Citation

Beauducel A, Brocke B, Leue A. Int. J. Psychophysiol. 2006; 62(2): 212-223.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology II, Mannheim University, Schloss, Ehrenhof Ost, Mannheim, Germany. beauducel@tnt.psychologie.uni-mannheim.de

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2005.12.001

PMID

16426692

Abstract

This study investigates an extension of H.J. Eysenck's [Eysenck, H.J., 1967. The Biological Basis of Personality. Charles C. Thomas, Springfield, IL] arousal theory of extraversion, incorporating an effort system as a control system for different aspects of arousal. Extraverts were expected to have lower levels of reticocortical arousal than introverts, to invest more effort, and to have lower task performance in a monotonous vigilance task. In a 40-min vigilance task, participants had to react to the shorter of two 1 kHz tones presented binaurally at an event rate of 200 per 10 min. Spontaneous EEG, event-related potential, and performance data of 40 extremely introverted and 41 extremely extraverted students were available for statistical analysis. A tendency for lower arousal levels of extraverts (alpha 2 band), the expected higher effort investment (P300) and a lower performance (hits) of extraverts were found.

Language: en