Theoretical Models

Despite the explosion of research activity in the use of implicit measures for the assessment of cognitive content, until recently this research had been largely atheoretical. The introduction of implicit measures in social psychological research was mainly empirically and not theoretically driven (Fazio & Olson, 2003). This prompted some scholars to assign a theoretical framework to this new but fast growing field. The following are the most

prominent theoretical attitude models which account for the underlying functions of implicit measures and for the discrepancy between implicit and explicit attitudes.

3. 1. The MODE model (Fazio, 1990; Fazio & Olson, 2003; Olson & Fazio, 2009)

This model describes attitudes as object-evaluation links stored in long term memory. It describes two processes through which attitudes can guide behaviour. The first is a

spontaneous process where attitudes are automatically activated from memory upon encounter with an attitude object, without any active introspection or consideration of these attitudes by the individual, and without necessary awareness of their influence. The automatically

activated attitudes influence how the individual perceives and interprets the object in the immediate situation, and this, in turn, determines the behavioural response toward that object. This is especially evident with strong and more accessible attitudes. In this case, individuals tend to attend to qualities of the object which are congruent with their attitudes and to interpret ambiguous object-related qualities or information in an attitude-consistent manner. This biased information processing procedure can result in erroneous inferences and

behaviour is a more deliberative one, and involves active introspection and reflection upon one’s attitudes, and an effortful and cost-benefit analysis of a specific behavioural response and its alternatives, before the enactment of the chosen behaviour.

MODE stands for Motivation and Opportunity as Determinants of the attitude­ behaviour link and the concepts of motivation and opportunity are central to this model. In order for an individual to engage in a deliberative attitude-behaviour process he/she must be motivated. Example of motives are the accuracy motive (Freund, Kruglanski, & Shpitzajzen, 1985; Kunda, 1990) and the motive of positive self evaluation (Sedikides & Strube, 1997). However, the presence of a motive alone is not enough. The person must also have the opportunity to do so (e.g., availability of time and cognitive resources).

The MODE model is a single attitude model as it does not distinguish between implicit and explicit attitudes, but between implicitly and explicitly measured attitudes. In other words, it suggests that there is only one attitude construct which can be assessed with either implicit or explicit methods. When an attitude is measured explicitly and motivation and opportunity are low, then a correlation is expected between explicit and implicit

measures. When motivation and opportunity are high and the person engages in effortful and deliberative processing of his/her attitude, then the explicit measure reflects a modification of the cognitive association stored in memory (only when these two differ), and a divergence between implicit and explicit measures is expected.

3.2. The Dual Attitudes Model (Wilson, Lindsey, & Schooler, 2000)

According to this model there are two types of attitudes stored in people’s memory toward the same attitude object: an implicit and an explicit attitude. These two attitudes, which constitute separate mental representations and stem from different mental processes, are not necessarily the same, they are relatively independent, and guide behaviour in different

ways. Implicit attitudes are activated automatically and mainly guide implicit, uncontrollable, and spontaneous behavioural responses (e.g., non-verbal behaviours, performance on implicit measures), while explicit attitudes are the product of deliberative and effortful retrieval from memory, and influence behaviour based on reflection (e.g., response to questionnaires). However, responses on explicit measures are influenced by implicit attitudes when the retrieval of the explicit attitude from memory is not possible (i.e., the person is not motivated or able to do so). Unlike explicit attitudes which can change relatively easily, implicit

attitudes are considered more stable, difficult to change, and change slowly. Therefore, even though one may have changed his/her explicit attitude toward an attitude object, the implicit attitude might still exist in memory and influence behaviour when effortful retrieval of the explicit attitude from memory is not possible.

3.3. The Associative Propositional Evaluation Model ([APE], Gawronski & Bodenhausen, 2006)

The APE model distinguishes between associative and propositional processes.

Implicit attitudes are considered the outcome of associative processes, while explicit attitudes, the outcome of propositional processes. Implicit attitudes reflect associative affective

responses (evaluations) which are automatically activated upon encounter with an attitude object; mental associations in memory between an attitude object and its evaluation. These are not necessarily endorsed by the individual. For example flowers may be linked to spring (positive association) or to allergic reactions (negative association). Explicit attitudes are considered the product of more deliberative and reflective processes which transform such associative evaluations into propositions (e.g., I hate flowers) and test their subjective validity (e.g., whether these propositions are true, accurate, or logically consistent). This validation process is based on momentarily considered information, and is therefore largely context

dependent. If this information is inconsistent with the initial automatically activated

association, then a dissociation between implicit and explicit attitudes will be observed. If the automatic association is consistent with all momentarily considered information implicit and explicit attitudes will converge.

3.4. The Meta-Cognitive Model (Petty & Briñol, 2006; Petty, Briñol, & DeMarree, 2007) According to this model, attitudes are object-evaluation associations stored in

memory. Evaluations can be both positive and negative and associations can vary in terms of strength. Contextual features can modify the retrieved evaluation and determine whether a positive or negative evaluation about the attitude object is activated first. The latter is also determined by other factors that affect memory, such as the number of previous positive and negative experiences one has had with the attitude object. This model introduces the meta­ cognitive tags. If new information about the attitude object challenges the validity of, or the degree of confidence in an old attitude, then this old attitude is assigned a negation tag (e.g. true-false, valid-invalid, confidence-doubt etc.). These evaluation-tag associative links are also stored in memory. However, because the evaluation-tag link is weaker than the object- evaluation link, an amount of effortful, deliberative process is required in order for the tag to be retrieved from memory. If effortful retrieval from memory is not possible, then the original, untagged, object-evaluation association will be activated. Accessibility to the tag is one of the reasons accounting for the discrepancy between implicit and explicit measures when an attitude object has both a positive and a negative evaluation. Unless the validity tag of an automatically activated attitude is highly accessible, the implicit measure will capture only the attitude, without its tag, and it will, therefore, reflect only the automatically activated attitude. On the other hand, explicit measures which involve deliberative cognitive processes, will capture the attitude with its validity tag. Implicit and explicit measures should converge

when an attitude object is associated with only positive or negative evaluations and these are tagged as valid. They should also converge when an attitude object has both a positive and a negative evaluation but (i) both are tagged as valid, or (ii) the one is tagged as invalid but the person does not engage in effortful process in order to retrieve this tag from memory. Finally, when an attitude is qualified by new information, the strength of the new object-evaluation association compared to the strength of the old object-evaluation association will determine the outcome of the implicit measure, which will reflect the stronger association of the two.