Hidden co-variation detection produces faster, not slower, social judgements.

BARKER, Lynne and ANDRADE, Jackie (2007). Hidden co-variation detection produces faster, not slower, social judgements. Journal of Experimental Psychology, Learning, Memory and Cognition, 32 (3), 636-641.

Preview

PDF Download (817kB) | Preview

Abstract

In Lewicki’s (1986a) demonstration of Hidden Co-variation Detection (HCD), responses were slower to faces that corresponded with a co-variation encountered previously than to faces with novel co-variations. This slowing contrasts with the typical finding that priming leads to faster responding, and might suggest that HCD is a unique type of implicit process. We extended Lewicki’s (1986a) methodology and showed that participants exposed to nonsalient co-variations between hair length and personality were subsequently faster to respond to faces with those co-variations than to faces without, despite lack of awareness of the critical co-variations. This result confirms that people can detect subtle relationships between features of stimuli and that, as with other types of implicit cognition, this detection facilitates responding.

Actions (login required)

Downloads