The impact of perceptual fluency manipulations on processing speed and ratings of relatedness for gender role schemas using the IAT

Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to combine research on schema violations and perceptual fluency to determine the impact of perceptual fluency manipulations on ratings of relatedness for gender role schemas through the use of an Implicit Association Test (IAT). The goal of this study was to gain a better understanding of the cognitive impact of processing manipulations. It was hypothesized that congruent blocks would have faster response times than incongruent blocks in the IAT. It was also hypothesized that perceptual fluency could be strategically manipulated to counteract the slowdown effect associated with schema-incongruent information. In addition, it was predicted that ratings of relatedness would be correlated with response times in that perceptually fluent blocks would be rated as more related than perceptually disfluent blocks. The results showed a main effect of congruency on response times and ratings of relatedness. It was found that the slowdown effect could successfully be eliminated through the use of perceptual fluency manipulations. However, perceptual fluency manipulations did not have a significant impact on ratings of relatedness. Future studies should utilize other methods to manipulate perceptual fluency, as well as investigate how changes in response times can influence different types of attribute ratings.