A Metastudy Approach to Examining the Structure of Implicit Memory
Channel: Center for Open Science
Date: 2023-04-27

A metastudy is a collection of smaller studies using the same fundamental design. These smaller studies (i.e., microexperiments or microstudies) are designed to systematically replicate basic findings while extending the findings across variables and applications. The implicit association test (IAT) examines the degree to which concepts and evaluations or stereotypes are related. It is assumed that these relationships are indicators of subconscious bias. In this symposium, we present the results from a metastudy that includes 15 IAT microexperiments to examine the structure of implicit memories. Specifically, the 15 microexperiments were divided among three different concepts in memory. Thus, five microexperiments were used to examine each content area. The same design was modified and used in all microexperiments. There are several benefits of using a metastudy approach. Since the same experimental design was used across microexperiments, it allowed us to replicate the findings multiple times. In addition, conducting the experiments with multiple and varied samples allowed us to generalize the results of the microexperiments. Furthermore, we were able to generalize our findings across design type and content areas. Finally, the larger sample size across microexperiments allowed us to explore individual differences in processing. As a result, the metastudy approach provided a relatively large number of systematic replications that improved our understanding of the underlying structure of implicit and explicit memory.