Activity 2.5: Automaticity and Implicit Learning

               I took two social preferences IAT tests: the math and arts test, and the good guy and bad guy test.  I wasn’t shocked by my results for the first test, actually, because I know even consciously I prefer art to math.  I was shocked, though, at how hard it was to click the buttons when the two things being associated were not what I’d associate (i.e., arts and unpleasant, math and pleasant), just as Gladwell discussed in the audiobook.  I think this idea of unconsciously formed associations shape our learning big time.  If we go into a situation with a preconceived notion, even unconsciously, everything that fits into that notion will be reinforced, while everything that goes against it will be ignored. 

Our associations play a big role in our future behavior, because as James says, “Every acquired reaction is, as a rule, either a complication grafted on a natural reaction, or a substitute for a native reaction, which the same object originally tended to provoke” (James, p.20).  He is saying here that our reactions to people, situations, things, etc., are due to our initial associations (or natural reactions, as James calls them).  Our reactions can either be in favor of our natural reactions, or an attempt to hide or dispel them.  Moreover, as Gladwell mentions, our initial associations are a predictor of our actions.