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Who is more prone to distraction? A simple test to evaluate the interference of emotional stimuli in females and males

Authors

Hidalgo-Munoz, Antonio R. , GALVAO CARMONA, ALEJANDRO, Vazquez-Marrufo, Manuel

External publication

Si

Means

Estud. Psicol.

Scope

Article

Nature

Científica

JCR Quartile

SJR Quartile

JCR Impact

0.468

SJR Impact

0.36

Publication date

01/06/2014

ISI

000340261200009

Abstract

In order to quantify gender differences in attentional capability depending on the presence of emotional stimuli, the effectiveness of responses to a target stimulus were analysed between groups. Fifty-two men and 52 women carried out two experiments based on the Eriksen flanker task. Half the participants were instructed to indicate the orientation of an arrow without flankers. The other half carried out the same task, but in this case the arrow was flanked by images with sexual or relaxing content. The study suggests that men are faster than women in discriminating the spatial orientation of a relevant stimulus, despite being more prone to distraction by adjacent stimuli. Regarding emotional interference, which is equivalent in both genders, it is higher for images with sexual content compared to those with relaxing content.

Keywords

attention; attentional capture; emotional content

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