Differentiating sexual preference in men: Using dual task rapid serial visual presentation task

Abstract

Cognition research suggests that allocating attention resources to evolutionarily relevant stimuli is facilitated suggesting that sexual stimuli interfere with human information processing. In a group of gay (n = 13) and straight men (n = 13) recruited in Finland, Germany and Italy, we investigated if and how sexually relevant visual stimuli affect information processing of both a target one (T1) and a subsequent target two (T2) in a dual target rapid serial visual presentation procedure. We hypothesized that: (1) due to the attentional blink (AB) phenomenon, the accuracy of reporting of T2 would decrease when following accurately identified sexually preferred T1 compared to accurately identified non-sexually preferred T1; 2) due to the pop out effect, the accuracy of reporting of T1 and T2 would be relatively increased when T1 and T2 were sexually preferred by the participants compared to when they were not. Our findings did not support hypothesis 1 but supported hypothesis 2. We further found that the pop out effect had a good capacity to differentiate sexual preference between the groups of gay and straight men. We conclude that dual target rapid serial visual presentation can be used as an attention-based measurement to differentiate sexual preference in men. Limitations and the applicability in the field of measuring sexual preference were discussed.

Attractive faces temporally modulate visual attention

“…The aim of this study was to investigate how spontaneous appraisal of facial attractiveness modulates temporal attention. To assess the temporal characteristics of visual attention, we used the dual task RSVP (dtRSVP) procedure, in which participants were asked to identify both T1 and T2 faces embedded in a stream of face image stimuli (e.g., Zappalà et al, 2013). Specifically, we manipulated facial attractiveness of T1 faces and examined the effect of attractiveness on AB, as well as the subsequent attentional modulation.…”

Identifying Pedophilic Interest in Sex Offenders Against Children With the Indirect Choice Reaction Time Task

“…Though monitoring faking in the PPG with methods such as galvanic skin response or respiration rate seems possible (Card & Farrall, 1988;Wilson, 1998), a method would be preferable which is more difficult to fake or which at least does not require additional equipment for supervision. Recent research has therefore focused on assessing sexual interest with attention-based or indirect measures (for an overview see Snowden, Craig, & Gray, 2011) with promising results (e.g., Zappalà et al, 2013aZappalà et al, , 2013b.…”