Diverting the mind from the Self-Referencing effect. Which interference leads to implicit-explicit attitude dissociation?

In evaluative learning, changes in implicit evaluations do not always result in explicit. The Self-Referencing (SR) task is an associative learning paradigm that relies on intersecting regularities and self-positivity to transfer valence towards target objects. A recent meta-analysis documented its effectiveness in changing both implicit and explicit attitudes. This contribution tests how interfering elements between the implicit (IAT) and the explicit attitude measures qualify the SR effect on the latter. Study 1 (n = 163) showed that distraction tasks disrupting the procedural flow from implicit to explicit attitude did not lead to implicit-explicit dissociation in the occurrence of SR effect, regardless of structural overlap of the distractor with the IAT. In study 2 (n = 236), the SR effect on explicit attitude was qualified by the content of the distractor. The SR effect occurred on both implicit and explicit attitudes when the distractor described the characteristics of the IAT as a measure, but only on implicit when participants were told that the IAT revealed their cognitive abilities. We discussed the contribution of these findings to extant interpretations of implicit-explicit dissociation.