.
- Blocks 3 and 4 (scored, order randomized): both sortings combined, 20 words each.
- On errors an ✗ appears — only the correct key advances, the clock keeps running (built-in error penalty).
Runs entirely in your browser — nothing is transmitted or stored.
You can stop the run at any time.
Your finding
What it means
Limits of this experiment
- At the individual level the IAT is unreliable — repetitions scatter widely; this is demonstration, not diagnosis.
- Block order matters and stays unaveraged in a single measurement despite random assignment.
- Short form without reversed practice blocks — the original uses seven blocks.
- The first stimulus of each scored block is discarded — it carries the switch to the new key mapping; 19 per block are scored.
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