IngentaConnect Assessment of sexual interest using a choice reaction time task a...

Authors: Santtila, Pekka¹; Mokros, Andreas²; Viljanen, Klaus³; Koivisto, Mika⁴; Sandnabba, N. Kenneth¹; Zappalà, Angelo⁵; Osterheider, Michael²

Source: Legal and Criminological Psychology, Volume 14, Number 1, February 2009 , pp. 65-82(18)

Publisher: British Psychological Society

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 content-induced delay. In addition, the reaction times of the heterosexual (N=15) and homosexual (N=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.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1348/135532507X267040

Affiliations: 1: Department of Psychology, Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland 2: School of Medicine, University of Regensburg, Bavaria, Germany 3: Department of Psychology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland 4: Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience and Department of Philosophy, University of Turku, Turku, Finland 5: Center of Forensic Psychology, Turin, Italy

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