To What Extent Do Erotic Images Elicit Visuospatial versus Cognitive Attentional Processes? Consistent Support for a (Non-Spatial) Sexual Content-Induced Delay

Abstract

The reported research and preparation of this paper was supported by a DFG Grant (IM147/3-1) awarded to Roland Imhoff. All experimental scripts, raw and aggregated data as well as results of additional analyses can be found on the Open Science Framework under https://osf.io/ 6uqyv.

Attention Bias and Recognition of Sexual Images

“…The constantly increasing use of erotica in advertisement (Reichert et al, 1999;Reichert and Carpenter, 2003) may be explained by other properties of sexual stimuli, namely its arousing nature and its effect on memory, mentioned just above. To date, there is no convincing evidence for visuospatial attention capture by sexual stimuli (Imhoff et al, 2019;Strahler et al, 2019).…”

“…In the context of sexual stimuli, two forms of attention are relevant: cognitive attention which takes the form of working memory capacity assigned to cognitive processing of a stimulus, and visuospatial attention in the form of directing one's gaze to a stimulus (Imhoff et al, 2019). Cognitive attention to sexual stimuli has been reliably established with respect to the phenomenon of sexual content-induced delay (SCID), which describes a general slowing in cognitive tasks when sexual stimulus is present (Geer and Bellard, 1996).…”

“…In other studies, stimuli are presented in a series (e.g., Rupp and Wallen, 2007;Ganesan et al, 2020), or what is measured are late attentional processing indexes, such as viewing time and the total number of fixations (e.g., Lykins et al, 2006). Still, while eye-tracking studies show that sexually relevant stimuli are visually attended to, they fail to distinguish between cognitive and visuospatial attention bias (Imhoff et al, 2019).…”

“…The dot-probe paradigm keeps the SCID effect constant because it has sexual content in every trial, with only the position of the probe changing. Any difference in the speed or accuracy of response between trials can therefore be attributed to potential bias in visuospatial attention (Imhoff et al, 2019). When researchers want to observe the SCID effect, they can simply add a trial condition consisting of two neutral stimuli.…”

Attention Bias to and Recognition of Sexual Images

“…Such effect was observed in highly anxious individuals who found it difficult to disengage from fear-inducing but not sad or other emotional stimuli (Georgiou et al, 2005;Rinck, Becker, Kellermann, & Roth, 2003). Some authors call this rather consistent effect 'sexual content-induced delay' (Imhoff, Barker, & Schmidt, 2019).…”