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Abstract. The aim of this study was to assess the psychometric properties of a German translation of the Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory of Personality Questionnaire (RST-PQ; Corr & Cooper, 2016 ). Five hundred twenty-seven participants completed the German version of the RST-PQ, in addition to a battery of related self-report personality questionnaires. A six-factor structure, with two unitary defensive factors, fight-flight-freeze system (FFFS; related to fear) and the behavioral inhibition system (BIS; related to anxiety), and four behavioral approach system (BAS) factors (Reward Interest, Goal-Drive Persistence, Reward Reactivity, and Impulsivity), was supported by confirmatory factor analysis, confirming the English language version of the RST-PQ. Convergent and discriminant validity for the six-factor structure was demonstrated in relation to existing personality scales. Results showed that the German version of the RST-PQ is a reliable and valid self-report measure of the revised Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (rRST) of personality. This version of the RST-PQ is offered to facilitate work on approach-avoidance theories of personality using German language samples.

Much research has been conducted on the determinants of inattentional blindness—the failure to miss an unexpected but salient stimulus in plain view. Far less research has been concerned with the fate of those objects that go unnoticed in such a setting. The available evidence suggests that objects that are not consciously noticed due to inattentional blindness are still processed to a certain degree. The present study substantiated and generalised this limited evidence by reanalysing 16 datasets in regard to participants’ guessing accuracy in multiple-choice questions concerning the unexpected object: Participants who did not notice the critical object showed guessing accuracy that lay significantly above chance. Thus, stimuli that are not consciously noticed (i.e., cannot be reported) can nevertheless exert an influence on seemingly random choices. Modality of the primary task as well as performance in the primary task and in a divided-attention trial were evaluated as potential moderators. Methodological limitations such as the design and implementation of the multiple-choice questions and the generalisability of our findings are discussed, and promises of the present approach for future studies are presented.

Inattentional blindness describes the failure to detect an unexpected but clearly visible object when our attention is engaged elsewhere. While the factors that determine the occurrence of inattentional blindness are already well understood, there is still a lot to learn about whether and how we process unexpected objects that go unnoticed. Only recently it was shown that although not consciously aware, characteristics of these stimuli can interfere with a primary task: Classification of to-be-attended stimuli was slower when the content of the task-irrelevant, undetected stimulus contradicted that of the attended, to-be-judged stimuli. According to Lavie's perceptual load model, irrelevant stimuli are likely to reach awareness under conditions of low perceptual load, while they remain undetected under high load, as attentional resources are restricted to the content of focused attention. In the present study, we investigated the applicability of Lavie's predictions for the processing of stimuli that remain unconscious due to inattentional blindness. In two experiments, we replicated that unconsciously processed stimuli can interfere with intended responses. Also, our manipulation of perceptual load did have an effect on primary task performance. However, against our hypothesis, these effects did not interact with each other. Thus, our results suggest that high perceptual load cannot prevent taskirrelevant stimuli that remain undetected from being processed to an extent that enables them to affect performance in a primary task.

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