WORD-RECOGNITION MEASURE

This program administers a measure of self-focused attention based on word recognition latencies. Participants see three rows of flickering random letters. Words are presented in the center row. The participant's task is to identify the word within the center row as quickly as possible. Five words are self-relevant; five words are neutral. Increased self-focus facilitates the recognition of self-relevant words.

Research to date shows that this measure has good validity. It captures situational variability in self-awareness, it correlates with private self-consciousness, and it predicts consequences of self-focus (e.g., judgments of self-other similarity).

Here you can download a free-standing program for use on PCs. It is free "as is" for research use. Be sure to read the "readme" file: it describes how to modify the program and how to understand the output.

Let us know if you have any problems or suggestions. The program can be downloaded here.

Validation evidence:

Eichstaedt, J., & Silvia, P. J. (2003). Noticing the self: Implicit assessment of self-focused attention using word recognition latencies. Social Cognition, 21, 349-361.

Other papers using this measure:

Silvia, P. J., Eichstaedt, J., & Phillips, A. G. (2005). Are rumination and reflection types of self-focused attention? Personality and Individual Differences, 38, 871-881.

P. Silvia, UNCG
Last Updated: September 18, 2006