Procedure  

**Task 1 (practice):**

Black  |  White
---|---

**Aaliyah**

**Task 2 (practice):**

Pleasant  |  Unpleasant
---|---

**Suffering**

Press E to classify as Pleasant
or I to classify as Unpleasant

**Tasks 3 and 4 (data collection):**

Black/  |  White/
---|---
Pleasant  |  Unpleasant
**Happiness**

Press E to classify as Black or Pleasant
or I to classify as White or Unpleasant

**Task 5 (practice):**

White  |  Black
---|---

**Eminem**

Press E to classify as White
or I to classify as Black

**Tasks 6 and 7 (data collection):**

White/  |  Black/
---|---
Pleasant  |  Unpleasant
**Shanice**

Press E to classify as White or Pleasant
or I to classify as Black or Unpleasant

Example of a typical IAT procedure

A typical IAT procedure involves a series of seven tasks.  [18]  In the first
task, an individual is asked to categorize stimuli into two categories. For
example, a person might be presented with a computer screen on which the word
"Black" appears in the top left-hand corner and the word "White" appears in
the top right-hand corner. In the middle of the screen a word, such as a first
name, that is typically associated with either the categories of "Black" or
"White". For each word that appears in the middle of the screen, the person is
asked to sort the word into the appropriate category by pressing the
appropriate left-hand or right-hand key. On the second task, the person would
complete a similar sorting procedure with an attribute of some kind. For
example, the word "Pleasant" might now appear in the top left-hand corner of
the screen and the word "Unpleasant" in the top right-hand corner. In the
middle of the screen would appear a word that is either pleasant or
unpleasant. Once again, the person would be asked to sort each word as being
either pleasant or unpleasant by pressing the appropriate key. On the third
task, individuals are asked to complete a combined task that includes both the
categories and attributes from the first two tasks. In this example, the words
"Black/Pleasant" might appear in the top left-hand corner while the words
"White/Unpleasant" would appear in the top right-hand corner. Individuals
would then see a series of stimuli in the center of the screen consisting of
either a name or word. They would be asked to press the left-hand key if the
name or word belongs to the "Black/Pleasant" category or the right-hand key if
it belongs to the "White/Unpleasant" category. The fourth task is a repeat of
the third task but with more repetitions of the names, words, or images.

The fifth task is a repeat of the first task with the exception that the
position of the two target words would be reversed. For example, "Black" would
now appear in the top right-hand corner of the screen and "White" in the top
left-hand corner. The sixth task would be a repeat of the third, except that
the objects and subjects of study would be in opposite pairings from previous
trials. In this case, "Black/Unpleasant" would now appear in the top right-
hand corner and "White/Pleasant" would now appear in the top left-hand corner.
The seventh task is a repeat of the sixth task but with more repetitions of
the names, words, or images. If the categories under study (e.g. Black or
White) are associated with the presented attributes (e.g. Pleasant/Unpleasant)
to differing degrees, the pairing reflecting the stronger association (or the
"compatible" pairing) should be easier for the participant.  [2]  In the
Black/White-Pleasant/Unpleasant example, a participant will be able to
categorize more quickly when Black and Pleasant are paired together than when
White and Pleasant are paired if they have more positive associations with
Black people than with White people (and vice versa if White and Pleasant are
categorized more quickly).

Variations of the IAT include the Go/No-go Association Test (GNAT),  [19]  the
Brief-IAT  [20]  and the Single-Category IAT.  [21]  An idiographic approach
using the IAT and the SC-IAT for measuring implicit anxiety showed that
personalized stimulus selection did not affect the outcome, reliabilities and
correlations to outside criteria.  [22]

The Go/No-go Association Test (GNAT) is a variation of the IAT that assesses
implicit attitudes or beliefs by measuring the relationship between a target
concept and two different extremes of an attribute.  [19]  Specifically, the
strength of relationship is assessed by how quickly the items belonging to the
target category and specific attribute (yellow and good or yellow and bad) can
be picked from surrounding distractor items that are not associated with the
target concept or attribute. Respondents are required to press a key when they
identify a stimulus that belongs to one of these categories, and not to press
a key when they see stimuli that does not belong to those categories. The
difference in ability to correctly associate the concept with the specific
attributes is described to be the measure of automatic attitude. Unlike the
IAT, which measures response latency, the GNAT measures accuracy in
identifying the specific relationships between the target concept and specific
attributes.

The Single Category IAT, also known as Single-Target IAT (ST-IAT), is unique
in that it uses one target category instead of the two required in the
original IAT.  [23]  During the ST-IAT, respondents complete a discrimination
block of the evaluative stimuli. The second block consists of sorting target
concepts and positive items with one response key and negative items with the
other. In the last block, respondents are required to sort target stimuli and
negative items together with one key, and positive items with the other key.
In comparison to the IAT, which uses contrasts in latency between two concepts
and two attributes, the ST-IAT focuses on latency differences in relation to
one concept and two attributes.  [23]