Measuring implicit attitudes toward physical activity and sedentary behaviors: Test-retest reliability of three scoring algorithms of the Implicit Association Test and Single Category-Implicit Association Test

•There is a growing interest in the literature for the automatic determinants of active behaviors, such as implicit attitudes.•Authors are now calling for experimental studies testing the malleability of implicit attitudes.•Little is known on the test-retest reliability of the measures of implicit attitudes.•The aim of this study was to test the test-retest reliability of two implicit measures and 3 scoring procedures.•Reliability differed according to the tests and scoring procedures, hence all tests are not suitable to study change in implicit attitudes.

ObjectivesThe Implicit Association Test (IAT) and the Single-Category IAT (SC-IAT) are two frequently used measures of implicit attitudes. Nonetheless, the test-retest reliability of these measures has not been investigated. The aim of this study was to examine the test-retest reliability of a physical activity versus sedentary behavior IAT, a physical activity SC-IAT, and a sedentary behavior SC-IAT.MethodA total of 111 older adults living with chronic diseases were recruited. They either completed a physical activity versus sedentary behavior IAT (N = 54) or two independent SC-IATs of physical activity and sedentary behavior (N = 57). These tests were administered twice in a one-hour interval. Three scores were computed for each test (D-Score, DW-Score, IP-Score). Both absolute and relative test-retest reliability was computed.ResultsRegarding absolute reliability, the tests were comparable regardless of the scoring algorithm (Coefficients of Repeatability ranged from 1.27 for the two SC-IATs with the D-Score, to 1.36 for the IAT with the D-Score and DW-Score). Regarding relative test-retest reliability, the IAT systematically showed better reliability than the two SC-IATs. The DW-Score systematically exhibited better reliability compared to other scores (Intraclass Correlation Coefficient ranged from 0.20 for the sedentary behavior SC-IAT with the D-Score to 0.78 for the IAT with the DW-Score).ConclusionAdequate test-retest reliability for the IAT was supported independently from the scoring algorithms. Test-retest reliability for the two independent SC-IATs was not supported in this study. The IAT is more sensitive to change than the SC-IATs, which needs to be accounted for in future research on physical activity and sedentary behavior implicit attitudes.