Millisecond Forums

IAT scores always minus! COUNTERBALANCING

https://forums.millisecond.com/Topic8578.aspx

By Alkim - 8/15/2012

Hello Guys,


I am conducting an axperiment on parental relationships and preferences, and there are two targets and two atributes.Almost all the of the participants are female and their IAT scores respectively minus (-). However, due to the presence of the counterbalancing in the scripts, during the interpretation the results seem insignificant such as;


Participants IAT scores;


... same


11. Female: - 0.55


12. Female: - 0.66


13. Female: - 0.39


14. Female: - 0.92


... same


Namely, if I attemp to interpret the results, half of the female participants have preferences for X over than Y and the other half of the female participants have preferences for Y over X. However the interesting point is the allingnment of the scores (preferences); According to the scores of the participants: X, Y, X, Y, X...



Before I commit suicide please help me!



Best Wishes,



Alkim


By Dave - 8/15/2012

Both the IAT scripts as well as the available SPSS syntax take counterbalancing into account as you can easily see by looking at the respective source code / syntax. Thus, a negative D-score always indicates an association of targetA with attributeB and targetB with attributeA. This is clearly the case for the example data you posted. To use your terminology, the preferences are X, X, X, X. Cf. https://www.millisecond.com/forums/Topic3444.aspx, Greenwald et al. (2003) as well as the Inquisit / SPSS syntax already mentioned.


Regards,


~Dave

By Alkim - 8/16/2012

Great thanks Dave.Now it makes sense.