(IMAGE)
Caption
This image shows sleeping your way out of a bad attitude. Implicit social bias scores could be improved by applying a counterbias intervention comprising two tasks: counterbias training with sound feedback and retrieval of the sound - counterbias association. This training - i nduced improvement was then stabilized by re - presenting the sound cue during sleep. (A) On the counterbias training, participants were shown separate pictures of men and women of different racial groups together with words from the opposing categories "sci ence/art" and "good/bad". When seeing an "incongruous" pair (e.g., face of a woman and the word "math"), participants had to respond by pressing a button. "Correct" and timely responses received a feedback sound. Congruent trials afforded no response. (B) On the sound - counterbias retrieval task, participants were instructed to drag and drop a face (e.g., a female face) onto the incongruous word (e.g., "math") whenever they heard the sound that was associated with this specific counterbias during the precedi ng counterbias training. (C) The sound was then used to cue, and thereby reactivate, the memory of the newly learned counterbias association when the participant entered slow - wave sleep during a subsequent 90 - min nap. (D) A stable reduction of implicit soc ial bias, persisting 1 week later, was only achieved if the counterbias intervention was cued during the nap.
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[Credit: P. Huey/<i>Science</i>]
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