Attitudes influence judgment and guide behavior, either by means of a relatively spontaneous process resulting from the automatic activation of the attitude upon encountering the attitude object, or a more deliberate process involving careful consideration of all available information and consequences of a certain judgment or behavior. The MODE model suggests that the spontaneous process is more likely to occur if attitudes are strong, when there are high situational cognitive demands for attention and information processing, or when people have to react immediately to a stimulus so only limited cognitive resources remain for reflective thinking. In contrast, the deliberate process is more likely to occur in situation in which people are motivated to engage in the effortful processing and have the opportunity and time to do so. The spontaneous process -or implicit attitudes- may be especially relevant in education as teaching can be stressful and teachers are often required to manage excessive demands under time pressure. Teachers’ attitudes may be pivotal for the success of inclusive education as attitudes can elicit positive or negative expectations and judgments which in turn can enhance or limit the successful inclusion of students with special educational needs (SEN) in regular classrooms. Studies focusing on teachers’ explicit attitudes towards inclusion generally have found that the majority of teachers hold neutral or negative attitudes towards the inclusion of students with SEN, with no studies reporting clear positive results. In contrast, no study could be identified that focused on implicit attitudes towards inclusion. Therefore, the current study assesses both implicit and explicit attitudes towards inclusion of students with SEN and investigates how attitudes influence teachers’ judgments of student achievement. We expect teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion to influence teachers’ decision making processes and judgments such that more negative attitudes will lead to more negative ratings of students’ achievement and to choices for educational support outside the regular classroom. We are conducting an affective priming task to measure implicit attitudes, after which teacher are asked to read student case reports and make a judgment regarding the students’ academic achievement and the need for special educational support either within or outside the regular classroom. After judging the case reports, teachers complete questionnaires concerning their explicit attitudes towards inclusion of students with varying academic and behavioral profiles in their classrooms. Finally, teachers complete a brief demographic questionnaire regarding their years of teaching and experience.

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