Facilitation and inhibition of visual orienting as a function of personality

This study aims to investigate individual differences in spatial orienting. A computerized version of Posnerʹs non-invasive behavioral paradigm for studying visuo-spatial attention was used (Posner, Rafal, Choate & Vaughan, Cognitive Neuropsychology, 2, 211–228 1985). In Experiment 1 we measured exogenous facilitation and inhibition of return in 88 undergraduates divided into groups according to Sensitivity to Punishment and Sensitivity to Reward scales (Torrubia, Avila, Moltó & Segarra, International Society for the Study of Individual Differences, 1993). No differences were found for exogenous facilitation between personality groups, but both anxious (high SP subjects) and impulsives (high SR subjects) obtained greater inhibition of return than non-anxious and non-impulsives, respectively. In Experiment 2 the same task was administered to 61 subjects classified according to extraversion and neuroticism scores of the EPQ. Similarly to Experiment 1, neurotics showed more inhibition of return than stables. Consistent with cognitive approaches to anxiety (Easterbrook, Psychological Review, 66, 183–201, 1959; Eysenck, Anxiety: The Cognitive Perspective, 1992; Wallace, Bachorowski & Newman, Journal of Research in Personality, 25, 23–44, 1991), these findings are consistent with the hypothesis that neurotic and anxious subjects have an attentional system more prepared for narrowing attention on locations on immediate relevance.