| Two studies investigated the relationship between behavioral performance on implicit attitude measures and estimates of automatic (unintentional) and controlled (intentional) processing using a process dissociation procedure. Implicit measures are generally assumed to tap automatic processes and avoid the influence of controlled processes. Contrary to this assumption, both automatic and controlled processes influenced performance. These results challenge the traditional interpretation of implicit measures as reflecting only automatic processing. Among participants high in cognitive control, performance scores were relatively weakly related to automatic processing as estimated using process dissociation. Two consequences of these findings were explored. First, the ability of an implicit attitude measure to predict behavior was partly explained by the fact that the implicit measure tapped individual differences in cognitive control. Second, correlations among multiple measures of cognitive control and different implicit attitude measures suggested that cognitive control and automatic attitude activation are separate factors driving implicit attitude measures. |
