The Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) is a computer-based psychological measure. It was heavily influenced by the
implicit-association test
The implicit-association test (IAT) is a controversial assessment intended to detect subconscious associations between mental representations of objects (concepts) in memory. Its best-known application is the assessment of implicit stereotypes held ...
,
and is one of several tasks referred to as indirect measures of
implicit attitude
Implicit attitudes are evaluations that occur without conscious awareness towards an attitude object or the self. These evaluations are generally either favorable or unfavorable and come about from various influences in the individual experience. T ...
s. The IRAP is one of relatively few indirect measures that can includes relational or propositional rather than associative information. The IRAP was conceptualised by
Dermot Barnes-Holmes, and originally published in 2006. A meta analysis of clinically-relevant criterion effects suggest that the IRAP has good validity. However, a second meta analysis suggests that it has poor reliability, like many reaction time based measures. Research using the IRAP is often linked to
relational frame theory
Relational frame theory (RFT) is a psychological theory of human language, cognition, and behaviour. It was developed originally by Steven C. Hayes of University of Nevada, Reno and has been extended in research, notably by Dermot Barnes-Holmes ...
, a functional-analytic theory of language.
Application and use
Procedure
A computer-based measure, the IRAP requires individuals to accurately and quickly respond to the relation between two stimuli presented on screen (e.g., to "dog" and "woof") using one of two response options (e.g., "similar" and "different"). Across pairs of blocks, individuals must respond using two contrasting response patterns, for example "dog-woof-similar" versus "dog-woof-different". Reaction times are then compared between these blocks. Any difference in response time between the two block types is defined as an IRAP effect. According to the creators, "the basic hypothesis is that average response latencies should be shorter across blocks of consistent relative to inconsistent trials. In other words, participants should respond more rapidly to relational tasks that reflect their current beliefs than to tasks that do not".
Implementations
The IRAP was first implemented in
Visual Basic Visual Basic is a name for a family of programming languages from Microsoft. It may refer to:
* Visual Basic .NET (now simply referred to as "Visual Basic"), the current version of Visual Basic launched in 2002 which runs on .NET
* Visual Basic (cl ...
6, and distributed for free for academic use but under a
closed source
Proprietary software is software that is deemed within the free and open-source software to be non-free because its creator, publisher, or other rightsholder or rightsholder partner exercises a legal monopoly afforded by modern copyright and inte ...
by
Dermot Barnes-Holmes. A multi-platform,
open-source
Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...
implementation written in
PsychoPy
PsychoPy is an open source software package written in the Python programming language primarily for use in neuroscience and experimental psychology research. Developed initially as a Python library and then as an application with a graphical in ...
is also available on the
Open Science Framework
The Center for Open Science is a non-profit technology organization based in Charlottesville, Virginia with a mission to "increase the openness, integrity, and reproducibility of scientific research." Brian Nosek and Jeffrey Spies founded the or ...
.
See also
*
Implicit association test
The implicit-association test (IAT) is a controversial assessment intended to detect subconscious associations between mental representations of objects (concepts) in memory. Its best-known application is the assessment of implicit stereotypes held ...
References
{{reflist
Psychological tests and scales
Social psychology