Assessment of Sexual Interest Using a Choice Reaction Time Task and Priming: A Feasibility Study

• NCJ Number: 226392
• Journal: Legal and Criminological Psychology Volume: 14 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2009 Pages: 65-82
• Author(s): Pekka Santtila; Andreas Mokros; Klaus Viljanen; Mika Koivisto; N. Kenneth Sandnabba; Angelo Zappala; Michael Osterheider
• Date Published: February 2009
• Length: 18 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: Academy of Finland; Stiftelsen för Åbo Akademi Foundation
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

This study investigated the feasibility of assessing sexual interest in hetero- and homosexual men using two information-processing methods: choice reaction time (CRT) and cognitive priming.

Abstract

Both expectations that (1) participants would have longer reaction times for sexually explicit when compared with non-explicit pictures due to sexual content-induced delay, and (2) heterosexual men would have longer reaction times during the presentation of sexually explicit as opposed to non-explicit female pictures, but no difference was expected for male pictures, whereas homosexual men would have the opposite pattern due to sexual content-induced delay in information processing 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. These results suggest that the choice reaction time (CRT) task is a promising way of measuring sexual interest but that questions of habituation should be given more attention in future studies. Assessing sexual interest plays an important role in the domains of diagnosis and treatment. As far as sexual offenders are concerned, assessing sexual interest is a decisive feature of many risk assessment procedures. In this study, information-processing methods were investigated to assess sexual interest. Both cognitive priming and CRT were used simultaneously in the same test. In the CRT, sexual interest was assumed to produce increased attention causing a delay in reaction times in a simple information-processing task. In the priming task, how the priming condition would modulate the reaction times was investigated. It was assumed that priming could enhance the CRT effect. Heterosexual and homosexual male participants were presented with either sexually explicit or non-explicit male and female target pictures while simultaneously performing a CRT task in three phases. Tables, figures, and references