A distinct challenge of implicit self-esteem research is the dubious validity of measures for implicit self-esteem. We conducted two event-related potential (ERP) studies to examine whether implicit self-esteem measured by the Implicit Association Test (IAT) actually reflects the automatic self-evaluation. We adopted the regular IAT and the Go/No-go Association Task (GNAT), respectively, to measure implicit self-esteem in two studies. We focused on the P300 that reflects the stimulus evaluation process. Study 1 revealed that participants responded faster to self pairing with good than to self pairing with bad whereas self pairing with bad elicited a delayed P300 compared with self pairing with good. Study 2 replicated these findings and further highlighted that the index of implicit self-esteem based on reaction time is correlated with that based on P300 latency. Our results suggest that implicit self-esteem assessed by the IAT measures automatic self-evaluation, thus providing neural evidence for the validity of implicit self-esteem.

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自尊内隐联想测试是有效的：来自大脑活动的证据

内隐自尊研究的一个明显挑战是内隐自尊测量的有效性可疑。我们进行了两项事件相关电位 (ERP) 研究，以检验通过内隐联想测试 (IAT) 测量的内隐自尊是否真正反映了自动自我评估。在两项研究中，我们分别采用了常规 IAT 和 Go/No-go Association Task (GNAT) 来衡量内隐自尊。我们专注于反映刺激评估过程的 P300。研究1表明，与会者对更快的自我与配对好，而不是自我与配对不好而自我与配对坏引出延迟 P300 与自我配对与良好相比。研究 2 重复了这些发现，并进一步强调了基于反应时间的内隐自尊指数与基于 P300 延迟的指数相关。我们的结果表明，由 IAT 评估的内隐自尊测量自动自我评估，从而为内隐自尊的有效性提供神经证据。