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Clocking the social mind by identifying mental processes in the IAT with electrical neuroimaging.

  • Schiller B Department of Psychology, Laboratory for Biological and Personality Psychology, University of Freiburg, DE-79104, Freiburg, Germany; Institute of Psychology, Department of Social Psychology and Social Neuroscience, University of Bern, CH-3012, Bern, Switzerland; Department of Psychology, Social and Affective Neuroscience, University of Basel, CH-4055, Basel, Switzerland; daria.knoch@psy.unibe.ch schiller@psychologie.uni-freiburg.de lorena.gianotti@psy.unibe.ch.
  • Gianotti LR Institute of Psychology, Department of Social Psychology and Social Neuroscience, University of Bern, CH-3012, Bern, Switzerland; Department of Psychology, Social and Affective Neuroscience, University of Basel, CH-4055, Basel, Switzerland; Center for Cognition, Learning and Memory, University of Bern, CH-3012, Bern, Switzerland; daria.knoch@psy.unibe.ch schiller@psychologie.uni-freiburg.de lorena.gianotti@psy.unibe.ch.
  • Baumgartner T Institute of Psychology, Department of Social Psychology and Social Neuroscience, University of Bern, CH-3012, Bern, Switzerland; Department of Psychology, Social and Affective Neuroscience, University of Basel, CH-4055, Basel, Switzerland; Center for Cognition, Learning and Memory, University of Bern, CH-3012, Bern, Switzerland;
  • Nash K Institute of Psychology, Department of Social Psychology and Social Neuroscience, University of Bern, CH-3012, Bern, Switzerland; Department of Psychology, Social and Affective Neuroscience, University of Basel, CH-4055, Basel, Switzerland; Center for Cognition, Learning and Memory, University of Bern, CH-3012, Bern, Switzerland;
  • Koenig T Center for Cognition, Learning and Memory, University of Bern, CH-3012, Bern, Switzerland; Translational Research Center, University Hospital of Psychiatry, University of Bern, CH-3000, Bern, Switzerland.
  • Knoch D Institute of Psychology, Department of Social Psychology and Social Neuroscience, University of Bern, CH-3012, Bern, Switzerland; Department of Psychology, Social and Affective Neuroscience, University of Basel, CH-4055, Basel, Switzerland; Center for Cognition, Learning and Memory, University of Bern, CH-3012, Bern, Switzerland; daria.knoch@psy.unibe.ch schiller@psychologie.uni-freiburg.de lorena.gianotti@psy.unibe.ch.
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  • 2016-02-24
Published in:
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. - 2016
ERP
implicit social cognition
intergroup bias
microstates
social neuroscience
Adult
Brain
Brain Mapping
Electroencephalography
Evoked Potentials
Female
Humans
Male
Mental Processes
Middle Aged
Neuroimaging
Neuropsychological Tests
Reaction Time
Social Behavior
Word Association Tests
Young Adult
English Why do people take longer to associate the word "love" with outgroup words (incongruent condition) than with ingroup words (congruent condition)? Despite the widespread use of the implicit association test (IAT), it has remained unclear whether this IAT effect is due to additional mental processes in the incongruent condition, or due to longer duration of the same processes. Here, we addressed this previously insoluble issue by assessing the spatiotemporal evolution of brain electrical activity in 83 participants. From stimulus presentation until response production, we identified seven processes. Crucially, all seven processes occurred in the same temporal sequence in both conditions, but participants needed more time to perform one early occurring process (perceptual processing) and one late occurring process (implementing cognitive control to select the motor response) in the incongruent compared with the congruent condition. We also found that the latter process contributed to individual differences in implicit bias. These results advance understanding of the neural mechanics of response time differences in the IAT: They speak against theories that explain the IAT effect as due to additional processes in the incongruent condition and speak in favor of theories that assume a longer duration of specific processes in the incongruent condition. More broadly, our data analysis approach illustrates the potential of electrical neuroimaging to illuminate the temporal organization of mental processes involved in social cognition.
Language
  • English
Open access status
bronze
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://sonar.ch/global/documents/140263
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