Eder, A. 1 & Rothermund, K. 2
1 Department of Psychology. University of Wuerzburg. Wuerzburg, Germany
2 Department of Psychology. University of Jena. Jena, Germany
Process analyses have put forward the idea that affective stimulus-response compatibility (SRC) is involved in several implicit attitude measures (e.g., affective priming, Implicit Association Test). However, it is unclear whether affective SRC develops through repeated pairing with categorical information or through an intentional specification of the response-meaning (or both). In a series of experiments, originally neutral key responses are massively paired with evaluative categories in evaluation trials, whereas an intentionally specified response-meaning is only occasionally highlighted. Results consistently show that intentional response-coding is more effective for a specification of the response-meaning than a repeated pairing with evaluative categories. A response-discrimination account of implicit attitude measures is discussed.