Assessment of sexual interest using a choice reaction time task and priming: A feasibility study

Abstract

Purpose. We investigated the feasibility of assessing sexual interest in hetero-and homosexual men using two information-processing methods, namely a choice reaction time task and priming. The participants were expected to have longer reaction times for sexually explicit when compared with non-explicit pictures due to sexual contentinduced delay. In addition, the reaction times of the heterosexual (N ¼ 15) and homosexual (N ¼ 11) men for pictures corresponding with their sexual interest were compared to pictures not corresponding with their sexual interest. Heterosexual men were expected to have longer reaction times during the presentation of sexually explicit female as opposed to male pictures, whereas homosexual men were expected to have the opposite pattern.Method. The participants were presented either sexually explicit or non-explicit male and female target pictures (and primes that preceded the targets in random combinations) while simultaneously performing a choice reaction time task in three phases each containing a total of 160 prime-target pairs.Results. Both expectations were confirmed in phase 1 of the study. In phase 2, the means differed in the expected way, but the effects were not significant. In phase 3, the expected effect was moderated by a complex priming effect.Conclusions. The results suggest that the choice reaction time task is a promising way of measuring sexual interest but that questions of habituation should be given more attention in future studies.

Assessment of Pedophilic Sexual Interest with an Attentional Choice Reaction Time Task

“…In line with prior findings by Santtila et al (2009), cognitive priming failed to bring about any substantial effects: The subliminal presentation of pictures prior to the target stimulus did not modify the CRT effect in any way. In particular, the idea that cognitive priming might amplify CRT responses was not supported.…”

“…This means that there was no evidence of habituation modulating the CRT effect. This was somewhat surprising as the number of trials in the present experiment was higher than in Santtila et al (2009) found a weak non-linear trend with reactions becoming increasingly faster towards the later phases of the experiment. A possible explanation for this acceleration could be that the subjects lost their motivation and made rapid responses in order to arrive at the end of the experiment as soon as possible.…”

Vicarious Viewing Time: Prolonged Response Latencies for Sexually Attractive Targets as a Function of Task- or Stimulus-Specific Processing

“…Thus, in a classical design, the frequently found longest latencies for the preferred category were likely to be the result of both the task demands and, to a lesser extent, the automatic processes triggered by the stimuli running in the same direction. These additive effects under the constraint that the participant performed the task according to the implied self-perspective may help explain the superior ability of viewing time tasks to differentiate between groups of contrasting sexual preference (Areas-Under-the-Curves (AUCs) between .80 and 1.00; Imhoff et al, 2010) compared to other indirect measures assumed to tap into automatic processes triggered by sexually preferred stimuli, such as the Choice Reaction Time (AUCs between .60 and .83; Santtila et al, 2009). …”

Indirect Measurement of Sexual Orientation: Comparison of the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure, Viewing Time, and Choice Reaction Time Tasks

“…Participants exhibit longer response latencies in CRT tasks when the pictures show sexually attractive individuals. CRT tasks have been shown to measure sexual orientation in a smaller number of studies (Santtila et al, 2009;Wright & Adams, 1994;1999). However, Santtila and colleagues reported methodological difficulties as they found the CRT to be a valid measure of sexual preference only when a subset of measures was taken into account.…”

“…Moreover, the CRT was not significantly correlated to the other two measures, whereas the IRAP and VT were significantly associated with each other at a substantial level and in the 3 In order to control for possible habituation or practice effects (as discussed by Santtila et al, 2009) due to the high number of trials in the present CRT, we also conducted all analyses separately for the first 108 and second 108 trials. The pattern found in the analysis of all trials still held for both halves of trials, with significant main effects of Age and Sexual Orientation, but no significant two-way or three-way interactions were obtained.…”